School Characteristics

Facility (2009)

Ranburne High School is a small public high school in a rural community. Our school is located on Hwy. 46 near the Georgia state line. We were accredited by Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1998. We have approximately 500 students in Grades 5-12. Our fifty-year-old gray "prison" building is gone! We now have a $7 million facility that is full of life! We have a top-of-the-line computer lab, over 50 student laptops, projectors and qomo tablets in every classroom; in addition, our halls are wider, lockers actually have locks and classrooms are large and clean.

Our staff shows tremendous concern for our students. The faculty is made up of twenty-three teachers who are dedicated to ensuring a good education to all students. The school is the hub of our community. Many of our students have parents and grandparents who attended this school. We have loving, loyal supporters. We feel this sets us apart from many schools.

Our school has previously operated on block scheduling system, but now we follow a seven-period schedule. School starts near the beginning of August each year, and we have completed our year by the end of May. We have a week-long fall break and we have a week-long spring break.  The school calendar will show specific dates.

School Mission

The mission of the principal, faculty, and staff of Ranburne High School is to provide a student-centered learning environment that empowers our entire educational community to reach their maximum potential and achieve success--intellectually, socially, emotionally, and physically--in an ever-changing global society.

Our beliefs:

All students have the ability to learn.

All students have the right to learn in a healthy and safe environment.

Teachers and parents are natural allies in the education of children.

Parents have the responsibility to foster a positive attitude toward education.

Teachers have the responsibility to encourage students to reach their full potential, to provide learning experiences appropriate to content standards and grade level, and to promote student responsibility.

Administrators have the responsibility to establish an effective learning environment and to be knowledgeable of areas of curriculum, courses of study, supervision practices, and personnel management while upholding policies of the board of education. 

Community support and parent involvement are integral to the overall success of the school program.

History of the School

Ranburne is the oldest settlement in Cleburne County.  It was named for General Patrick R. Cleburne of Texas, a Confederate General who was killed during the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, on November 20, 1864.  It was settled in 1814,  and was called Lost Creek.  It was given its present name, Ranburne in 1894, by Judge T.J. Thomason, Judge of Randolph county and J.E. Thomason.  The name was derived by taking the first three letters of Randolph and the last five letters of Cleburne.  The settlement first got it name when a little boy from a wagon train was lost in the swamps of the nearby creek.

The first school building, a one-room log house, was constructed in 1860.  Some of the teachers who taught there were Mr. George Pirkle, Miss Annie Bass, Sam Wiggins, Joe Walker, and John Ballard.  When the log house became too small for the number of students the Baptist Church was used as a school.

A new school was later built where the Methodist Church stands today.  It was a two-story, three-room building with a Masonic Hall and an Odd Fellows Hall upstairs.  This building was destroyed by fire.  A two-story building with four classrooms on the first floor, an auditorium, and two classrooms upstairs was built near the present site of the bus garage.  In 1933, this building was sold to the highest bidder, Isaac Truitt, who built houses with the wood.  A rock building was built on the site of our present school.  This schoolhouse burned in 1936.  Bernard York was the custodian and saved the piano and the school records.

The next school building was built in 1940(1943). A concrete building built with the aid of the NYA and PWA.  The plans were in the style of a prison. The schoolhouse we now know was built in 1943 on lower Bankhead Highway--what we now know as Highway 46.  Part of it in Carrollton is still Bankhead.  Upper Bankhead Highway is now Highway 78.  It was named for Senator Bankhead of Alabama, Tulla Bankhead's (the actress) father.

Football began in 1930 with Denson Simpson being the coach.  The first team members were Vachel Smith, Red Jacobs, Clint Stevens, Joe Howle, James Vincent, Gordon Mobley, Preston Pounds, J.E. Thompson, Myron Sellers, Clio Otwell, Hearsten Smith, and Gus Hearst.  The first game was with Cedar Bluff and the score was 96-0.  Cedar Bluff WON!!!  (This information was obtained from interviews in 1976 by Gus Hearst, Virgil Lowery, and John Smith).

The land for the school was donated by Daniel Alewine, born February 10, 1793, in South Carolina moving to Lost Creek before 1850.  The family plot is located near the entrance to the elementary school.  He died August 15, 1880.

The an auditorium was added in 1946 with the first inside ball games played in 1947.

In early 2008, the 1943 building and auditorium were demolished to build a new high school building. This facility opened to faculty and students in August of 2009. The year before a new AG and Band building was added. Other updates to the facilities were done in the gym and '67 wing during this same period.