Walker Valley High School (WVHS) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

high school in the

Bradley County Schools Bradley County Schools is a public school system based in Bradley County, Tennessee. All students living in the county attend these schools, except for those living in Cleveland; students in Cleveland attend schools in the Cleveland City Schools ...

system A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment (systems), environment, is described by its boundaries, ...

located in the northern part of Bradley County,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

near Charleston. The school serves about 1,600 students in grades 9–12. The school's mascot is the

mustang The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticated animals, they ...

and its school colors are blue and gold. Walker Valley has been in existence since 2001, and maintains rivalries with Cleveland High School and

Bradley Central High School Bradley Central High School is a public high school located in Cleveland, Tennessee that serves approximately 1,700 students from grades 9-12. It was founded in 1916, and is part of the Bradley County Schools system. The school maintains a cross ...

. The current principal is Mrs. Candice Belt.

History

Charleston High School was the first public high school in Bradley County. Located in Charleston, it opened its doors on September 18, 1913, and was expanded to include grades 1 through 8 in 1926. These later became known as Charleston Junior High School and Charleston Elementary School, and the entire school was called Charleston School. Due to increasing enrollment, deteriorating facilities, and the inability to expand the school, the need for a new school arose. The land on State Route 308 was purchased in 1982 for the purpose of building a new school, however it took the Bradley County Commission 16 more years to secure funding to begin building. This was part of a master plan for the county schools that began in 1995 and continues to this day. The groundbreaking for the school occurred in May 1999, and construction began in June of that year, with a completion date set for June 2001. Community Tectonics of

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...

was the architect for the project while the construction's management was under the oversight of H & M Construction from

Jackson, Tennessee Jackson is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Tennessee, United States. Located east of Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis, it is a regional center of trade for West Tennessee. Its total population was 68,205 as of the 2020 United States ...

. Prior to construction of the project, committees from the schools in Bradley County and community members were formed to help with the design of the school. All teachers involved in secondary education had the opportunity to provide input into the design of the school. After funding was secured, the process of naming the school began through a community panel. The panel narrowed the names down to three: ''

Hiwassee River The Hiwassee River has its headwaters on the north slope of Rocky Mountain in Towns County in the northern area of the State of Georgia. It flows northward into North Carolina before turning westward into Tennessee, flowing into the Tennessee Riv ...

High School'', ''River Valley High School'' and ''Walker Valley High School''. They decided to go with the latter in honor of Chief Jack Walker, a leader of the

Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ ''Tsalagihi Ayeli'' or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ ''Tsalagiyehli''), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It ...

who lived in the valley in the early 19th century, in addition to the fact that the name "reflects the heritage of the area". After Walker Valley opened, Charleston Junior High School was merged with Bradley Junior High School in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

in 2001, and that same year, the name was changed to Ocoee Middle School. Charleston Elementary School still exists at the location.

Athletics

Walker Valley competes in the

Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA), along with the affiliated Tennessee Middle School Athletic Association (TMSAA), is an organization which administers junior and senior high school sporting events in Tennessee. The TSSAA ...

(TSSAA).Walker Valley High School - TSSAA
/ref> Its sports are: *Baseball *Basketball *Bowling (Girls state champs 2005) *Football *Golf *Softball (State Tournaments- 2004 (Final 4), 2005 (Runner-Up), 2018 (Runner-Up) *Soccer *Tennis *Track and Field (Boys state champs 2011, Girls state champs 2005) *Cross Country *Wrestling (State champs 2013, 2016)

Demographics

During the 2016-17 school year, Walker Valley High School enrolled 1,450 students, 50.07% of whom were male and 49.93% of whom were female. The racial and ethnic makeup of the student body was 90.97%

Non-Hispanic White Non-Hispanic whites or Non-Latino whites are Americans who are classified as "white", and are not of Hispanic (also known as "Latino") heritage. The United States Census Bureau defines ''white'' to include European Americans, Middle Eastern Amer ...

, 4.48%

Hispanic or Latino ''Hispanic'' and '' Latino'' are ethnonyms used to refer collectively to the inhabitants of the United States who are of Spanish or Latin American ancestry (). While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, for example, by the United States ...

(of any race), 2.28%

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

, 0.97%

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

, 0.90%

Multiracial Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...

, 0.28%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe the original p ...

, and 0.14% Native American.

References

External links

Walker Valley High School website
{{authority control Educational institutions established in 2001 Public high schools in Tennessee Bradley County Schools 2001 establishments in Tennessee Charleston, Tennessee