Suitland High School is a public school with in

Prince George's County, Maryland Prince George's County (often shortened to PG County or PG) is located in the U.S. state of Maryland bordering the eastern portion of Washington, D.C. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the population was 967,201, making it ...

, operated by

Prince George's County Public Schools Prince George's County Public Schools (PGCPS) is a public school district that serves Prince George's County, Maryland. During the 2023–24 academic year, the district enrolled around 133,000 students and operated over 200 schools. PGCPS is t ...

. The school serves all of Suitland,2010 CENSUS - CENSUS BLOCK MAP (INDEX): Suitland CDP, MD
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U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

. Retrieved on August 29, 2018. Pages
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a section of the City of District Heights, a section of the Town of Capitol Heights, all of Coral Hills, portions of Forestville,2010 CENSUS - CENSUS BLOCK MAP (INDEX): Forestville CDP, MD
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. Retrieved on August 29, 2018. Pages
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and a portion of Silver Hill. The current principal is Mr. Maurice Wright.Home
Suitland High School. Retrieved on June 21, 2023. "5200 Silver Hill Road • Forestville, MD 20747"

History

Suitland High (formerly Suitland Senior High) is the first high school in the Suitland area. The school's doors officially opened on November 15, 1951. The dedication ceremony, presided over by John W. McNamara, featured Principal Thomas Warthen accepting the dedication on behalf of the students and faculty. In 1978, Walter R. Battle became principal of Suitland Senior High School. Initially serving students in grades 10th through 12th, the school underwent a restructuring in 1981, incorporating 9th-grade students and removing the "senior" designation from its name. Dr. Joe Hairston played a significant role in the school's transformation as a magnet school in 1987 and served as the principal until the mid-1990s. On January 20, 1988, President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

delivered a notable speech at Suitland High, using the occasion to announce $115 million nationwide in magnet school funding. The selection of Suitland High School as the site for the president's address was influenced by several factors. Despite facing persistent challenges, the school's status as a fruitful magnet school played a crucial role in its selection. In 2009, Sheryll Cashin highlighted Suitland High School, along with several other predominantly black and middle-class public high schools in Prince George's County, as underperforming institutions. She noted in ''The Failures of Integration: How Race and Class are Undermining the American Dream'' that less than half of the seniors from these schools had enrolled in four-year colleges in recent years, reflecting a concerning trend. Commencing with the 2016–2017 school year, students who were previously enrolled at the now-closed

Forestville High School Forestville High School was a public magnet high school located in Forestville, a section of unincorporated Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The school had a comprehensive program with a specialized military academy magnet pro ...

were redirected to Suitland. As of September 2022, Suitland High School had an estimated student enrollment of approximately 1,834 students across grades 9–12. A new multimillion dollar campus is expected to open in 2026. The school adheres to a mandatory uniform policy.

Academics

Center for the Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

The Center for the Visual and Performing Arts is a four-year arts program for high school students across Prince George's County. Established in 1986, the Center for the Visual and Performing Arts operates as a distinctive

school-within-a-school A Small Learning Community (SLC), also referred to as a School-Within-A-School, is a school organizational model that is an increasingly common form of learning environment in American secondary schools to subdivide large school populations into ...

at Suitland High School.

International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme

Naval Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (NJROTC)

The NJROTC (Naval Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps) Unit at Suitland High School was established in May 1982. This program offers a comprehensive curriculum that focuses on the development of citizenship, leadership skills, and a deep appreciation for maritime heritage,

sea power Sea Power, previously known as British Sea Power and initially as British Air Powers, are an English alternative rock band. The group's original lineup consisted of Jan Scott Wilkinson, known as Yan; Martin Noble, known as Noble; and Alison Co ...

, and naval subjects. Students enrolled in NJROTC gain knowledge in various areas, including naval operations,

seamanship Seamanship is the skill, art, competence (human resources), competence, and knowledge of operating a ship, boat or other craft on water. The'' Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford Dictionary'' states that seamanship is "The skill, techniques, o ...

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the motion, movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navig ...

, and

meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

New campus groundbreaking and renovation

In June 2022, Prince George's County Public Schools held a

groundbreaking ceremony Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, turf-cutting, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such cer ...

on a new $335 million campus expected to be open for enrollment by 2026, marking the first full-scale renovation of the school since its inception in 1951. The new Suitland High School will accommodate 2,000 students (including 500 enrolled in the Center for Visual and Performing Arts program). Notably, the new facility will only house the traditional high school and CVPA programs, allowing a focus on

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. P ...

. The Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs have been relocated to nearby

Crossland High School Crossland High School is a public secondary school located in Camp Springs census-designated place, unincorporated Prince George's County, Maryland, with Temple Hills postal address.

Notable alumni

Andrew Bayes Andrew Bayes (born February 11, 1978) is an American former football punter. He played college football for the East Carolina Pirates, earning consensus All-American honors in 1999. Early life Bayes first attended Suitland High School in Fore ...

–

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

football player * NaVorro Bowman –

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

and NFL football player * John E. Courtney, PhD – CEO of

American Society for Nutrition The American Society for Nutrition (ASN) is an American society for professional researchers and practitioners in the field of nutrition. ASN publishes four journals in the field of nutrition. It has been criticized for its financial ties to the ...

George O. Gore II George Owen Gore II (born December 15, 1982) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for portraying Gregory "G" Williams on the FOX series ''New York Undercover'' from 1994 to 1998 and Michael Kyle, Jr. on the ABC sitcom ''My Wife and ...

– American actor, ''

New York Undercover ''New York Undercover'' is an American police drama that aired on the Fox television network from September 8, 1994, to February 11, 1999. The series starred Malik Yoba as Detective J.C. Williams and Michael DeLorenzo as Detective Eddie Torre ...

'', ''

My Wife and Kids ''My Wife and Kids'' is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from March 28, 2001, to May 17, 2005, with a total of 123 half-hour episodes spanning five seasons. The series, produced by Touchstone Television in association with Wayan ...

'' *

Peter Greenberg Peter S. Greenberg (born January 20, 1950) is an American journalist. He is the CBS News Travel Editor, reporting regularly on '' The Early Show'', its replacement '' CBS This Morning'', and the '' CBS Evening News''. He may be best known as ...

– cancer researcher and professor,

Stanford University School of Medicine The Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California, United States. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Fra ...

Steny Hoyer Steny Hamilton Hoyer ( ; born June 14, 1939) is an American politician and retired attorney who has served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for since 1981. He also served as House Majority Leader from 2007 to 20 ...

– Majority Leader and Congressman,

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

Lamont Jordan LaMont Damon Jordan (born November 11, 1978) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Maryland Terrapins and was selected by the New York ...

–

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

and NFL football player * Andrew Maynard – professional boxer and Olympian * Ray Miller –

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

manager and pitching coach * Nick Nelson –

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

and NFL football player *

Russ Ramsey W. Russell "Russ" Ramsey is an American financier and philanthropist, and the founder, chairman and CEO of asset management firm Ramsey Asset Management. He cofounded the Washington, D.C., investment firm Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group in 1989, ...

– American executive,

financier An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital the investor usually purchases some species of property. Types of in ...

, and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

* J. August Richards – American actor, ''

Angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ''Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' is an American television series created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen for ABC based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, ...

'' * Chad Scott – NFL football player * Devin Tyler –

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

and NFL football player *

Eric Underwood Eric John Underwood AO, CBE (7 September 1905 – 19 August 1980) was an Australian scientist who pioneered research into sheep nutrition and wool production. Personal life Underwood was born in Harlington, Middlesex, England on 7 September 1 ...

– American British dancer, model, and actor * Jude Waddy – NFL football player

References

{{authority control Public high schools in Maryland Magnet schools in Maryland Schools of the performing arts in the United States Schools in Prince George's County, Maryland