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Enterprise High School | |
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Address | |
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1811 Boll Weevil Circle 36330 United States | |
Information | |
Type | Public |
Established | 1958 |
Status | Active |
Superintendent | Zel Thomas [1] |
CEEB code | 010980 |
Principal | Stan Sauls [2] |
Faculty | 118.00 (FTE) [3] |
Grades | 9-12 |
Enrollment | 2,117 (2022-23) [3] |
Student to teacher ratio | 17.94 [3] |
Campus type | Suburban |
Color(s) | |
Song | "EHS Fight Song" |
Mascot | Wildcat |
Team name | Wildcats |
Communities served | Fort Novosel |
Website | www |
Enterprise High School is a 7A public high school at 1801 Boll Weevil Circle in Enterprise, Coffee County, Alabama, USA, in the Enterprise City School District. The school houses grades 9-12.
Enterprise City is one of three municipal school systems that take on-post Fort Novosel families at the secondary level. [4]
The city of Enterprise approved the rebuilding of Enterprise High School at a new location on the northwestern side of town off of Boll Weevil Circle, the city's main bypass. The school was constructed with more than $45 million in disaster relief funding from FEMA, insurance settlements, and state approved grant money. The town also approved a sales tax increase to collect funds for school construction. Overall, The result was construction of an $86 million replacement school. The new Enterprise High, at 525,000 square feet, is one of the largest schools in the Southeast. [5]
On August 23, 2010, the doors of the new Enterprise High School opened to students. It was the first time in more than three years that High School students in Enterprise had been able to attend school in a High School building. Since March 2007, they had been sharing the campus of Enterprise State Community College with the local college students. [6] The start of school year for all schools in the City of Enterprise had been delayed for two weeks to ensure that the High School building (the only public High School in town) would be ready for the first day of school.
The streets surrounding the campus were named just prior to the first day of school. Woodham Drive was named after John W. Woodham, an architect who worked with the school system for 25 years. Ralls drive was named after John G. Ralls, who sold more than 137 acres (0.55 km2) of land to the school system for the construction of the new school, and then donated a portion of the sale price back to the school. A third road was named after Webe Curenton, who sold his property to the school so that a driveway could be built connecting the school with Main Street. Wild Cat Way, the road surrounding the perimeter of the school, was named after the school's "Wildcat" mascot. [7]
On March 1, 2007, Enterprise High School was hit by an EF4 tornado during the February–March 2007 Tornado Outbreak. The twister collapsed parts of the building's science wing, third hallway and new gym, while causing severe damage in other areas of the school after impacting near Enterprise's municipal airport. The parking lot designated "Blue" was severely damaged, with cars stacked on each other. Cars in the other school parking lots were also damaged. Early news reports indicated that 20% of the building was damaged, and numerous students were injured. [8] reported eight fatalities at the school as of 8:30 p.m. CST on the evening of the storm; earlier reports had set the death toll as high as 22, later scaled back to five. The death toll was increased again the following day to eight as recovery efforts went onward. The final death toll was set at nine, including Ryan Mohler, Peter Dunn, AJ Jackson, Jamie Vidensek, Michael Bowen, Mikey Tompkins, Katie Strunk, Michelle Wilson, and an elderly woman named Edna Strickland. [9] It was the first killer tornado at a US school since 1993.
After the tornado, the school was relocated to Enterprise-Ozark Community College (later renamed Enterprise State Community College), where it remained until the new school building was completed in August 2010.
The song "Held In His Love" by The Springs was written by Stewart Halcomb, a student inside Enterprise High School (Alabama) on March 1, 2007, and dedicated to the eight friends he lost that day.
In response to the tornado, Rachael Ray helped with the catering costs associated with the school's annual senior prom event (which was subsequently featured on the April 30, 2007, episode of her television show). After a night of dancing to the music of a DJ, Rachael Ray surprised students by arranging an unexpected musical performance by Mandy Moore.
On May 3, 2007, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, The Skyline Drive, Course of Nature, May-Day, The Springs (band), and Brandon Kelly set up Band-Aid Benefit Concert sponsored by 106.7 WKMX in Fort Rucker, Alabama to help raise money for the high school. Along with The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Course of Nature, Melissa Joan Hart supported husband, Mark Wilkerson of CON and the high school.
Enterprise High School was affected historically by desegregation efforts within Alabama. Six families in Enterprise integrated the public schools in the 1966 school year. Children were given "Freedom of Choice forms" to bring home for their parents to complete the year before. These six families chose the white schools. The first year was peaceful without incident. A few years later the all black elementary school was closed and the all black high school was changed to 7th grade only. By the Fall of 1970, the school's total enrollment of 1,131 numbered 182 African-American and 949 other students. At the same time, the school had eight African-American teachers and 45 other teachers on its 53-member faculty. [10]
Tuscaloosa County is a county in the northwest-central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama and is the center of commerce, education, industry, health care, and entertainment for the region.
Enterprise is a city in the southeastern part of Coffee County and the southwestern part of Dale County in Southeastern Alabama, United States. Its population was 28,711 at the 2020 census. Enterprise is the primary city of the Enterprise micropolitan statistical area. It was originally a part of Enterprise–Ozark micropolitan area before being split; for a longer while it was originally part of the Dothan-Enterprise-Ozark combined statistical area but is now its own separate primary statistical area in later censuses.
Daleville is a city in Dale County, Alabama, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 5,295, up from 4,653 in 2000. It is part of the Ozark Micropolitan Statistical Area. The city's nickname is "Gateway to Fort Rucker", as this U.S. Army post is located just north of town. Cairns Army Airfield is located to the south of Daleville on the road to nearby Clayhatchee.
Fort Novosel is a United States Army post located primarily in Dale County, Alabama, United States. It is named in honor of Chief Warrant Officer Michael J. Novosel, an Army aviator and Medal of Honor recipient. It was previously named for a Civil War officer, Confederate Colonel Edmund Rucker. The post is the primary flight training installation for U.S. Army Aviators and is home to the United States Army Aviation Center of Excellence (USAACE) and the United States Army Aviation Museum. Small sections of the post also lie in Coffee, Geneva, and Houston counties. Part of the Dale County section of the base is a census-designated place; its population was 4,636 at the 2010 census.
Tuscaloosa is a city in and the county seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-most populous city, the population was 99,600 at the 2020 census, and was estimated to be 111,338 in 2023. It was known as Tuskaloosa until the early 20th century. It is also known as "the Druid City" because of the numerous water oaks planted in its downtown streets since the 1840s.
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Griffin is a city in and the county seat of Spalding County, Georgia, United States. It is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 23,478.
The tornado outbreak of April 6–9, 1998 was a large tornado outbreak that started on April 6 across the Great Plains and ended on April 9 across the Carolinas and Georgia. A total of 62 tornadoes touched down from the Middle Atlantic States to the Midwestern United States and Texas. The outbreak is infamous for producing a deadly F5 that tore through the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama, killing 32 people. The Birmingham tornado was one of only two F5 tornadoes that year. The other hit in Lawrence County, Tennessee, on April 16, as part of the same outbreak as the Nashville F3 tornado. This tornado outbreak was responsible for 41 deaths: 7 in Georgia and 34 in Alabama.
The Boll Weevil Monument in downtown Enterprise, Alabama, United States, is a prominent landmark and tribute erected by the citizens of Enterprise in 1919 to show their appreciation to an insect, the boll weevil, for its profound influence on the area's agriculture and economy. Hailing the beetle as a "herald of prosperity," it stands as the world's first monument built to honor an agricultural pest.
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Course of Nature was an American alternative rock band formed in Enterprise, Alabama in 2001, later based in Los Angeles. The band was co-founded by lead singer and rhythm guitarist Mark Wilkerson, with a final lineup of Sean Kipe, Jackson Eppley (bass) and Shane Lenzen O'Connell (drums).
Hurricane Danny produced 13 significant (F2+) tornadoes in the Southern United States during August 1985, the most spawned by a tropical cyclone until Hurricane Ivan in 2004. The fourth named storm and third hurricane of the season, Danny developed from a tropical wave in the northwestern Caribbean Sea on August 12. The system moved northwestward and initially remained weak. Early on August 13, it brushed Cape San Antonio, Cuba before emerging the Gulf of Mexico later that day. The system then intensified into Tropical Storm Danny on August 14. Danny deepened further and became a hurricane early on the following day, while beginning to re-curve north-northwestward. Late on August 16, Danny attained its peak intensity with winds of 90 mph (150 km/h). Shortly thereafter, the storm made landfall near Grand Chenier, Louisiana at the same intensity. Early on August 17, Danny weakened to a tropical storm and was downgraded to a tropical depression several hours later. It moved east-northeastward across the Southeastern United States, until dissipating over southeastern Virginia on August 18.
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Daniel Payne College, also known as the Payne Institute, Payne University and Greater Payne University, was a historically black college in Birmingham, Alabama from 1889 to 1979. It was associated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The college was named in honor of Daniel Payne, the sixth bishop of the AME Church and the first black president of a college in the United States.
The 2011 Super Outbreak was the largest, costliest, and one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks ever recorded, taking place in the Southern, Midwestern, and Northeastern United States from April 25 to 28, 2011, leaving catastrophic destruction in its wake. Over 175 tornadoes struck Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, which were the most severely damaged states. Other destructive tornadoes occurred in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, New York, and Virginia, with storms also affecting other states in the Southern and Eastern United States. In total, 367 tornadoes were confirmed by NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) and Government of Canada's Environment Canada in 21 states from Texas to New York to southern Canada. Widespread and destructive tornadoes occurred on each day of the outbreak. April 27 was the most active day, with a record 223 tornadoes touching down that day from midnight to midnight CDT. Four of the tornadoes were rated EF5, which is the highest ranking on the Enhanced Fujita scale; typically these tornadoes are recorded no more than once a year.
The Enterprise Boll Weevils were a minor league baseball team based in Enterprise, Alabama. The "Boll Weevils" played as members of the Class D level Alabama State League from 1947 to 1950 and the renamed Alabama-Florida League in 1951 and 1952, winning the 1950 league pennant. The 1936 Enterprise Browns played one season in the Alabama-Florida League, preceding the Boll Weevils.
A late-season tornado outbreak in the Southern United States affected the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, from the afternoon of November 29 into the morning of November 30, 2022. The outbreak was the result of an intense upper-level trough that materialized over the aforementioned states where increased moisture, atmospheric instability, and elevated wind shear were present, creating conditions highly conducive to supercell thunderstorms. Multiple tornadic storms developed in the risk area, producing numerous tornadoes. Several of these tornadoes were strong and destructive, prompting the issuance of multiple PDS tornado warnings. Two low-end EF3 tornadoes caused severe damage near Clarks, Louisiana and Tibbie, Alabama respectively while the Flatwood and Willow Springs communities north of Montgomery, Alabama was struck by an EF2 tornado, which caused two fatalities. Numerous weaker tornadoes also touched down, including a high-end EF1 tornado that caused considerable damage in Eutaw, Alabama. In all, 27 tornadoes were confirmed.