Campbell High School (Smyrna, Georgia)
Encyclopedia
Campbell High School is one of sixteen public high schools in the Cobb County School District
Cobb County School District
The Cobb County School District is the county government agency which operates public schools in Cobb County, Georgia, United States. The school district includes all of Cobb County except for the Marietta City Schools. It is the second-largest school system in Georgia and among the largest in...

. Located on its rectangular campus in Smyrna, a suburb of Atlanta, United States, there are currently over 2200 pupils and nearly 250 staff members.

Campbell was a Georgia School of Excellence in 2000. They have also been on Newsweek Magazine's list of "Best High Schools in America". They are currently the 3rd highest ranked school in Georgia and 2nd out of the 12 in Cobb that made the list, only surpassed by Walton High
George Walton Comprehensive High School
George Walton Comprehensive High School, usually referred to simply as "Walton High School," is public high school located in suburban Marietta, Georgia in the United States. It resides in eastern Cobb County and is a charter school in the Cobb County School District. It is a School of Excellence...

 in nearby Marietta. Out of the 1500 schools measured nationwide, the school is ranked #218 for the 2009 list.

History

The school was officially named after Orme Campbell, the mother of the man who donated the land on which the original school was built, with the stipulation that the name of the school could never be changed. Orme Campbell High School opened in 1952 with the merger of Smyrna High School and Fitzhugh Lee High School. It opened with a total of 425 students in grades 8
Eighth grade
Eighth grade is a year of education in the United States, Canada, Australia and other nations. Students are usually 13 - 14 years old. The eighth grade is typically the final grade before high school, and the ninth grade of public and private education, following kindergarten and subsequent grades...

-11
Eleventh grade
Eleventh Grade is the eleventh, and for some countries final, grade of secondary schools. Students are typically 16 or 17 years of age, depending on the country and the students' birthdays.-Brazil:...

.

In 1989, Orme Campbell High School and F.T. Wills High School merged to form a new Smyrna High School. Prior to the merger, Campbell students were known as the Green and White "Panthers" and Wills students were known as the Red and Black "Tigers". The students united in selecting new colors, royal blue and silver, and a new mascot, the "Spartans".

In 1990, the courts overruled the name change of the school (due to stipulations in the original deed restrictions on the property that whatever school was sited there must be named for the Campbell family), and the name Campbell High School was reinstated. Since the ruling pertained only to the school name, it was decided the new colors and the new mascot would be left unchanged. In 1997, the school was relocated to the site of the original Wills High School because of rapid growth, but retained the Campbell name in order to maintain a consistent identity.

Because of the rich history of the school, it is common to walk around the school and find old murals and displays from the past in current use, as well as finding the original brick walls of the old schools from which the facility is comprised.

Staff Accomplishments

Campbell High School Lead Professional School Counselor Julie Hartline was named the American School Counselor Association 2009 School Counselor of the Year. She attended an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. with her principal Kehl Arnson and her county supervisor and nominator Gail Smith, and was surprised with an assembly at the school to celebrate her accomplishment. Campbell's PTSA was also recognized for its excellence in 2009 by the National PTA.

Notable alumni

  • Julia Roberts
    Julia Roberts
    Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman , which grossed $464 million worldwide...

     - Academy Award-winning American film actress
  • C. Martin Croker
    C. Martin Croker
    Clay Martin Croker is an animator and voice actor on various Adult Swim programs. He's best known for voicing the Space Ghost characters Zorak and Moltar on Space Ghost Coast to Coast. It was his idea to have Zorak and Moltar to be Space Ghost's sidekicks-Voice Acting:-External links:...

     - Animation Artist/Director and Voice Actor
  • Brian Oliver
    Brian Oliver
    Brian Darnell Oliver is a retired American professional basketball player. A 6'4" and 210 lb shooting guard out of Georgia Tech, he was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA in the 2nd round of the 1990 Draft...

     (Wills Class of 1986) - Professional Basketball Player and member of Georgia Tech's "Lethal Weapon 3" which lead the team to a 1990 NCAA Final Four berth
  • LeAndre Davis - Drafted in the 13th round of the 2009 First-Player Draft by the Minnesota Twins.

Facilities

There are over 15 hallways and 6 buildings that make up Campbell High School. The main building is the original Nash Middle School and Wills High School buildings, connected by a Media Center, Main Office Suites, the Livingston Auditorium, and the Dining Hall. The 1000 Building (Science) is at the rear of the school, adjacent to the Fieldhouse.

Along the northern end of campus sits the newly constructed (Jan. 2008) 2000 Building, which replaced 12 portable classrooms and added many courses the school had previously not offered. Adjacent to that building stand the new Greenhouse and Horticulture buildings.

In 2007, new Fine Arts classes were built, and others moved to make room for the growing programs at Campbell. The state-of-the-art Band Hall holds 7 practice rooms, 5 instrument/uniform storage rooms, a connected office/music library, as well as the vast main room. The Band and Choral Halls were constructed using the same standards as Allatoona High, the newest prototype high school in the county. The old Band Room was renovated and expanded, making room for the Campbell Orchestra, while the Campbell Drama Department found a new home within the old Choral and Orchestra Suites, which have been modified to create a Black-Box Theater and a Technical Theater classroom. In addition to the new small theater, the school's Drama Department still maintains its original Black-Box, recently christened "The Asylum Black-Box Theatre at Campbell High School."

The Football Stadium (scheduled to be refurbished with new artificial turf and other amenities in the Fall of 2010), sits at the rear of the school. It runs parallel to the connected back parking lot and Bus Port, which functions as the practice field for the Spartan Marching Band in the Fall. Across Ward Street from the Main Office are the tennis courts and practice fields, as well as athletic fields for both softball and baseball.

International Baccalaureate Program

In Fall of 1997, Campbell implemented the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program to function as a magnet program in Cobb County. The program, currently under the leadership of Dan Penick and Max Jones, has had extremely high scores on IB exams in their short history. Campbell has an IB pass-rate of 98%, compared to 66% in Georgia, 76% in the US, and 80% worldwide. The average Campbell IB Exam score is 5.30, compared to 4.79 worldwide. Students in the program apply in their 8th grade year. If accepted, they go through a two-year Pre-IB Sequence, before the final IB Concentration in their 11th and 12th grade years.

IDEA Academy

A concept already implemented at other schools throughout the county, Campbell began a Ninth Grade Academy in the fall of 2008. The program is structured to provide a smooth transition from middle school to high school. Housed in the 800-900 wings of the main building, students each have Advisement and most of their Core Classes here, the exception being Freshmen in the IB Program—PIB classes are still housed within their departments around campus. The Academy creates a small, central learning community within the Campbell High community, slowly transitoning Freshmen into high school with different social activities and opportunities to become involved at Campbell. By the end of the second semester, the students exit the academy and join the rest of the pupils at Campbell, making room for the next class at the IDEA Academy. The students primarily come from Campbell and Griffin Middle Schools, though the IB Program brings students from all over the county. The IDEA Academy Coordinator is J. Olivera.
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