The school was 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 8-11. In 1989, Orme Campbell High School and F.T. Wills High School merged to form 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, 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.
Demographics
The breakdown of the 2,788 students enrolled for the 2016–17 school year:
In Fall of 1997, Campbell implemented the International Baccalaureate 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. The average Campbell IB Exam score is 5.30 compared to 4.79 worldwide. The CHS IB pass rate in 2014 was 98% and in 2015 was 88%. To compare, in 2014, the pass rate in Georgia was 66%, 76% in the US, and 80% worldwide. In 2015, the pass rate worldwide was 80%. Students throughout Cobb County apply to the IB program during the fall of their 8th grade year. If accepted, students are enrolled in a rigorous curriculum in 9th and 10th grade during which they complete the majority of the Georgia required courses for graduation. In 11th and 12th grades, the students are enrolled in the IB Diploma curriculum.
Over 15 hallways and 6 buildings make up Campbell High School. The main building is composed of 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 is at the rear of the school, adjacent to the Fieldhouse. Along the northern end of campus sits the newly constructed 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". McDaniel Stadium, 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.
