Lincoln High School (Tallahassee, Florida)

Lincoln High School is a public high school located in Tallahassee, Florida. It is part of the Leon County Schools district.

Lincoln High School offers an accelerated Advanced Placement (AP) program. In 2010, ''Newsweek'' ranked Lincoln High School as one of the top 100 high schools in the United States. On the state level, Lincoln has continuously ranked in the 90th percentile among all Florida high schools. Lincoln has also been ranked as one of the highest high schools in Florida in regards to college readiness. The "Best High Schools" report in 2016 & 2022 revealed that Lincoln High boasted the top college-readiness level of all area schools.

History

Campus
Lincoln High School was established in 1974 following the closure of the Old Lincoln High School in 1970 and relocated from its former location downtown to its current site in the southeast portion of the county. The school was constructed as a large one building high school with the address being 3838 Conner Blvd which was later changed to 3838 Trojan Trail in July 1982 when students petitioned the county to change the name to symbolize their school spirit. Lincolns concept as a large one building school also changed in late 1980's when the school had no choice but to add additional buildings to the campus. In 1992, Lincoln completed construction of a multi-million dollar state of the art auditorium at the front of the school, the first of its kind in the district. In 2005, Lincoln was approved for a campus wide remodel which would include all buildings, parking lots, sports fields, school entrance and the construction of a new two level classroom building along with a new cafeteria building at the front of the school, the construction/remodel lasted from 2005 to 2008. During this time, the City of Tallahassee also rerouted the path of Trojan Trail to better accommodate traffic needs for the school. Once both constructions were completed portions of the Lincoln campus and surrounding area were unrecognizable from before. Following the major construction/remodel projects, a garden/courtyard area was added to the back of the school in 2009. The area was dedicated to long-time principal Martha Bunch who had served Lincoln for 20 years. The garden was also a way to thank her for overseeing Lincoln during its most expanding times, both in population and construction. Since the numerous expanding projects of the 1990s and 2000s Lincoln has only added a new JROTC building in the spring of 2015.

Principals

Douglas Frick was the founding principal of Lincoln High School and served in that position until 1989, when he retired early after 15 years due to health concerns. He was replaced that summer by William Montford, a good friend of Frick's, who had previously been the principal at Amos P. Godby High School. Montford served as Lincoln's principal until his election as the Leon County School Superintendent in the fall of 1996 which required him to step down during the 1996–1997 school year. Martha Bunch, an assistant principal under Montford since 1989, assumed the position of principal until the summer of 2008 when she was moved to a district level position. During the 2008–2009 school year, Merry Ortega served as interim principal while also working closely under the guidance of Bunch. Ortega was previously an Assistant Principal at Lincoln throughout the 1980's. To many the 2008–2009 school year was known as "the year with two principals". In the summer of 2009, Swift Creek Middle School principal, Allen Burch was appointed to Lincoln as both Ortega and Bunch retired from the school district. He is currently serving in that capacity, making him the second longest serving principal at Lincoln.

*1974 - 1989: Douglas Frick
*1989 - 1996: William J. Montford
*1996 - 2008: Martha Bunch
*2008 - 2009: Merry Ortega
*2009 - Current: Allen Burch

Enrollment

During the early years of Lincoln, enrollment averaged around 1800 students. It was then in the 1990s that Lincoln saw a large uptick in enrollment as the northeastern/eastern portions of Leon County saw substantial housing/subdivision growth. From the years 1994 and 1998 Lincoln's total enrollment grew from 2073 to just below 2500 making Lincoln the largest high school in the district. Enrollment then dropped to around 1798 following the opening of Chiles High school in 1999 on the north side of the county as an effort to relieve overcrowding. The opening of Chiles was a priority to then superintendent Bill Montford who had recently been principal of Lincoln and saw the impact that the large enrollment was having on the school. However enrollment at Lincoln was not low for long, within a couple of years Lincoln found itself home to 2000 students yet again. For the past decade Lincoln has continued to bounce anywhere between 2000 and 2100 students each school year. By the year 2025 Lincoln is anticipated to see another uptick in enrollment as several more housing developments are planned to be constructed in the Lincoln school zone.

The demographics for the 2015–2016 school year are as follows:
* Total: (2,092) 100%
* Black students: 37%
* White students: 51%
* Minority students: 12%

Colors and mascot

Prior to the opening of Lincoln in September 1974, the entering students participated in the selection of green, gold, and white as school colors, signifying youth, vigor, merit, honor and wisdom. The mascot selected was the Trojan, which signifies personal strength, loyalty, courage, and leadership. A six-foot statue of a Trojan, erected in the summer of 2007, stands in front of the main office.

Athletics

Football

Lincoln High School's football program has been recognized at the national level as an elite high school program. Lincoln was named by Bleacher Report as the #4 top football factory in the nation for high school recruits. In 2012, Lincoln gained national exposure by beating St. Paul High School (Covington, Louisiana) in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome during the Allstate Sugar Bowl Prep Kickoff Classic. In 2013, Lincoln participated in a kickoff classic game on ESPN, defeating South Gwinnett High School.

Lincoln Football has won state championships in 1999, 2001, and 2010.

Lincoln Football was state finalist in 1999, 2001, 2008, 2010, 2012.

Lincoln Football was regional champion in 1989, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012.

Lincoln Football was district champion in 1989, 1990, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Lincoln Football was city champion of Tallahassee in 1989, 1990, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Lincoln's football team won the 1999 6A state championship by defeating Miami Southridge High School at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases