Alfred E. Beach High School

Alfred Ely Beach High School is one of the oldest public high schools in Savannah, Georgia, United States.HistoryIn 1867, the Beach Institute was established by 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 a means for newly freed African Americans to assimilate into white society. 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. The Beach name survives in the name of Alfred E. Beach High School.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.EnrollmentBeach High is open to residents of Chatham County in grades 9th through 12th.AcademicsBeach 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.