The Huntsville High School was built in 1908. The first high school building was a frame structure near the site of the present structure. It had four classrooms that housed both the high school and elementary children. There were four teachers, and the enrollment was approximately 125 pupils. A modern brick building replaced the old frame structure in 1931, and a full four-year accredited high school was established. The old pump and outside toilets in the school vanished and were replaced with outside playground equipment. Steam heat replaced a potbellied coal stove, and a small cafeteria took the place of the tin dinner pails.
The Huntsville School continued to make progress, and the enrollment continued to grow larger. In the 1970's as the Middle School Movement began to gain momentum around the country, the Scott County school officials decided to change the high school into a middle school. In 1972 the Huntsville Middle School was born. This meant not only a change in name, but also a change in the concept of how the school was administered.
Some local administrators and teachers were dedicated to the idea of learning more about the middle school concept and of implementing these concepts into the Huntsville Middle School. As the county made no funds available for this purpose, individuals paid expenses out of their own pockets for travel to visit some outstanding middle schools. In-service was provided to teachers for a better understanding of middle school concepts and the adolescent student, and how to better meet their needs. Books and magazines were studied to find out the latest thinking about middle schools. Huntsville Middle School began experimenting with the team concept. They also incorporated flexible scheduling, included large and small group instruction, mini-courses, and later added advanced technology and computer-aided instruction to the curriculum. Administrators and teachers from different places in the state visited the Huntsville Middle School to see how a poor, rural county implemented the middle school concept successfully.
Although the school was condemned in 1968, Huntsville Middle School continued to be on the leading edge in every area from excelling in the athletic arena to the latest concepts in education and developing attitudes, skills, and knowledge that would help make our students productive members of society. The Huntsville Middle School was the first school to implement a Junior Beta Club among one of the many firsts for the school.
In 1996 a new building was constructed on the same site as the old building. While this event brought great joy, it also brought with it a feeling of great loss. While the facility may be new, it is still steeped in those same traditions of persevering attitudes, ingenuity, drive, vision, and pride. They are as real and evident today as those before us who worked to instill and make them as much a part of us as the building itself and those it houses. May all those who enter and leave always take with them these values and plant those seeds for a never ending harvest throughout the world.
Where there is no vision, the people perish. Proverbs 29:18