Bay High School (Florida)

Bay High School is a public secondary school in downtown Panama City, Florida, U.S. As one of the oldest continuously accredited public high schools in Florida, the school serves around 1,500 students in grades 9 to 12 in the Bay District Schools.

Bay High School draws the majority of students that live in the Panama City area as well as neighboring communities such as St. Andrews, Glenwood, The Cove, Millville, Pretty Bayou, and Kings Point.

History
Bay High School was established in 1924 in Panama City, Florida. It opened doors on September 13, 1926, as Bay County High School. Its building contained one office, twelve classrooms, and an auditorium during its opening. The school's yearbook theme has been The Pelican since its inception.

In 1945, they established the Tommy Oliver Memorial Stadium, in honor of the namesake of a football player. The original stadium was demolished in 2016 and the school constructed the new Joe and Jeanette Chapman Field at Tommy Oliver Stadium, named after the namesake of the philanthropists. The new stadium began construction at the beginning of the 2016–2017 school year and was completed in the Spring of 2018. All major sporting events, graduations etc. were temporarily held at Mike Gavlak Stadium at J.R. Arnold High School in neighboring Panama City Beach until construction of the new stadium was completed.

In 1976, demolition was underway on the original Bay High building, allowing for more updated facilities while being able to accommodate more students. By 1977, a new building (now called Building 1) housed the school's offices, as well as two hallways of classrooms.

More additions occurred in 2000, with the construction of a new library building and cafeteria. After the new cafeteria was opened to students in 2001, the original building was used for storage, and on occasion, wrestling practice, until its demolition in early 2018. Additional buildings deemed outdated that had had plans drawn up for their replacement were also razed in early 2018.

In 2016, the Washington Post named Bay High School as among of the challenging high schools in the United States.

As the 2022–2023 school year began longtime principal Billy May had stepped down as principal and transitioned to neighboring Jinks Middle School. Blythe Carpenter was appointed as the new principal of Bay High School. Carpenter is the first woman in the school’s history to ever to hold this position.

The Barbara W. Nelson Fine Arts Center finished construction and opened in 2023.

Hurricane Michael
Bay High School suffered extensive damage from the landfall of Category 5 Hurricane Michael on October 10, 2018. After the storm more than 60% students and faculty were housed in temporary modular classrooms. The school conducted the name for them as “Tornado Park”. Renovations were being made to the school in 2019, which will feature a brand new library, a state of the art STEM facility, and a new Fine Arts center. As the 2019–2020 school year began the first renovations were made to the Cafeteria with being new flooring installed. The next phase included reopening of the Media Center and the Band and Choir room which also were renovated and back in use shortly after in early 2020 all classrooms on campus with the exception of the Fine Arts classes were back in use. During the 2020–2021 school year as the STEM building nears completion the entire STEM department are being housed in the temporary modular classrooms still from Hurricane Michael as demolition of Buildings 2-5 took place to make way for construction of the new state of art Barbara W. Nelson Fine Arts Center facing Harrison Ave.

While temporarily residing in their neighboring Jinks Middle School, whose building was also severely damaged, they partnered with the middle school to host a Thanksgiving community feast, which was featured in ABC's Good Morning America on November 21, 2018.

In April 2019, the school's students participated at a rally at the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee to demand the legislative for relief funding of the school and its district.

The school received criticism in September 2019 when a video circulated on Facebook, depicting unflushed toilets, stalls with no toilet papers and broken sinks.

AICE
Bay High School was one of the first high schools in the United States to offer the Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE). AICE is an advanced program that offers a college-level curriculum overseen by Cambridge International Examinations. There is also a Pre-AICE curriculum for grades 9-10.

Courses offered include:


 * AS Level Economics
 * AS Level English Language
 * AS Level Environmental Management
 * AS Level General Paper
 * AS Level Global Perspectives
 * AS Level US History
 * AS & A Level Literature in English
 * A Level Marine Science
 * AS Level Mathematics
 * AS Level Media Studies
 * AS & A Level Psychology
 * AS Level Sociology
 * AS Level Spanish Language
 * A Level Thinking Skills
 * AS Level Travel and Tourism

Million Dollar Band
The Million Dollar Band is Bay High School's marching band. It performs at school football games, marching band competitions and festivals, and parades. It is part of the school's band program, which also includes two concert bands, a beginning band, and a jazz band.

In November 2018, after Hurricane Michael struck Panama City, the Million Dollar Band received a hurricane relief fund from Bands of 30A with a check worth US$10,000 to compensate their losses of instruments

Theatre Program
In the fall of 2023, the Bay High theatre program staged a production of The SpongeBob Musical. This was the first production to be performed in the school's Barbara W. Nelson Fine Arts Center.

Previous productions include the play Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind and the musical MonsterSongs.

Notable alumni

 * Janarius Robinson - NFL football player Las Vegas Raiders
 * James Finch - then-owner of NASCAR team Phoenix Racing
 * Eric Kelly - NFL football player
 * Tom Martin - MLB player
 * Anwar Stewart - CFL football player and Hall of Famer.
 * Khyri Thornton - NFL football player
 * Jay Trumbull - American politician and member of the Florida House of Representatives (6th district)
 * Jeremiah Warren - NFL football player
 * Ralph Ford - composer