title: Huntsville City Schools
text: # Huntsville City Schools
  
  Huntsville City Schools is the school district serving Huntsville, Alabama. As of the 2016–17 school year, the system had 24,083 students and employed 1,697 teachers. The district oversees 36 schools: 21 PreK-elementary schools, 6 middle schools, 7 high schools, and 2 magnet schools.
  
  The school system finished the 2010 fiscal year with a debt of nearly $20 million the largest of any school system in Alabama by a significant margin. However, after Casey Wardynski was appointed superintendent, he worked to erase the school system's debt and bring the budget into surplus.
  
  It is partially within Madison County, and partially in Limestone County.
  
  ## History
  
  In 2014 officials from the school district began monitoring social media activity from students. The officials stated that a phone call from the National Security Agency (NSA) prompted them to do so. In the 2013 fiscal year it paid Chris McRae, a former agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), to run this program.
  
  ## Others
  
  * Community Intensive Treatment for Youth (C.I.T.Y.) (alternative school)
  * Huntsville Center for Technology (vocational school)
  
  ## Failing schools
  
  Statewide testing ranks the schools in Alabama. Those in the bottom six percent are listed as "failing." As of early 2018, three local schools were included in this category:
  
  * Mae Jemison High School
  * Lee High School
  * Ronald McNair 7-8
  
  ## Former Schools
  
  * J.O. Johnson High School
  * S.R. Butler High School
  * R.L. Stone Middle School
  * Terry Heights Elementary School
  * Fletcher E. Seldon Center
  * Ed White Middle School
  * Davis Hills Middle School
  
  ## Board of education
  
  * District 1 - North Huntsville (Currently held by Michelle Watkins)
  * District 2 - East Huntsville (Currently held by Beth Wilder, 2nd Vice President of the School Board)
  * District 3 - South Huntsville (Currently held by Elisa Ferrell, President of the School Board)
  * District 4 - Downtown Huntsville (Currently held by Walker McGinnis, 1st Vice President of the School Board)
  * District 5 - West Huntsville (Currently held by Carlos Matthews)
  
  ## Revitalization
  
  Currently, a major overhaul of the cities school facilities and curriculum is occurring. In 2012, a new digital curriculum was issued, giving all students laptops and increasing digital usage for teaching. This was done to take advantage of the growing use of computers and to help give students easy access to information and organization. In 2011, a $194 million five year capital plan was granted by the Alabama Board of Education to the Huntsville City School System. With this, the city plans to renovate and construct new facilities for many of its aging campuses. These include a new Blossomwood Elementary School, New Freshman Academy for Huntsville High School, construction of a new building and campus for the combination of Lee High School and New Century Technological School, construction of a new Whitesburg Elementary, Virgil I. Grissom High School (the cities largest student body), and J. O. Johnson High School. Renovations and consolidations for many other of the cities schools is also planned.
  
  