School type Public high school Grades 9–12 Language English Motto "The Home of the Falcons" Founded 1979 | Superintendent Mike Daria (interim) Enrollment 700 (2015) Mascot Falcons Number of students 700 (2015) | |
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Principal Dr. Clarence Sutton, Jr. District Tuscaloosa City School District School board Tuscaloosa City Board of Education Headquarters Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States | ||
Central High School is a high school in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, enrolling grades 9 to 12. The school enrolls approximately 700 students, and is one of three traditional high schools in the Tuscaloosa City School District along with Paul W. Bryant High School and Northridge High School. Central High School offers the International Baccalaureate program.
Central High School was formed by the merger of Tuscaloosa High School and Druid High School in 1979 in response to a federal desegregation order. The school operated on two campuses, a west campus (West Central) made up of the former Druid High property and enrolling grades 9 and 10, and an east campus (East Central) on the former Tuscaloosa High grounds enrolling grades 11 and 12.
In 1999, the desegregation order was lifted. This led to what could be referred to as the re-segregation of Tuscaloosa high schools. Even though the high school students took a vote to rebuild Central as one high school encompassing all four grades, the city council decide that instead they would build three separate high schools. Two new high schools, Bryant and Northridge, were opened in 2003. That same year the population of white students at Central dropped to three people, ample evidence of said desegregation. This separation also resulted in the Tuscaloosa city high school system, CHS especially, dropping from a 6A school leading to a decline in the city's athletic standing as a powerhouse among schools in the state of Alabama at the highest level.
In 2004, all Central students were transferred to West Central so that East Central could be demolished for a new Central High facility. The $31 million school building was completed in 2006 and houses all current Central students.