King's Fork High School Explained

King's Fork High School
Streetaddress:351 Kings Fork Road
City:Suffolk
State:Virginia
Zipcode:23434
Country:USA
Url:Official Site
District:Suffolk City Public Schools
Principal:Derrick Bryant
Fundingtype:Public
Schooltype:high school
Grades:9–12
Language:English
Feeders:King's Fork Middle School
John F. Kennedy Middle School
Campus:Suburban
Mascot:Bulldogs
Colors:Maroon and Vegas Gold
Founded:2003
Enrollment:1,675[1]
Enrollment As Of:2021-22
Rival:Lakeland High School
Nansemond River High School
Conference:Class 5 Region B
Southeastern District

King's Fork High School is located in Suffolk, Virginia. It is administered by Suffolk City Public Schools. The school colors are maroon and Vegas gold, and the official mascot is the Bulldog.

King's Fork was founded in 2003, and was designed by the architectural firm of Ripley Rodriguez Maddox Motley. It was commissioned by Suffolk City Public Schools due to a widespread economic expansion in sprawl in the western Hampton Roads area.

Due to rezoning, students at King's Fork High are drawn from the Northwestern quadrants of the city, including the King's Fork area, Crittenden, and Hobson. Students are also drawn from the southern Nansemond Parkway/Wilroy Road area, and shares Downtown neighborhoods with Lakeland High School.

Building design

According to Ripley Rodriguez Maddox Motley, "Each house contains space for assistant principal, guidance counselor, teacher work areas, general classrooms, science labs, and resource spaces in addition to two to three specialized career/technical subjects. A guidance suite was also included near Administration for flexibility in future guidance arrangements. Science labs are designed as generically as possible with only Chemistry having a necessary uniqueness. Each pair of science lecture spaces shares a wet lab and preparation partitions. Specialty subjects such as Agriculture, Work/Family Studies, Health, JROTC, and Liberal Arts that are not suited for location within houses are properly placed according to need and required access. Instructional areas typically share a small computer lab. The small lab requires less building area but offers more computers per classroom when time-sharing is utilized."

Curriculum

King's Fork High School offers an extensive range of courses at core, honors, and Advanced Placement levels, in addition to various dual enrollment classes offered through the Hobbs campus of Paul D. Camp Community College, also located in Suffolk, and through Tidewater Community College. In addition to academic courses, King's Fork High offers a range of agricultural and resource management courses.

Due to the nature of student interests at the school, only certain core subjects are offered at the AP level at King's Fork, and the arts department often has too few students for courses in music theory or other such classes. However, beginning in the 2008–2009 school year, King's Fork began offering courses beginning at the freshman level through the IB (International Baccalaureate) program, in addition to its current curriculum.

Extracurricular activities

King's Fork High has an athletic program; however, due to the school's relative new status, few of the programs have yet to build up to a successful level. The most notable of these are men's and women's varsity basketball teams, which have broken through to the district and regional level. The 2008-2009 men's varsity basketball team won the AAA state championship.

The first extracurricular program to achieve statewide recognition from King's Fork was the drama program, which won second place at the 2006 AAA VHSL Theater Festival, under the direction of former drama teacher Clyde Berry.

In 2017, the Bulldogs football team made school history by winning its first ever Southeastern District title. Notable about the victory was the fact that King's Fork upset longtime powerhouse Oscar Smith, and ended Smith's 99-game district win streak - which dated back to 2006 - in a 29–23 win.

In 2017-2018 Kings fork high school Mighty Marching Bulldogs would travel to Charlotte North Carolina to compete in the High-Step Nationals Competition with Marching Bands all throughout the United States. The MMB would achieve 1st place in Class 3A, with top scoring Dance Team, Majorettes, and 2nd Highest Flag Team at the event. The group would be awarded 3rd place overall in the Nation.

In 2020, the Bulldogs men's basketball team won another state championship, sharing the VHSL title with Woodrow Wilson High School (Virginia) of Portsmouth. The schools were scheduled to play one another in the championship, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The VHSL cancelled all championship games following the semifinals; the schools slated to play in the championships were subsequently named co-champions.

Sports

Fall AthleticsBoys & Girls Team
GirlsCheerleading, Cross Country, JV & Varsity Field Hockey, Varsity Volleyball
BoysGolf, JV Football, Varsity Volleyball, Cross Country
Winter Athletics
GirlsIndoor Track, JV & Varsity BasketballSwimming
BoysIndoor Track, JV & Varsity Basketball, JV & Varsity Wrestling
Spring Athletics
GirlsJV & Varsity Soccer, JV & Varsity Softball, Outdoor Track, Tennis
BoysJV & Varsity Baseball, JV & Varsity Soccer, Outdoor Track, Tennis

Clubs

Notable alumni

Notes and References

  1. Web site: King's Fork High. National Center for Education Statistics. 2023-06-17.
  2. Web site: Notable Bulldogs - King's Fork High School. kfhs.spsk12.net. en-US. 2018-07-03.