Vestavia Hills High School (VHHS), founded in 1970, is a public high school in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham. Part of the Vestavia Hills School System, the high school is known for the success of its band, math, debate, "We the People" Team, Economics Challenge Team, American football, soccer, wrestling, baseball, and tennis teams.
The student enrollment for the 2009-2010 academic year is 1715. The current school principal is Cas McWaters, a (former) chemistry teacher and VHHS assistant principal who left Vestavia briefly (2004–2006) to serve as principal at Tarrant High School. He returned to his alma mater in 2006 to lead the high school. Assistant principals include Dr. Danny Steele, David Howard, Charles Bruce, and Melissa Smith. VHHS has more than 20 National Board Certified teachers.
VHHS has recently undergone a long-awaited face lift, with the front of the school, its office suite, and lobby being remodeled in 2007-2008. Another 22 classrooms were added to the campus in Fall 2009, known as the "H Wing." In 2003-2004, the new "E" wing was also completed. Interactive classrooms with state-of-the-art technology were installed all over the school in Summer 2008.
The school mascot is the Rebel (a cartoon depiction of a "Southern gentleman" patterned after the University of Mississippi mascot). The name "Rebels", the mascot, the Confederate battle flag (though not the school's official flag) as a rallying symbol was the subject of a school board debate in November 2000. After hearing many opinions, mostly in favor of keeping these symbols, the board took the advice of its legal counsel and made no new policy. The use of the flag, once common, is now strongly discouraged. An official flag has been made.
Vestavia Hills High School is known to have a long-time rivalry in academics and sports with Hoover High School in Hoover, Alabama. Footage from a Hoover vs. Vestavia Hills football game can be seen on Hoover High School's former television show, MTV's Two-A-Days.
Read more about Vestavia Hills High School: Academics, Music Department, Athletic Programs, Alumni
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“The spring over there takes you by the throat, the flowers blooming by the thousands over white walls. If you strolled around for an hour in the hills surrounding my town, you would return with the odor of honey in your clothes.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
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What if my great-granddad had a pair that were twenty foot high,
And mine were but fifteen foot, no modern stalks upon higher,
Some rogue of the world stole them to patch up a fence or a fire.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)