Cullowhee High School History:
Cullowhee High School evolved from what was known in the 1880's as the Cullowhee Academy. In 1885, a young man by the name of Robert Lee Madison came to the area from Lexington, Virginia. His father served as General Robert E. Lee's personal physician during the Civil War.
Young Madison attempted to establish a school with sound basic curriculum in Qualla and Sylva. His primary goal was to train young men and women of the area to be leaders in education. After being unsuccessful, Madison decided to try elsewhere. He was leaving for Raleigh to accept employment when L. J. Smith, Chairman of the school board in Cullowhee offered him a position which had recently been vacated. In 1889, R. L. Madison became principal of the Cullowhee School.
In 1891 the school was granted a charter and was organized as a corporate body. Two years later the General Assembly granted the first annual appropriation for aid in setting up a normal course for the training of public school teachers. The property was conveyed to the State in 1905, and the school became know as the Cullowhee Normal and Industrial School.
It was housed in a two-room frame builidng, unpainted and unfurnished except for crude benches and a blackboard. The enrollment was eighteen at the time Professor Madison was employed, bu the school grew rapidly. At the end of Madison's first year the number of students had increased to one hundred. Nine of the first class graduated. The curriculum was designed in three parts : preparatory for primary children, common school for intermediates, and academic for advanced students.
Professor A. C. Reynolds succeeded Madison in 1912. During his administratin a two year college program was developed. In 1920 Professor Madison returned as head of the school. He directed his attention to the problme of establishing and clearly defining the line of separation between the high school and the college. The plan which was developed extended over a period of four years, but the resulting separation would merely be technical one. The Board of Trustees saw the need for the high school not only to provide a school for observation, partiticpation, and practice by prospective teachers.
During the early stages of the negotiations to eliminate the high school from the teache-training department, Jackson County found it necessary to provide more adequate quaters for the growing elementary school. A classroom structure for this purpose was completed in 1923. In 1925 the General Assembly provided a new charter and a new name. Cullowhee State Normal School. At this time provision was made for a joint plan of operation for the normal and the public school. The president of the college and the county superintendent would share the responsibility.
Funds were allocated by the General Assembly in 1927 for the purchase of the lcoal grade-school building frm the county to be uses as a permanent training laboratory for the normal school. A wing was added to the existing building, and the secondary school was housed with the elementary grades. In 1929 the school became known as Western Carolina Teachers College Training School in accordance with the new name given to the college. In 1939 a new building was completed and named for Gertrude Dills McKee who in 1937 had been elected as the first woman senator in North Carolina. The training school was moved into the new building and became known as McKee Laboratory School.
Another structure was completed and occupied by the laboratory school in 1964. It was named for Miss Cordelia Camp, the first director of student teaching for the training school, who retired in 1950. The name was a tribute to her for her many years of untiring effort to further the cause of education in general as well as for her devation to the Cullowhee School.
College students preparing to become teachers did their student teaching at the school. It was used for both observation and for student teaching. In order to complete these requirements students are now placed in various schools throughout the region.
Over the years small community schools were consolidated and students were transported to Cullowhee. This enabled the Jackson County School System to maximize its personnel and financial resources. In 1982 the Canada Elementary School was consolidated with Camp Laboratory School. In 1988 grades nine through twelve were consolidated with Sylva-Webster to become Smoky Mountain High School.
When Western Carolina University no longer needed a laboratory school, the North Carolina Legislature took steps to remove Camp Laboratory from the campus. Funds were set aside for a new facility and action was taken to transfer administration of the school in its entirety to Jackson County. The final step was taken in August 1994 when the students, kindergarten through eighth grade, moved off campus to a new state-of-the-art facility wich was given the name Cullowhee Valley School.
Throughout the years the school has served surrounding communities and Western Carolina University well. It has worked consistently to achieve the purposes of education, and the favorable impact on the community and the state is immeasurable.
The final champter of Cullowhee High School was written in 1988, almost one hundred years after it began. It continues to live on, however, in the hearts and minds of hundreds if students, parents, teachers, and all who were associated with it.