By John Brice
Correspondent
Local residents were invited by the Chambers County School District for an event in which the design for the new Chambers County High School as well as its colors, mascot and name were unveiled at the Langdale Auditorium on Twentieth Avenue in Valley during the early evening hours of Tuesday, February 13th of 2024.
In a post promoting the event on the official facebook page for the CCSD it stated “The CCSD invites all parents, students, and interested community members to attend a community presentation on Tuesday, February 13th at 6 pm EST/5 pm CST at Langdale Auditorium. The new school preliminary design, colors, mascot & name will be introduced. We hope to see you then.”
Vice President of Planning Services at HPM Tracy Richter of Birmingham who has been the lead consultant advising the CCSD on the building of their new high school was first up at the podium to greet attendees and address them as they entered the auditorium and took their seats.
Richter began his remarks by stating “It hasn’t always been an easy conversation and we all know that. Tonight we come together with a primary focus being on the programmatic and educational opportunities for all students in Chambers County and that is of course an exciting conversation. I think it is best summed in the recent court ruling when the judge stated it has been thirty years after the entry of the 1993 order and there is still not a consolidated new high school for all the students of Chambers County. Hence, the existence of two high schools still exist. Other things have not changed including Chambers County geographical features, two time zones, racially identifiable schools, a disparity of costs per student to educate and an unequal academic and extracurricular offering between the schools.”
Next up at the podium to speak was CCSD Superintendent Casey Chambley who began by noting “Tonight we will make history as we reveal the new name, color, mascot and the first renderings of the new high school. We will embark on a new journey that has been in the making for over thirty years. After so many meetings, surveys, trials, drafts and time it is my pleasure to announce to you that it is in fact finally happening.”
He went on to continue “For us, it is about what we do. It is not about us winning a court case or settling a fifty-year desegregation case, it is about what we do and why we do it. The kids in our county deserve the best and the best that we can offer. As parents, we want the best for our children. They may grow up and oftentimes they move off, seeking better for their families. Ultimately, we would love for our kids to live near us and raise their families here as well. That requires us to take a hard look at how we allocate our resources and what our educational system looks like. Our students deserve more resources, they deserve more course offerings, they deserve state of the art facilities, they deserve to have everything on one campus. They deserve better and have deserved better for a long time.”
Concluding his thoughts, Chambley commented “Today we will make history and we will reveal to you your new high school. A high school that will serve the county for decades. A high school that will draw people to our county to live and to raise their families. We will never forget the memories and the traditions from our other schools. Many of us will always be a bulldog or a ram. But the time has come to hold up our end of the bargain and build a facility that will allow future generations to make their own traditions and their own memories.”
Additional thoughts were shared by consultants who had worked on the project to envision the design for the new school which were augmented by a slideshow depicting the process so far. Guests were shown a promotional video for the new school on a large projection screen before a closing statement by Chambley and afterwards the opportunity to speak with team members working on the effort and view posters depicting the Chambers County Fighting Falcons mascot logo as well as the new light blue, navy and red color scheme.