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The school was opened in 2004 to educate students in grades 9 to 12. The school was opened due to the growing number of students in Chattahoochee High School. The 330,000 square foot school was designed by Perkins and Will with sustainable design in mind. It was relieved by the 2012 opening of Cambridge High School.[6]
Most of the campus at Alpharetta High School is occupied by a main building that contains three floors and three hallways (identified as the 2000, 3000, and 4000 hallways). The bottom (first) floor contains the cafeteria, media center, and access to the buses and portables outside. The second and third floor are mostly classes, and the second floor has access to the auditorium, gym, and orchestra room. Other parts of the school outside the main building include the band building, the soccer field, football fields, tennis court, trail, and softball field.
Competitive sports at Alpharetta High School are football, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, soccer, wrestling, tennis, track and field, cross country, volleyball, swimming, diving, cheerleading, and golf. Although not officially recognized by the Georgia High School Association, additional athletic activities include rugby, fencing, chess, cricket, and ping pong.[7]
The Alpharetta High School Band Program has grown from 28 original members to over 200 members and warrants its own 10,000 SF building. The program includes three concert ensembles: Symphonic Band II, Symphonic Band I, and Wind Ensemble. AHS Band members have consistently earned multiple seats in the GA All State Band, university honor bands, and district and county honor bands. Many graduates continue to play in colleges across the country, and several AHS Band Program graduates are now band directors. The advanced Wind Ensemble has performed all over the country, from California to New York. It has been invited to perform at Music for All, Disney's Festival of Gold, several university band clinics (including Alabama, UGA, and GSU), The GMEA state convention, and the National Concert Band Festival at Carnegie Hall in NYC. The program also includes an award-winning competitive marching band, competitive indoor percussion ensemble, and an extensive nationally competitive indoor color guard program.[8] Many graduates of the marching band program go on to perform with DCI and university bands.[9]
The Alpharetta High School Orchestra is split into five ensembles: Concert, Philharmonia, Sinfonia, Symphony, and Chamber (in ascending order of skill level).[10][11] The orchestra's Symphony ensemble frequently collaborate with the band in order to perform and compete as a full symphony orchestra.
In 2018 Alpharetta High School opened a new, state-of-the-art 24-seat Music Technology Lab. It is a one-of-a-kind Lab in Fulton County that gives each individual student a custom-built personal audio engineering space. The lab is all connected through Korg's GEC5 audio communication system and Apple Remote Desktop. The focus of the two-year program is audio production, using the full, professional version of Pro Tools as the foundation. The goal of the AHS Music Tech Program[13] is to create a foundation and pathway for students to become audio mix engineers and producers.
Alpharetta High School has many extracurricular activities and about 95 clubs.[14] Most of these clubs occur either before or after school. Many occur during Anchor Time, a 30-minute period that takes place every day. Notable clubs include Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), Raider Ambassadors, National Honors Society, Science Olympiad, and Beta. Students may also form their own clubs.
In the 2018-2019 school year, Alpharetta High School was chosen to become an International Baccalaureate (IB) school.[15] Although the school already offers Advanced Placement (AP) courses and Dual Enrollment courses at various colleges, the IB courses are completely new. Students will be allowed to complete the IB Diploma Programme by taking the required classes, or they may take specific IB classes along with other classes.
On March 27, 2010, the Alpharetta High School Chess Team won the State Championships by defeating Creekview 5-0, Dunwoody 5-0, Greater Atlanta Christian School 5-0, Pace Academy 5-0, and Northview 5-0. This makes them the first chess team in Georgia history to win a state championship with a perfect 25-0.
The school's FBLA team is one of the largest in Georgia. Many members compete at the regional, state, and national levels. For 10 years in a row, Alpharetta has won the State Sweepstakes Award for the most number of competitive wins.[25]
The Academic Team won the 2007–2008 Annual High Q competition, which airs on WSB-TV. They were originally alternates for the competition.[26]
In the 2013-2014 season, the varsity quizbowl team won the ATTACK III and GATA Winter Tournaments. The Junior varsity team won the GATA State tournament. Both the varsity and junior varsity teams won the MLK Day History Bowl Regional. The team was ranked 84th in the national quizbowl rankings at the end of the season.[27]
In the 2014-2015 season, the varsity quizbowl team finished third at the 25th Annual Walton Academic Challenge and won both the History Bowl and Bee Regional at Athens.[27]
The school's symphony orchestra, composed of nearly 90 select band and orchestra students, was chosen to perform at Chicago's 2012 and 2018 Midwest Clinic. Of thousands of schools that auditioned all over the world, The 2012 Alpharetta Symphony Orchestra was the only high school full symphony chosen that year, and included the first wind section from Fulton County Schools to ever be invited to perform at Midwest Clinic.[30]
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