Forest High School

Forest High School is a school in Ocala, Florida, US. It has an EMIT (engineering) program. The school's colors are green and gold and the school mascot is the Wildcat. As of 2014, it had an enrollment of some 2,058.Forest High School moved to its current location on Maricamp Road, southeast of the city limits of Ocala, in 2005. The school was originally on Fort King Street in Ocala, at the 1959 campus of Ocala High School. Ocala High was renamed Forest High in 1969 with the opening of Vanguard High School. According to tradition, the Marion County School Board wanted the city's second high school to start on equal footing with the first by putting to rest the name Ocala High School.Forest High School belongs to the Marion County School District.Athletics Forest High School won the Class 3A State Championship in Football in 1974 and 1975.Band programThe FHS band program has a rich and long tradition of excellence as Florida's oldest high school Band. Founded in 1922 by Mrs. Browne' Greaton Cole, she has the distinction of being both the first school band director in the state and the first female director, earning her the title "Mother of School Bands". In 1928, the Ocala High School Band participated in the first State Band Competition held in Lakeland, Florida, taking first place at the competition. The next year it was held in Ocala with 10 bands attending (doubling the number of bands from the previous year) taking second place at this competition. In 1933, the Band was invite to perform at the Gasparilla Parade (now a part of the Gasparilla Pirate Festival), the first time a band had ever been invited to participate. The Band returned home with the First Prize Trophy.In 1936, The Florida Bandmasters Association was formed with Cole as a charter member. The band participated with Cole at all FBA state events (except for two years during the war) through her retirement in 1944. Since then, the Forest High/Ocala High School Band has maintained a high standard of excellence laid out by our "First Director". In november of 2016, Mrs. Cole was posthumously inducted into the Florida Bandmasters Association Hall of Fame. The band she started celebrated its 94th seasonin 2016.