Hayes High School

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Hayes High School
Hayes HS crest.jpg
Active 19602008
School type Public
District Birmingham City Schools
Grades 9-12
Colors navy blue and burnt orange
Mascot Pacesetters
Location 505 43rd Street North, (map)
Birmingham

Carol W. Hayes High School (opened in 1960) was a Birmingham City Schools high school located at 505 43rd Street North alongside Messer Airport Highway in Avondale. The school colors were burnt orange and navy blue and the athletic teams were called the Pacesetters, with a bald eagle as mascot.

The school was planned in the late 1950s as a high school for African-American students and was constructed on a 17-acre site adjacent to the Kingston Housing Development. Originally referred to as Eastern High School, it was named for Birmingham's long-time "Director of Negro Schools" Carol Hayes just before it opened. The first principal was A. C. Dickinson, who came to Hayes from Powderly Elementary School.

The school opened with 622 9th through 11th-graders. A second wing was completed in 1961, in time for the first 12th grade class. A gymnasium along with space for home economics and industrial arts classes was finished in 1962. Another expansion, completed for the 1967 school year, provided a library and auditorium as well as more space for vocational education.

Hayes graduated its first senior class in May 1962. Although Birmingham City Schools were formally integrated in the fall of 1963, the first non-Black student at Hayes arrived in 1970. In 1972 the school's enrollment peaked at 1,220. It was converted into a middle school in 1989 before resuming high school status in 2003. The Hayes High School class of 2005 was the first to graduate there in 16 years.

On May 22, 2005 Assistant principal Walter Moore was reported missing. His remains were found a year later in a wooded area of Wylam. In the early hours of the morning on June 5, 2007 Alfonzo Turner, an alleged intruder, was shot and killed by a security guard at the school. The guard was charged, but a Grand Jury failed to indict.

For a few years until shortly before it closed, Hayes ranked as the worst-performing high school in the state of Alabama. The possibility of closing the school was considered several times as the system adjusted to a shrinking student enrollment. After the Board approved a school consolidation plan proposed by acting superintendent Barbara Allen in early 2008, Hayes was closed at the end of that school year with students transferring to Woodlawn and Carver High Schools.

In January 2008 Hayes fielded Birmingham City Schools' first lacrosse team, coached by assistant principal Yancey Williams.

The buildings on the campus were demolished in early 2009. Construction of a new Hayes K-8 School, began that year, but was delayed for several months while the Board debated rebuilding it as a high school.

Principals

Notable graduates

References

External links