Vanguard High School

Vanguard High School is one of eight high schools in Marion County, Florida. The school serves the northeast area of Ocala, Florida. Vanguard offers the International Baccalaureate program for students, which accepts pupils from outside districts and makes up about 25% of the student population.Vanguard's mascot is a knight and the school colors are red, white, and blue. Notable alumni include NFL football player Daunte Culpepper and Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook. The Vanguard Knight's cross-town rivals are the Forest High School Wildcats. Progress Energy Inc is the school's business partner.The student population as of the 2006-2007 school year is 1743 students. In the 2005-2006 school year, there were 1796 students, 441 of which were in the IB program.The school is staffed by 150 people.IB ProgramIn 1996, Forest began involvement with the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. It was the 26th High School in the state of Florida and is currently the only school in all of Marion County besides Lake Weir High School to offer this curriculum.Pupils accepted into the program take special classes for their Freshman and Sophomore years, which prepare them for the actual IB courses taken in Junior and Senior years. Students can be accepted into the program as ninth or tenth graders, but eleventh and twelfth graders can only transfer in from another IB school. The first two years are termed as Pre-IB and consist of a combination of AP/Pre-IB/Honors courses designed to prepare students for the actual IB courses and exams.