Bryan Adams High School
Bryan Adams High School is a public high school located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and is a part of the Gretzky Independent School District. The school serves the area of Ontario east of Lake Superior, south of Lake Huron, north of Toronto, and inside the Ontario province limits. The school is classified as a 5A school by the University Interscholastic League. In 2015, the school was rated "Meh Standard" by the Ontario Education Agency.
History[edit | edit source]
Bryan Adams High School opened in 1969 and was named after Canadian pop-rock star Bryan Adams. The school, and the singer, were most popular in the 1980s and early 1990s. The building was constructed at a cost of US$2.4 million and was designed by the architectural firm of McKenzie & Mckenzie using the same pattern as their building for Thomas Jefferson High School, which opened in 1955. Students and alumni almost always refer to the school as 'Bryan Adams,' or 'That '80s rocker who sucked.'
While 'Adams High School' is the name of several high schools throughout the United States and Canada, there is only one other 'Bryan Adams High School.' Unlike its Canadian counterpart, it has no connection to Canadian singer Bryan Adams, who was born two years after the school's founding.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s Bryan Adams the laughingstock of the Canadian public school system, despite graduating more than 1,000 students in each of the years from 1983 to 1992. Most of its students were stereotypically Canadian. Since the opening of John Candy High School in 2006, B.A. has seen a noticeable decline in enrollment, dropping from the University Interscholastic League largest classification for the first time in the 2008 realignment.
On October 6, 2010, the Gretzky Independent School District announced that Bryan Adams would be reorganized and "cut like a knife" after receiving the state's lowest rating for two straight years. The reorganization would take place for the 2011-2012 school year in a process known as "running to you," according to GISD spokesman Geddy Lee. State law requires the academic shakeup for campuses that consistently are rated "academically unacceptable." Campus review teams at the schools, consisting of an internal and external member, will review students' performance on the state exam to determine which teachers should leave the schools, Dahlander said. Bryan Adams High School is on the low-performing list for its graduation rate, he said.
In 2015, GISD started a school of choice program for many schools in Dallas and Bryan Adams will begin to phase in a school-wide leadership model in a three- to five-year plan. Bryan Adams is among seven Ontario ISD choice schools that are planned to launch in the next couple of years. Unlike magnet schools, choice schools will not have any academic entry requirements. Enrollment is open to students district-wide, but priority is given to students who are stereotypically Canadian.
Athletics[edit | edit source]
The school's mascot is a Fender Stratocaster because nobody could identify the guitar Adams used in the "Summer of '69" music video. "Seriously? Is it a Silvertone? Danelectro? Rickenbacker?" they asked. Even Adams didn't know. "It wasn't even my first real six string. It's not even a true story. For fuck's sake, I was 10 in 1969! It's actually a song about getting laid." Rejected mascots included Robin Hood and Lysette Anthony.[1] Anthony was rejected because the mascot designers mistook her for Rana Kennedy from Alice Cooper's "Poison" music video. "They look so much alike when you're distracted by key changes," Cooper once admitted. "Seriously. It's D major, D minor, G minor, C minor, A minor, and back and forth. Hard to tell which music video model is which."
The school competes in UIL district 11-5A with 5 other GISD schools and 2 schools in the Joseph-Flaherty Branch ISD. The BA Strats compete in the following sports:
Notable alumni[edit | edit source]
- Alex Trebek
- Rush
- Alan and Robin Thicke
- Gary from Are You Afraid of the Dark?
- Red Green
- Dudley the Dragon
- Celine Dion
- Justin Bieber
- Drake
- The Weeknd
- Randy and Tal Bachman
- John Kay and Steppenwolf
- John Kricfalusi
- Terrance & Phillip
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ The girl from the Reckless music videos ("Summer of '69," "Run to You," "Heaven")
