Fred J. Page High School

Frederick Jackson Page

Page High School was named after Frederick Jackson Page (1863–1944), the first Superintendent of Williamson County Schools. He served in that position for 42 years (1899–1941) retiring at the age of 77. Superintendent Page gained a reputation nationally as a revolutionary educator, scholar and author. He was instrumental in the county's expansion from 8 grades to 12 grades in the early 1900s, lengthened the school year from five months to nine months, and introduced the ideas of summer school for remediation purposes and increased rigor in elementary school. Page revolutionized the teacher certification process and introduced the idea of uniform textbooks to replace teacher-made materials, additionally consolidating hundreds of tiny schoolhouses into larger, centralized institutions.

Frederick Page was born in Triune, Tennessee on October 7, 1863 at a time when Civil War battles were prevalent in the area. The Page homestead was located just five miles east of what would become the Page High School campus a century later. Page's ancestors had arrived in Williamson County in the early 1800s, his grandparents marrying there on February 5, 1817. Page's grandmother Nancy Armstrong is buried in Franklin, TN.

Page received his master's degree at the age of 18 from Peabody College, now part of Vanderbilt University. He was named principal of Clarksville High School in Clarksville, Tennessee at the age of 19. Page later worked in West Tennessee as a teacher in Overton County and as president of Obion College in the town of Troy. He eventually returned to Williamson County becoming the principal of College Grove Preparatory School in College Grove, Tennessee prior to his tenure as superintendent. Page retired in 1941 and died on April 9, 1944, at the age of 80, buried in Mount Hope Cemetery. Years after his death, the home in which he lived was torn down and the property became what is now Williamson County Animal Hospital at 1126 Murfreesboro Road.

Fred J. Page High School campus

Fred J. Page School was completed in 1975 on 40 acres of Tennessee farmland at a cost of US$3 million. Built in the unincorporated town of Rudderville, TN and serving grades 7-12, the school was posthumously named for Frederick Page 31 years after his death. The building was designed by architect Earl Swensson whose award-winning firm would later serve as architect of record on the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, TN. L.L. Poe Construction Company served as contractor on the project just seven years after completing the Keathley University Center on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University. The new school was constructed to remove and consolidate the upper grades of Bethesda and College Grove, two K-12 schools that were bitter rivals. Bethesda, College Grove and Nolensville subsequently became K-6 schools while Page would serve grades 7-12.

Page High School became Williamson County's fourth public high school joining Fairview, Franklin and Hillsboro. It was the largest and most modern school in the county upon completion, the first new public high school opened since the completion of West Williamson High in 1956 (later renamed Fairview High School). In 1957 Franklin High School was completed at its present Hillsboro Road location but only to replace the building that had burned on Columbia Avenue the previous year. While Page, Fairview and Franklin still stand, Hillsboro High School no longer exists (the building now housing a community center in historic Leiper's Fork, Tennessee).

Built to serve the eastern sector of Williamson County with a capacity of 1000 students, Page High School's initial enrollment was around 850. The inaugural faculty included principal Bob Greathouse, assistant principal Mayes Waters, two guidance counselors, one librarian and 36 teachers. In 2000, Page High School marked its 25th anniversary with nine of the original 36 teachers still employed. As of 2014-15, Jimmy Baker is the only active teacher from the original faculty. The original school building included 34 classrooms, but an expansion in the 1990s increased that number to current total of 54 classrooms with an expanded capacity for 1215 students.

In 1981, Fred J. Page Middle School opened across the street at which point the original Fred J. Page became a high school exclusively serving grades 9-12.

In 1985, several scenes of the critically acclaimed movie At Close Range were filmed on location at the entrance of Fred J. Page High School. The movie was released in 1986 boasting an all-star cast including Sean Penn and Christopher Walken and Page High students were used as extras. The football stadium is named after legendary musician Waylon Jennings but the new scoreboard installed in 2013 no longer bears his name.

Williamson County population explosion

Until 2004, the Page High School zone included the towns of Thompson's Station and the northern half of Spring Hill. However throughout that decade the area became the fastest growing population in the United States swelling to over 276% growth. The initial population explosion was attributed to the opening of the Saturn Corporation automobile plant in Spring Hill. At one point 20% of the students at Page High School were Michigan natives, most of whom were families relocated from the Midwest by Saturn's parent company General Motors. The subsequent affordable neighborhoods that now dominate southern Williamson County have allowed more families to reside within Tennessee's top school district. This has contributed to continued population growth as has a thriving local economy and an abundance of job opportunities in the area. The families of executives transplanted by corporations headquartered in Middle Tennessee have had a direct impact on the population of Page High School including Amazon, Nissan, O'Charley's and Shoney's.

Having the smallest capacity of the seven high schools in this expanse of Williamson County has allowed Page High School to maintain an annual enrollment of around 850 students throughout most of its 40-year existence despite this enormous population boom. Page has also been the only of these high schools (except newly opened Summit) to neither suffer from the recent overcrowding issues nor face overcrowding projections in upcoming years. This is a direct result of the staggered construction of five new high schools within a ten-mile radius of Page High's campus over two decades; Centennial High School opening in 1996, Ravenwood High School in 2002, Independence High School in 2004, Summit High School in 2011 and Nolensville High School in 2016.

Academic Recognition

During the 2013-14 school year, Page High School in Williamson County and Farragut High School in Knox County were the only two high schools in Tennessee that ranked among the top 5% in academic performance and the top 5% in academic progress. At the conclusion of the 2013–14 school year, Page High was awarded Platinum High Achievement status for the fourth consecutive year through the National High Schools That Work initiative of the Southern Regional Education Board. The school is among only a few schools in Tennessee consistently bestowed National Blue Ribbon status and was one of three high school finalists for the 2011 SCORE prize after demonstrating tremendous academic gains. In 2013, Dr. Andrea Anthony was named the Tennessee High School Principal of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

During the 2014-15 school year, The Daily Beast website ranked Page High School the top school in Williamson County, the second best school in Tennessee, and 59th best in America (based on college acceptance rates, AP course enrollment, college entrance exam scores and college preparedness among other criteria). During the same school year, U.S. News & World Report named Page High School Tennessee's top-ranked public school zone in both mathematics and English proficiency for the fifth consecutive year, Tennessee's only school zone to surpass 90% proficiency in mathematics (93%), and the only school zone to surpass 90% proficiency in English (95%). The website Schooldigger.com named Page High the top secondary school in the state while Newsweek named the school zone the second best academically in Tennessee with the 7th highest average SAT score in the United States. An independent study ranked the AP Calculus program the strongest in the state of Tennessee among zoned public schools.

From 2010 to 2015, the school was ranked among America's top 500 high schools and the best school zone in Tennessee by Newsweek magazine and U.S. News & World Report; however, during the 2015-16 school year Page High School dropped out of the top 1000 schools.

Athletics

The athletic department at Page High School features 18 varsity sports. The school competes in the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association in Class 4A for football, Class AA for baseball, basketball, soccer, and volleyball, and Class A–AA for all other sports. The boys' track & field team has competed in ten consecutive state championship meets and the volleyball team has competed in nine consecutive state tournaments.

Fall

Winter

Spring

State Championships

Rugby

Volleyball

Marching Band

Staff

Dennis Harrison – Former Page High football coach and teacher, NFL veteran 1978–1987 who spent most of his career with the Philadelphia Eagles.