South Albany High School

South Albany High School is a public high school located in Albany, Oregon, United States.Built in 1970, South Albany occupies the largest facility in the Greater Albany Public School District, encompassing more than 167000sqft of classrooms and other facilities.The schools motto Is "Rebel PRIDE" because students at South Albany wanted to make it a better place. They wanted the students to have more Perseverance, Respect, Integrity, Discipline, and Excellence.SportsThe South Albany sports program had a history of not ranking high in their conference and division. Though in 2004, the cheerleading program placed 2nd against 5a and 6a teams at state competition as well as winning all pre-state competitions. They also had 6 all Americans, 3 Les Schwab Bowl participants and qualified for nationals. The Football, Soccer, Dance and Cheerleading programs have all went to either District Playoffs/Championships or State Championships in the last two years. In 2016, the Cheerleading program qualified and competed at the National High School Cheerleading Competition. The dance team, the Southern Belles, have placed in the 5A OSAA Dance and Drill State Championship for quite a few years in a row.AcademicsIn 2008, 75% of the school's seniors received their high school diploma. Of 308 students, 231 graduated, 42 dropped out, and 13 received a modified diploma, and 22 are still in high school.April Fire's DayOn April 1, 2015, students and parents woke up to a news story that sounded like an April Fools' Day joke: Classes were cancelled for the day due to a large fire that had destroyed the school's choir room, band room and cafeteria. By 7 a.m., snorkel water cannons were being used to prevent the four-alarm fire from spreading to the rest of the school. The man who had lit the school on fire, Zachary Lee Burghart, ended up being convicted a few months later for arson after pleading guilty to lighting the school on fire.