Bartow High School

Bartow Senior High School


Location

1270 South Broadway Avenue Bartow , Polk County , Florida 33830 United States
Coordinates	27.883214°N 81.84307°W / 27.883214; -81.84307
Information
School type	High School
Established	1887
Status	Open
School district	Polk County Public Schools
Principal	Lance Lawson
Teaching staff	103.00 (on an FTE basis)^[1]
Grades	9–12
Gender	co-ed
Enrollment	2,243^[1] (2023–2024)
Student to teacher ratio	21.78^[1]
Language	English
Color(s)	Blue Orange White
Nickname	Yellow Jackets
Rival	Kathleen High School
National ranking	Unranked (2013 Newsweek)
Yearbook	Echo
Feeder schools	Bartow Middle School, Union Academy

History

Summarize

Perspective

Summerlin Institute was founded in 1887 as the first public high school in Bartow, Florida. It was named after Jacob Summerlin who donated large amounts of land to the cities of Bartow and Orlando. This school was the first brick school in the United States located south of Jacksonville, Florida. It was also the only public military school in Florida.

Union Academy dates to 1897 when it opened as an elementary school for African Americans. In 1923, a secondary school curriculum was added and Union Academy became a high school for African-Americans.^[2]

Summerlin Institute was relocated to the corner of Broadway Avenue and Tharp Street, the current location of Bartow High School, in 1927.

In 1968 Polk County, Florida schools were integrated and all high school students were assigned to the same school regardless of race. Summerlin Institute was renamed Bartow Senior High School, while Union Academy became an integrated middle school. The name change was controversial because Summerlin Institute was considered one of the more prestigious public schools in the Southern United States, but because the school was named after Jacob Summerlin, who was a slaveholder, many felt the name change was appropriate.

In 1996, Bartow High School earned approval from the IBO to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma program. The students pursuing this program are placed in the International Baccalaureate School, a school-within-a-school on the Bartow High campus. While IB students attend many IB specific classes they take regular Bartow High School electives and participate in the Bartow High School athletic program. Beginning with the Class of 2010, it was only composed of students from western Polk County, due to the opening of a second IB school at Haines City High School for students from eastern Polk County. There is no longer a principal for IB Bartow but the current head of schools is Mandy Craven.

In 2006, the Summerlin Academy was established as a military school originally located under the same roof as Bartow High School and International Baccalaureate School. In 2008, Summerlin moved to its own facility in Bartow.

Athletics

The school's nickname is the Yellow Jackets, although the school colors and uniforms are blue and orange (a result of the merge between Summerlin Institute and Union Academy; Summerlin's colors were orange and white and Union's colors were blue and white).^{[citation needed]}

Over the last forty years, the school has won team and individual state championships in football, boys basketball, swimming, boys weightlifting and girls softball.^{[citation needed]}

The girls' softball team is the only school to have appeared in a FHSAA state championship game for 10 consecutive years (1997–2006), winning 7 of those matches. Two Bartow pitchers became the first and second players in FHSAA softball history to pitch in four state championship games. Melissa Parsons pitched from 1997 to 2000, winning the '97 and '00 titles. Lindsay Littlejohn won four state title games from 2002 to 2005. Bartow also became the first team to win five consecutive state softball championships (2002–2006). In 2003, the program earned a No. 1 national ranking by the USA Today Coaches' Poll.^{[citation needed]}

Remove ads

Notable alumni