Huntsville City Schools is the

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations. North America United States In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, wh ...

serving

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in t ...

. As of the 2016–17 school year, the system had 24,083 students and employed 1,697 teachers. The district oversees 36 schools: 21 PreK-

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

s, 6

middle school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...

s, 7

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

s, and 2

magnet school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...

s. The school system finished the 2010 fiscal year with a debt of nearly $20 million the largest of any school system in Alabama by a significant margin. However, after

Casey Wardynski E. Casey Wardynski (born September 3, 1957) is an American government official, business executive, educator, and political candidate who served as Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs). Early life and education Wardynsk ...

was appointed superintendent, he worked to erase the school system's debt and bring the budget into surplus. It is partially within Madison County, and partially in Limestone County.

History

In 2014 officials from the school district began monitoring social media activity from students. The officials stated that a phone call from the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

(NSA) prompted them to do so. In the 2013 fiscal year it paid Chris McRae, a former agent of the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

(FBI), to run this program.

Elementary schools

*Academy for Academics and Arts (magnet) *Academy for Science and Foreign Language (magnet) *Blossomwood Elementary *Chaffee Elementary *Challenger Elementary *Chapman P-8 *Dawson Elementary *Farley Elementary *GoldSmith Shiffman Elementary *Hampton Cove Elementary *Hereford Elementary *Highlands Elementary *Jones Valley Elementary *Lakewood Elementary *Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary *McDonnell Elementary *Monte Sano Elementary *Montview *Morris Elementary *Mountain Gap P-8 *Providence Elementary *Ridgecrest Elementary *Rolling Hills Elementary *Weatherly Heights Elementary *Williams P-8

Middle schools

*Academy for Academics and Arts (magnet) *Academy for Science and Foreign Language (magnet) *Challenger Middle *Chapman P-8 *

Hampton Cove Middle Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia * Hampton, New South Wales * Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region *Hampton, Victoria Canada *Hampton, New Brunswick * H ...

*Huntsville Middle *McNair Jr. High School *Mountain Gap P-8 *Whitesburg Middle *Williams P-8

High schools

Columbia High School Columbia High School may refer to: *Columbia High School (Huntsville, Alabama) *Columbia High School (Georgia) *Columbia High School (Florida) *Columbia High School (Idaho) *Columbia High School (Illinois) *Columbia High School (Mississippi), a Mis ...

Virgil I. Grissom High School Virgil I. Grissom High School, more commonly referred to as Grissom High School, is a public high school in Huntsville, Alabama, United States with approximately 2000 students in Educational stages, grades ninth grade, 9–twelfth grade, 12 from So ...

* Huntsville High School *

Jemison High School Jemison High School is a secondary school located in Jemison, Alabama, which educates grades 9- 12. The school mascot is the Panther. The marching band is the Jemison Blue Regiment Band. There are two concert band groups; the advanced group is ...

* Lee High School *

New Century Technology High School New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

Others

*Community Intensive Treatment for Youth (C.I.T.Y.) (

alternative school An alternative school is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional. Such schools offer a wide range of philosophies and teaching methods; some have strong political, scholarly, or philosophical orientati ...

) *Huntsville Center for Technology (vocational school)

Failing schools

Statewide testing ranks the schools in Alabama. Those in the bottom six percent are listed as "failing." As of early 2018, three local schools were included in this category: * Mae Jemison High School * Lee High School * Ronald McNair 7-8

Former Schools

* J.O. Johnson High School * S.R. Butler High School * R.L. Stone Middle School * Terry Heights Elementary School * Fletcher E. Seldon Center * Ed White Middle School * Davis Hills Middle School

Board of Education

*District 1 - North Huntsville (Currently held by Michelle Watkins) *District 2 - East Huntsville (Currently held by Beth Wilder, 2nd Vice President of the School Board) *District 3 - South Huntsville (Currently held by Elisa Ferrell, President of the School Board) *District 4 - Downtown Huntsville (Currently held by Walker McGinnis, 1st Vice President of the School Board) *District 5 - West Huntsville (Currently held by Carlos Matthews)

Revitalization

Currently, a major overhaul of the cities school facilities and curriculum is occurring. In 2012, a new digital curriculum was issued, giving all students laptops and increasing digital usage for teaching. This was done to take advantage of the growing use of computers and to help give students easy access to information and organization. In 2011, a $194 million five year capital plan was granted by the Alabama Board of Education to the Huntsville City School System. With this, the city plans to renovate and construct new facilities for many of its aging campuses. These include a new Blossomwood Elementary School, New Freshman Academy for Huntsville High School, construction of a new building and campus for the combination of Lee High School and New Century Technological School, construction of a new Whitesburg Elementary,

(the cities largest student body), and J. O. Johnson High School. Renovations and consolidations for many other of the cities schools is also planned.

References

External links

Huntsville City Schools website
in ''

The Huntsville Times ''The Huntsville Times'' is a thrice-weekly newspaper published in Huntsville, Alabama, and printed in Birmingham, Alabama. It also serves the surrounding areas of north Alabama's Tennessee Valley region. The ''Times'' formerly operated as an af ...

'', 2011 {{Authority control Education in Huntsville, Alabama School districts in Alabama Education in Madison County, Alabama Education in Limestone County, Alabama