Andrews High School (North Carolina)

Andrews High School (AHS) in Andrews, North Carolina serves grades 9–12 and is one of only three high schools in the Cherokee County Schools System. As of 2007 it had a full-time teaching staff of 27 teachers giving an average of 11 students per teacher. In 2023-24 enrollment was 221. The school's capacity is 530. The current building is a one-story, three building campus, built in 1962, after the original three-story campus was burned down months earlier. A May 2020 vote by the Cherokee County Board of Education was to consolidate Andrews, Murphy, and Hiwassee Dam High Schools, and a grant of $50 million was given to the school system in September 2022, though the grant was returned as a result of another vote of this time, the new members of the Cherokee County Board of Education.

Athletics
Andrews' sports teams are known as the Wildcats. The football team plays at the Hugh Hamilton Stadium, track meets are on the Kenneth Moore Track (in the stadium), and basketball and volleyball play in the school's gym, named the Ken Solesbee Athletic Center.

Sports teams

 * Baseball
 * Basketball
 * Girls state champs - 1977
 * Football
 * State champs - 1958
 * Soccer
 * Softball
 * Track
 * Volleyball

Facilities
Gym, weight-room, showers, track

History
Andrews High School's name and the school itself was incorporated on March 3, 1893 by the North Carolina General Assembly. The school had already been in existence before this date. Andrews High School originally started as a private school and operated that way until around 1915.

Andrews High School was built in 1914 and opened in 1915. On Feb. 20, 1962, the two-story brick school building was destroyed by fire overnight. Classes were then held in the town’s Baptist and Methodist churches. A new 48,000-square-foot high school building saw one wing open in the spring of 1963 and another wing open later that year. The old building's bell is across the street at Andrews Elementary, in the middle of the front driveway loop.

Andrews had its first football team in the fall of 1925. The school celebrated the 50 year anniversary in 1975 with the first team's players attending one of their games.

Around 1978, the enrolment at Andrews Senior and Junior High was about 600, and the enrolment at the nearby elementary school was of about 800, totalling about 1400. Andrews had a percentage of 64% of graduates who move into higher education, compared to the state average of that time of 30%. 98.6% of that 64% received scholarships or financial aid through the efforts student counselors. In 1978, Andrews was number 3 in the state of North Carolina of scholarship money awarded. Andrews was the top school in North Carolina for placement in summer jobs in 1979. Andrews had up to 8 sports around 1979, which was very high over the usual 2 or 3 sports for a school of its size. Band, art, and chorus were offered at Andrews High School, which was not usually found in schools of small enrollments. These three are still offered as electives today. An on-campus masters program was offered at Andrews with the help of Western Carolina University. The Kenneth Moore Track was constructed at AHS in 1990. This constructed was featured on a page on the 1991 Andrews High School yearbook highlighting improvements to AHS and the town of Andrews throughout 1990. TVs were also installed in the school in 1990.

Andrews High operated as a junior and Senior High School from its original opening in 1915 until 1999 when the new Andrews Middle School opened. Andrews High was a 7-12 school, and Andrews Elementary held K-6 across the street. The building of Andrews Middle was completed around the beginning 1999, and classes at the new school began in August. Andrews High now operates as a traditional 9-12 high school.

Around 2006, Andrews High was fully renovated and given a new appearance. The most notable were the exterior changes, as a new roof was built on the main building (known as Building A), with a different styling, giving the building a taller look. Windows were also redone in all buildings. Removal of the skylights in each building occurred, and at the time of the removal, classroom ceilings were lowered in Building A. The gymnasium is now the only part of the school with skylights. Many renovations were done in water systems, lighting, etc. The other two high schools were also renovated, with Hiwassee Dam High being first in 2003 and Murphy High being last in 2008.

In 2012, the third and rearmost building, Building B, had an expansion on the west side and on the north part of the building. On the north part, a large new classroom with two offices was added and is now used for chorus today.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Andrews High School did not have a graduation for seniors in the class of 2020. Instead, pictures of the graduates were put up on utility poles in the town from just east of the intersection of Main Street and US-19, to the intersection of Main Street and Wilson Street. This began a new tradition of graduates' portraits and names being put up on each of the 18 poles from the area (most have two on a pole while others have three or four). Since 1964, graduations have primarily been held on the football field in the Hugh Hamilton Stadium, or in the Ken Solesbee Athletic Center, depending on weather conditions.

Superintendents & Principals of Andrews High
When Andrews High School operated as a private school, there was a principal. This would change when AHS switched to a public high school around 1915. From 1915 to the merger with Cherokee County Schools in 1969, Andrews City Schools did not have a principal, but rather a district superintendent. The last superintendent before the merger was Fred W. Rogers.

Andrews High School Principals (c.1893-1915)

 * 1) O.C. Huskins (c.1899)

Andrews City Schools Superintendents (1915-1969)

 * 1) Isham Barney Hudson (1935-1951)
 * 2) Charles O. Frazier (c.1962-1967)
 * 3) Fred W. Rogers (c. 1967-1968)

Andrews High School Principals (1969-Present)

 * 1) Mack D. Jones (1969-????)
 * 2) Roy Pipes (c.1975-1976)
 * 3) Maynard Brown (1976-1981)
 * 4) William R. Pipes (1981-1983)
 * 5) Joseph C. Morrow (1983-????)
 * 6) S. Tim Coffey (c.1991)
 * 7) Mike Rogers (c.2000-2004)
 * 8) Olin O'Barr (2004-????)
 * 9) Virginia Haynes (????-2015)
 * 10) Dr. Lisa Anderson Fletcher (2015-2021)
 * 11) Lance Bristol (2021-2024)

Jean Christy
Jean Christy was a former English teacher at Andrews High School who retired in 1970. She was well known around the community for many years. She had helped out a lot at her church in town. Miss Jean Christy was born on May 20, 1904 and died at the age of 111 on May 28, 2016.

(From Ms. Christy's obituary)

"She was a native and lifetime resident of Andrews. After high school, she attended Emory and Henry College in Emory, Virginia and graduated in 1928, after which she began her teaching career in Virginia and North Carolina. Eager to continue her education, she took summer classes in California and Wisconsin. Jean taught high school English and Social Studies in Andrews for many years before retiring in 1970. She was a greatly beloved teacher and friend to her pupils, and many of them continued their friendship with her long after graduation. As class sponsor for many years, she enjoyed taking her students on trips and attended class reunions well past her 100th birthday. She was a dedicated and active member of Andrews United Methodist Church for most of her life, where she had taught Sunday School for many years and was active in many ways." Just across the street, the road that leads to Andrews Elementary School was renamed from Walnut Street to Jean Christy Avenue in 2016.