Homewood Middle School

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Homewood Middle School, located at 395 Mecca Avenue on the corner of Valley Avenue, is the only school in Homewood City Schools serving grades sixth, seventh, and eighth. Enrollment in 2016 was 927 students. The principal is Joel Henneke. The school's colors are red, white, and blue and the school teams are called the Patriots.

History

As an institution, the school was founded as Homewood Junior High School, part of Jefferson County Schools, in 1956. At the time, the school was an intermediate step between the local elementary schools and Shades Valley High School. The original building was located at 1108 Frisco Street, three blocks north of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church. The school's sports teams were originally known as the Indians.

When Homewood began its own school system in 1970, the school became a part of it. In the late 1970s, it was renamed to Homewood Middle School. Within a few years of the name change, the school adopted the Patriots mascot to match Homewood High School.

New campus

In 1998, the Homewood Board of Education began investigating whether to renovate the school or build a new one. In 1999, the Board hired architects Giattina Fisher Aycock to conduct a study on the matter. Ulitmately, it was decided to build a new school. Property containing The Club Apartments on Valley Avenue, which was adjacent to the existing middle school campus, was purchased for construction of the new school in 2001. Demolition of the apartments began in 2002.

Giattina Fisher Aycock designed the new school and the Brasfield & Gorrie firm acted as construction manager. Several ecology-friendly measures, such as separating scrap materials, were implemented during construction and energy-saving measures were incorporated into the school's design in an effort to get Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification by the United States Green Building Council. The effort succeeded, resulting in the new Homewood Middle School becoming the first school in the nation to receive LEED certification.

The new school opened to students on January 4, 2005. Subsequently, the old school building was mostly razed. Plans have called for the campus to be renovated to house offices for the Homewood Board of Education.

Principals

Accomplishments

  • United States Department of Education "Blue Ribbon School"; 1983–84, 1996–97.

External Links

References

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