New Creek Wood High School Eases Overcrowding in Dickson County
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A new high school in northern Dickson County has the community seeing red. Red Hawks‚ that is.
The $25 million Creek Wood High School opened in August 2002‚ primarily to alleviate overcrowding at Dickson County High School. The new school also serves the northern end of the county‚ which has experienced strong population growth over the last five years.
“ The north end of the county has wanted a high school for many years‚ and now it has one‚” says Janie Jones‚ CWHS principal. “In fact‚ Dickson County is growing so fast that another high school is being planned for the not-so-distant future‚ although none of the details have been finalized.”
In the meantime‚ Creek Wood High’s inaugural 2002-2003 school year saw an enrollment of 784 students. Jones says that she expects that number to jump to 900 to 950 students for 2003-2004.
“ A number of seniors from Dickson County High didn’t want to transfer to Creek Wood during the ’02-’03 school year‚ which is totally understandable‚” Jones says. “But as for ’03-’04‚ I expect the senior class to grow by about 130 students or so.”
The opening of CWHS actually allowed the overcrowded Dickson County High School to ease its enrollment by nearly 800 students‚ from 2‚200 students in 2001-2002 to a little more than 1‚400 for 2002-2003.
“ The entire community has accepted Creek Wood High with open arms – it seems as if they can’t do enough for us‚” Jones says. “They have supported us both financially and through volunteering efforts.”
Creek Wood primarily serves the Dickson County cities of Charlotte and White Bluff. Jones says that an effort was made to incorporate the letters “C” and “W” into the high school’s name‚ in order to honor those two communities.
“ The school is actually located by a creek and near the woods‚ so that gave us the name with words beginning with ‘C’ and ‘W‚’ ” Jones says. “Our logo is the joining of hands‚ symbolizing Charlotte and White Bluff coming together to form Creek Wood.”
And the new school’s mascot?
“ We settled on the Red Hawks because those birds are indigenous to this area‚” Jones says. “We even have a bright red roof on our new building to go along with the theme. And oddly enough‚ we actually have a red hawk that perches each day on a power line in front of the school. He seems to supervise what’s going on here.”
Story by Kevin Litwin
Photo by Greg Emens
