Gloucester High School is an accredited public high school located four miles from Gloucester Courthouse (the county seat) in Gloucester County, Virginia, United States. It is operated by Gloucester County Public Schools, a Virginia public school division.
The current complex was originally built in 1976, and has been expanded several times since. The current high school facility remains the only high school in the county, even though student numbers have risen steadily since its construction date. The current number of students ranges somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000.
Renovations
A major addition was built onto the school in 1993 and functions mainly as the school's science wing. It is fully equipped with 3 computer labs, 2 full scale chemistry labs, as well as other classrooms with enough equipment for simple demonstrations. It is known to students and faculty as D-Hall. Included in the expansion was a foreign language hall at the opposite end of the building, built onto A-Hall.
Less extensive renovations have occurred since then, including the office and guidance offices in 2005. Beginning in April 2006, the industrial arts facilities were remodeled into new art rooms by the beginning of the following school year, freeing up the previous art rooms for normal classroom use. The old primary art room became the newsroom of the school newspaper, the Dukes' Dispatch. During the summer of 2006, the school's television production facility was updated with new equipment and made into a studio. The school then began producing programming for its own local Public-access television cable TV channel. The most recent renovations were completed in October 2006 and included a $700,000 renovation of the auditorium.
During the summer of 2007, Gloucester High began outfitting classrooms with LCD projectors. Most recently, another wing of the school began renovations to add a cardiovascular workout room. The room will include treadmills and other cardiovascular workout machines.
Class structure
Gloucester High School operates on a four by four scheduling structure. The school day begins at 7:40am EDT and ends at 2:40pm EDT. Every day there are four periods that are approximately two hours long, which host one class each period. With one school year containing two semesters, there are 4 classes each semester which total into 8 classes over the course of a year. The exception to this rule are Dual and AP classes which are every other day over the course of a year, with some activities classes also following this rule. There are three lunch blocks, each 25 minutes in length, which take place over the course of the day's third block.
Facilities
The facilities of Gloucester High School include: Sports installations American football stadium Quarter mile track Eight tennis courts Two baseball fields One soccer field Weight Training building Main gymnasium with pull-out bleachers and locker rooms Auxiliary gymnasium A large plot of land for multiple uses by gym classes Academic installations Large auditorium (renovated 2006) Fully equipped science laboratories Nine computer labs, each with roughly 25 computers and a ceiling mounted LCD projector A fully equipped, state-of-the-art library A driver's education driving range Television production lab Greenhouse for horticultural classes An auto-mechanics facility Complete restaurant kitchen facilities for the student-run International Café Other installations Three cafeterias: a large open area known as The Commons, as well as two conventional cafeterias Nurse facilities including an emergency defibrillator 3d printer for architecture classes Student parking lot
Athletics
Gloucester High school is in the VHSL Region A Division 5 and plays in the Peninsula District of Virginia.