Smiths Station High School is a high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 in Smiths Station

Smiths Station, Alabama

Smiths Station is a city in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is a part of the Columbus, Georgia-Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is also known by locals as Smiths, although the official name is Smiths Station...

, Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

, enrolling grades 9

Ninth grade

Ninth grade is the ninth post-kindergarten year of school education in some school systems. The students are 13 to 15 years of age, depending on when their birthday occurs. Depending on the school district, ninth grade is usually the first year of high school....

-12

Twelfth grade

Twelfth grade or Senior year, or Grade Twelve, are the North American names for the final year of secondary school. In most countries students then graduate at age 17 or 18. In some countries, there is a thirteenth grade, while other countries do not have a 12th grade/year at all...

. The school enrolls 1,830 students, and is one of four high schools in the Lee County School District

Lee County Schools (Alabama)

The Lee County School District—commonly called Lee County Schools— is the public school district for Lee County, Alabama, United States, excluding the parts of the county in the Auburn, Opelika, and Phenix City city limits. Students in the Lee County Schools attend schools in one of four attendance...

 along with Beauregard

Beauregard High School

Beauregard High School is a high school in Beauregard, Alabama, enrolling grades 9-12. The school enrolls 584 students, and is one of four high schools in the Lee County School District along with Beulah, Loachapoka, and Smiths Station High Schools. Beauregard High School is named for Confederate...

, Beulah

Beulah High School

Beulah High School is a public high school located in Beulah, North Dakota. It currently serves 300 students and is a part of the Beulah Public Schools system...

 and Loachapoka

Loachapoka High School

Loachapoka High School is a high school in Loachapoka, Alabama, enrolling grades 7-12. The school enrolls 296 students, and is one of four high schools in the Lee County School District along with Beauregard High School, Beulah, and Smiths Station High Schools....

 High Schools.

History

Smiths Station High School was formed in 1918 with the consolidation of rural one-room school

One-room school

One-room schools were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In most rural and small town schools, all of the students met in a single room...

s in the Smiths Station, Motts, and Oak Grove communities. Smiths Station High was the first full rural high school in the Lee County Schools, prior to its creation, all students wishing to complete high school had to travel to Auburn

Auburn, Alabama

Auburn is a city in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is the largest city in eastern Alabama with a 2010 population of 53,380. It is a principal city of the Auburn-Opelika Metropolitan Area...

 to attend Auburn High School. A new consolidated school was built in Smiths Station in 1918, and the high school soon absorbed Prince School (1919), Lee Bullard School (1928) and Salem High School (1929). J.B. Page served as principal of Smiths Station High from 1929 until 1972, during which time the school spun off Smiths Station Elementary School from its original K-12 configuration. Integration

Racial integration

Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...

 came to Smiths Station in 1970, with SSHS absorbing the black school

Black school

Black schools originated under legal segregation in the southern United States after the American Civil War and Reconstruction era, in southern states' public policy to keep races separated and maintain white supremacy. In the United States white opposition to African American success resulted in...

 Wacoochee High School in 1971, moving to a grades 10-12 configuration. Growth in the 1970s led to the shifting of grade 9 back to Smiths Station in 1976.

Between 1976 and the 2010 Smiths Station High School grew from an enrollment of about 600 to over 1800. In 2008, that growth, combined with expected future growth related to the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure

Base Realignment and Closure, 2005

The preliminary 2005 Base Realignment and Closure list was released by the United States Department of Defense on May 13, 2005. It is the fifth Base Realignment and Closure proposal generated since the process was created in 1988. It recommends closing 33 major United States military bases and...

 involving nearby Fort Benning

Fort Benning

Fort Benning is a United States Army post located southeast of the city of Columbus in Muscogee and Chattahoochee counties in Georgia and Russell County, Alabama...

, led to the decision to build a new $32 million Smiths Station High School. The new facility opened in August 2011, with Smiths Station High adopting a grades 10-12 configuration.

External links

• Smiths Station High School - official site