South Lakes High School is the primary high school for the community of Reston in Fairfax County, Virginia. The school, part of Fairfax County Public Schools, has 2,378 students.The principal is Kimberly Brophy Retzer. The school also has 16 other administrators, including assistant administrators for each grade. The school's mascot is Seymour the Seahawk. The school colors are Royal Blue and Kelly Green. The school newspaper is named the Sentinel.HistorySouth Lakes underwent a $55 million renovation from winter 2006 through August 2008. The renovation was completed in time for the 2008–2009 school year. Another renovation is currently ongoing, projected to be complete by Winter, 2017.The main feeder middle schools are Langston Hughes Middle School and Rachel Carson Middle School.Demographics and test scoresIn the 2013–2014 school year, South Lakes High School's student body was 46.68% White, 21.24% Hispanic, 13.00% Black, 12.53% Asian and 6.56% Other.South Lakes High School is a fully accredited high school based on the Standards of Learning tests in Virginia. The average SAT score in the 2013–2014 school year for South Lakes was 1676.School designPre-renovationWhen the school first opened in 1978, South Lakes High School had an "open classroom" design. The school was laid out into four quadrants, one quadrant area for each grade level. Each quadrant, or "sub-school", was labeled by color: green for freshman, blue for sophomores, yellow for juniors, and orange for seniors. When the school was first opened each sub-school was designed to be a classroom within itself. The open space was not divided into individual classrooms or interrupted with walls. The open design was quickly determined to be an ineffective and distracting way for people to learn, especially with different teachers and students learning different materials around them. Individual classrooms were created with temporary dividers which remained until a renovation which took place between 2006 and 2008.
