Pell City High School
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Pell City High School is the only high school serving the Pell City School system. The school has approx. 1,100 students in grades 9 through 12 and just recently finished adding on a million dollar multi-purpose building. The school offers an advanced diploma track that allows students to take honors classes in math, and the sciences, and honors or AP classes in english, and history. The school also offers an excellent gifted program currently headed by Kellie Miller. Generally however the school is not considered on par academically with some of the larger Birmingham area schools such as Hoover High School and Mountain Brook High School.
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[edit] Sports
The Pell City School colors are black and Gold and their mascot is the Panthers. The Panthers participate in 6A level sports and are one of the smallest schools in the Division. Despite this their football team has continually advanced to the playoffs since 2003 under the leadership of head coach and athletic director Jay Brown. The Panthers also field teams in; men's and woman's Soccer, and Basketball, Baseball, and Softball, Men's Golf, and Woman's Volleyball. Their band is a top rated performer. The "Marching Band of Gold" regularly competes on the state band circuit and regulary bring home honors. Finally they field several academic teams including Scholars Bowl and Math Team.
[edit] Clubs
Pell City High School offers many after and during school clubs. FFA, year book, and the school newspaper called the "Panther Paw" are three popular ones. In addition the School offers National Beta Club, Key Club, S.A.D.D (Students against Destructive Decisions) and many more.
[edit] Overcrowding
The school is massively overcrowded with 1,000 + students in a facility designed to hold 900. There is no place to expand in the area without evicting local residents which was the case with the new Multi-Purpose facility. In addition parking is a major problem. The school is not in an area easily accessible by foot and Pell City lacks a public transportation system. In addition many students live up to 10 or 20 miles away, making for school bus rides that can last for hours. All this means that when students turn 16 they almost universally elect to drive to school. This has created a major parking problem forcing many students to park in muddy fields with the result of stuck cars. It's little coincidence that a car wash opened up directcly across from the school. Finally there are many criticisms of the new multi-purpose building. It was built at great expense with no student or parent input. The building, despite looking enormous, is actually too small for the entire student body to gather in as was originally intended. This is due to the use of open space, wide hallways, and a massive lobby with vaulted ceilings. In addition, the lack of class room space in the main building means that many of the rooms that were intended to be offices for athletic and administration officals are likely to be converted to small classrooms creating more problems of cramped teaching spaces and very long walks to class across a public street.
