Lakeside High School (DeKalb County, Georgia)


Lakeside High School is a public high school in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The school is part of the DeKalb County School System.
Lakeside is a public school encompassing grades 9-12. The school serves students from the North Druid Hills and Northlake area of the DeKalb County School District.
Lakeside High School opened its doors in 1964. It completed a $23 million renovation and addition in the summer of 2012, adding a new classroom wing and a performing arts building.
In Newsweek magazine's 2005 list of the best 1,200 public high schools in the nation, Lakeside ranked at 107, the highest in Georgia. In the 2006 edition of the list, which is based on the number of AP and IB tests taken as compared to the number of graduating seniors, Lakeside ranked 135, just below Riverwood High School in nearby Sandy Springs, which ranked 132.

Demographics

The student body is composed of 46% White, 22% Hispanic, 32% Black, 7.4% Asian, and 14% other racial groups. These numbers include 9.2% students with disabilities, 36% economically disadvantaged, and 5.5% English language learners.

Feeder schools

The following elementary schools feed into Lakeside:
Henderson Middle School is Lakeside's feeder middle school. A small minority of the students come from private schools, including Cliff Valley, Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School and Intown Community School.

Staff

The school has a professional staff of 170, including 120 teaching faculty, seven administrators, and seven counselors.

Curriculum

In addition to a range of extracurricular activities, a curriculum is offered from a standardized system-wide program of studies. A high percentage of students take advanced and gifted classes.
22 Advanced Placement courses are offered in English Literature, Composition, Calculus AB and BC, Statistics, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics, Microeconomics, World History, Psychology, American History, American Government, Computer Science, French Language, German Language, Spanish Language, Music Theory, Studio Art Drawing, 2-D and 3-D, and Art History. Advanced or accelerated courses, and courses for the gifted, are offered in English, math, science, French, Spanish, and social science. Lakeside administered 1164 AP exams during the 2011-2012 school year.
In the fall of 1997, DeKalb County Schools changed to a semester system. A minimum of 24 Carnegie Units must be completed in order to qualify for graduation. Lakeside is on a traditional seven period class day. Each class period is 50 minutes in length with 180 instructional days in the school year.
Local colleges and universities coordinate joint enrollment programs with Lakeside to serve students who wish to pursue college courses while still in high school.

Sports and extracurricular activities

For the 2016-17 season, Lakeside High School competed in GHSA Region 7-AAAAAAA, along with Norcross High School, Central Gwinnett High School, Parkview High School, Brookwood High School, Berkmar High School, and Meadowcreek High School.
Lakeside's achievements include:
From 1965-1997, the Lakeside Vikings consistently ranked among the best football teams in Georgia. During that thirty-two year period, Lakeside never experienced a losing season. No other team in Georgia could make that claim. The Vikings won state championships in 1970, 1972, and 1991 and were state runner-up in 1974 and 1996. Lakeside won Region titles in 1967, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1978, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, and 1991.

Newspaper

The Lakeside Legend was voted "Superior" by GSPA. The newspaper is offered as a fourth period class.

Baseball

28 players from Lakeside's last 10 graduating classes have gone on to play college or professional baseball.

Band

The band has performed and won awards in competitions in Chicago, Washington D.C., Myrtle Beach, Orlando, and Hawaii. The Marching Band routinely competes in marching competitions. The band also contains an active jazz band, winter drumline, color guard, and winter guard, which competes in the Southern Association of Performance Arts and won first place in class SrA, and second place in IrA. The band sends four separate groups to the Georgia District IV Large Group Performance Evaluations each year, and currently has the highest number of students from the county in the All-State Band and the most students in the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony from any one school, in addition to having the largest band enrollment in DeKalb County School District.
The Jazz Band, in past years, hosted an annual swing dance, presented by the Atlanta Swing Era Dance Association, with swing dance lessons taught by Down South Swing.

Theatre

Lakeside's theatre department has been flourishing for many years, especially after the addition of the new Fine Arts Building. In 2014, Greta Hayes took over the department and has revamped the program. The school produces several shows each year, including a Spring musical. In the 2016-2017 school year, their production of Hairspray sold out 5 shows.
The program has won several awards. The Importance of Being Earnest, and The Miss Firecracker Contest placed first at the regional level in the Georgia High School Association One-act competition with The Importance of Being Earnest winning third place in the state competition. Several cast members have also received honors at regional and state levels. In Fall of 2017, the Lakeside Theatre Company produced Phillip Dawkins' one act version of Failure: A Love Story, which they performed at the Georgia Theatre Conference in Carrollton, Georgia. It was named Best Show, and went on to compete at the South Eastern Theatre Conference in March of 2018. The cast competed against 20 other shows and placed 2nd overall, as well as receiving Best Ensemble and 3 All star cast awards. In Spring of 2018, The Lakeside Theatre Company received its first Georgia High School Theatre Awards nomination. Luis Vijil was nominated for Best supporting actor for his role as Twig in Bring it On: The Musical

Notable alumni