Amaya Hicks, Swain County High School senior and captain of the women’s cross country, basketball, indoor and outdoor track teams, came before the Swain County Board of Education on Sept. 12 with a unique, albeit impressive problem. She and her peers had won so many state championships over the last several seasons that the teams were having trouble raising enough money for the state championship rings. 

The first class to graduate from the current Franklin High School did so in 1952. Back then, there were fewer buildings and less developed grounds, but 70 years later, much of the high school remains largely the same.

When I was in high school, I was on the basketball team. We weren’t very good, but we loved the game and even during the offseason you would find us on any given Saturday afternoon playing pick-up basketball just for the fun of it for hours and hours until our moms started showing up to take us home for dinner. While we waited on the last of the mothers to arrive, we’d play “horse” or have free-throw shooting contests. 

From the Rumble Team

There are a ton of classic movies about high schoolers. While these nostalgic films center on teens in high school, the feeling of opportunity, possibility and sheer joie de vivre make them captivating for all audiences. With graduation season fast approaching, and the excitement of the ensuing summer season, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorites. Take a trip down memory lane and enjoy these high school classics. 

Plans to construct a new Franklin High School are back on the table as Macon County commissioners weigh the costs — financially and politically. 

Educational leaders from across the mountain region convened at Cherokee Central Schools this month for an afternoon of conversation and collaboration around one central question — what can North Carolina communities do to better prepare their children for success against the unknown challenges of the future? 

Pride-filled pandemonium reigned in Cherokee Saturday night, Dec. 8, as the victorious Cherokee Braves football team returned to town. Police cars and fire trucks from the Cherokee Police Department and Jackson County Sheriff’s Department flashed their lights and blared their horns in an escort that had met the buses all the way back at Balsam, and fireworks filled the air as fans already tired from the five-hour drive back from Raleigh cheered till they were hoarse.

Shining Rock Classical Academy leaders want to add high school grades to their growing charter school, but they’re just not sure now is the right time.

Tucked away on the corner of Kentucky and Virginia avenues in the old Hazelwood Elementary School building, the Alternative Learning Center in Waynesville doesn’t look much like a high school. It’s got just four classrooms, and a stroll through the hall during school hours doesn’t reveal the usual scene of a teacher standing in front of orderly rows of desks. In fact, though about 200 students are enrolled at any one time, only 40 or 50 show up each day.

There is no “I” in team for Jimmy Cleaveland.

“Listen, I don’t know where you’re going with this story,” he modestly said. “But, I sure don’t want this about me. I want it to be about these kids, for sure.”