Ragsdale High School


Lucy Ragsdale High School, commonly known as Ragsdale High, is a public high school in Jamestown, North Carolina. Opened in 1959, Ragsdale is one of 26 high schools in Guilford County Schools. The areas that are zoned to Ragsdale's district include areas of northeastern High Point, southeast Jamestown, and the Adams Farm/Sedgefield area of Greensboro. The school's current principal is Jim Gibson.

History

Built in 1959, this school was named after Lucy Coffin Ragsdale, who was an advocate for public school education in Jamestown. In 1962 Ragsdale was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Campus

The High School is an excellent example of postwar functionalist architecture and bears a striking similarity to several other local schools commissioned and built around the same period. In recent years however, due in large part to a lack of funding and delayed investment in new buildings, much of the campus has fallen into disrepair. Many classes are now held in semi-permanent mobile units and the school as a whole is suffering from overcrowding. Construction has been completed on a new Jamestown Middle School located off of Harvey Road, south of the current site. The relocation of the middle school has resulted in Ragsdale's acquisition of Jamestown Middle School's facilities. Construction was set to begin in late 2010, but due to insufficient funds from the School Board System, construction was delayed another year. The construction was completed in 2012.

Athletics

The Ragsdale Tigers compete in the Piedmont-Triad 4-A Conference. Ragsdale fields teams in baseball, basketball, cheerleading, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track, volleyball, and wrestling. Past principal, Dr. Kathryn Rogers, received the Bob Deaton Principal of the Year Award from the NCHSAA's annual meeting in Chapel Hill in early May 2010.

Curriculum

The school course work ranges from College Placement, Honors, and to Advanced Placement of study. Considering Ragsdale High School is on a "block schedule", most classes are one semester in length. All CP and Honors courses are restricted to one semester, but few AP courses stretch through the entire year. Advanced Placement courses consist of: Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Statistics, U.S. Government and Politics, Psychology, European History, World History, U.S. History, Latin, French, Spanish, English 11, English 12, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental, Art History, Art, and Music Theory.
On August 28, 2019, Ragsdale was awarded the Hubert B. Humphrey Award, which recognizes exemplary improvement in academic improvement in areas such as final exam scores, Career and Technical Education participation, and graduation rates.

Notable alumni