Buchholz High School
| Buchholz High School | |
|---|---|
Exterior of the main Buchholz High School building.
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| Address | |
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5510 NW 27th Avenue Alachua County Gainesville, Florida 32608 United States |
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| Coordinates | 29°40′40″N 82°24′05″W / 29.67777°N 82.401367°WCoordinates: 29°40′40″N 82°24′05″W / 29.67777°N 82.401367°W |
| Information | |
| School type | Public high school |
| Opened | 1971 |
| School district | Alachua County Public Schools |
| Superintendent | Dr. Owen Roberts |
| Principal | Michael DeLucas |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Age range | 14–18 |
| Hours in school day | 6 |
| Campus | Suburban |
| Color(s) | Gold and Black |
| Mascot | Bobcat |
| Rival |
Gainesville High School Eastside High School |
| Website | buchholz |
F. W. Buchholz High School (commonly referred to as Buchholz or BHS) is a high school in Gainesville, Florida. Buchholz (pronounced BYOO-holts) is one of seven high schools in Alachua County. Opened in January 1971, it is the largest public high school in Gainesville. In 2012, it had an enrollment of 3,230 students, with 103 classroom teachers. There were 512 seniors in the graduating class of May 2013.
In 2008, Newsweek rated the school No. 105 out of 1300 public high schools in the nation.
The School Board of Alachua County began construction in 1968 for two new high schools in the rapidly expanding suburbs of Gainesville, Florida, to supplement the city's two existing public high schools. The new school in the northwest suburbs was named F.W. Buchholz, in honor of a distinguished Alachua County educator who had died a few years earlier, while the school in the eastern suburbs was named Eastside High School. The school board hoped to open both schools in September 1970 and to open them without the upper classes (grades 11 and 12) in order to allow the new schools to expand gradually, while also allowing students in the upper grades at Gainesville High School (GHS) to remain there for their final years. The slow roll-out at Buchholz and Eastside also spread the need to hire new teachers over several years, and allowed the school board to alter the grade structure in the junior and senior highs.
The school board began designating faculty members while the new buildings were under construction. Gainesville's predominately black high school, Lincoln High, was scheduled to close at the end of the 1969–70 academic year. Its football coach, Jessie Heard, was named in 1969 to be the head coach at Buchholz for the 1970 season. Coach Heard selected the school's colors of black and gold, because he was impressed with the black and gold uniforms worn by the Vanderbilt University football team when they came to Gainesville to play the Florida Gators on October 25, 1969. The freshman class of 1970–1971 voted on what the school's mascot would be; this was between a Bobcat and a Golden Knight.
Gainesville and Alachua County elementary schools served grades K-6 in the 1960s, while junior high schools consisted of grades 7, 8 and 9. The school board planned to realign junior high class distribution once Buchholz and Eastside opened, elevating grade 9 to the high schools. Further, because it would open the two new schools without upperclassmen, Buchholz and Eastside would temporarily serve as combined junior-senior highs. Alachua County moved away from the junior high structure in the late 1970s, opening new middle schools to serve grades 6, 7 and 8.
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