# Beach High School

Alfred Ely Beach High School, known as Beach High School, is a public high school in Savannah, Georgia, United States.

## Beach Institute

In 1867, the Beach Institute was established by the American Missionary Association (A.M.A.) and the Freedmen's Bureau with funds donated by Alfred Ely Beach, editor of Scientific American. The school was privately funded as a manual training school to provide support for newly freed African Americans. By 1874, the institute was appropriated by the Savannah-Chatham Board of Education for the purpose of providing free education to Savannah's African American citizenry. Although the Beach Institute closed its doors in 1915, it was reopened as an African American cultural center and is currently operated by the King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation.

## High School

The Beach name survives in the name of Alfred E. Beach High School.
In 2010, Beach High School was selected as the recipient of "Outstanding Service By a High School" at the 38th annual Jefferson Awards, an honor for community service and volunteerism.
At the end of the 2009–2010 academic year, the Savannah-Chatham County School District released the school's faculty and staff personnel, citing inadequate academic progress over the previous five years.

## Enrollment

Beach High is open to residents of Chatham County in grades 9th through 12th.

## Academics

Beach High students undertake a college preparatory curriculum that includes four years of English, history, and laboratory-based sciences (chemistry and physics are required); three years of mathematics (most students opt for four) and foreign language; a semester each of introductory art, music, health, and computer science; and two lab-based technology courses. It offers students a broad selection of elective courses.
Beach is ranked between 8 and 11 in the Savannah Chatham County Public School District, between 300 and 400 in Georgia schools, and between 13,000 and 17,000 nationally.
Beach offers one of district's two allied health programs. Its also offers an Army Junior ROTC pathway with a full four year curriculum for both programs. Students who complete this program. The Allied Health Professions program partners with Memorial Health University Medical Center and CVS Pharmacy to provide internships for Beach High students.

### College preparatory

Accelerated students are also able to dual enroll with a local college offering college credit towards a degree.

### Special education

The school has special education programs for the following areas:
* Learning disabled
* Behavior disorder
* Moderately intellectually handicapped
* Mildly intellectually handicapped
* Severely intellectually handicapped
* Profoundly intellectually handicapped

## Extracurricular activities
### State championships
#### Georgia Interscholastic Association

The school won the boys' state basketball championship in 1953, 1963, 1964, and 1965.

#### Georgia High School Association

The school won a boys' state basketball championship in 1967 (the first year that African-Americans were allowed to play in the Georgia High School Association) under coach Russell Ellington. The girls' basketball team won a state championship in 2000 and 2017.

## Notable alumni

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Antario Brown | 2021 | college football running back |
| Markeith Cummings | 2007 | professional basketball player |
| Carey Scott | 1997 | professional football player |
| Russell Ellington | 1956 | Former NFL player and basketball coach |
| Otis Johnson | 1960 | Mayor of Savannah, Georgia (2004–2012) |
| Regina Thomas | 1970 | Georgia State Senator (2000–present); member of the Georgia House of Representatives (1995 to 1998) |