Pigeon Forge High School

Pigeon Forge High School is a high school (grades 9-12) located in Sevier County, Tennessee. As of the 2005 census, the school had a total student body of 751.

School characteristics

Pigeon Forge High School resides at 414 Tiger Dr., blocks from the Parkway that serves as the nerve center of the city of Pigeon Forge. The High School was established in 1999 in a building that had previously been tenanted by Pigeon Forge Middle School. Beginning with only the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades just six years ago, Pigeon Forge High School has added one grade per year since its inception, graduating its first class in the 2002-2003 academic year.

Located on a campus of some 22 acres, PFHS has added a number of athletic and scholastic facilities since its first year. Its proximity to facilities maintained by the city of Pigeon Forge, such as the city park and community center and library complex, make a variety of services available to students.

Governed and operated by the Sevier County Board of Education, Pigeon Forge High School receives a part of the system's annual operating budget of $68,353,327.00, averaging an expenditure of $5,212.18 per student annually.

Students are currently offered a variety of classes, fulfilling all of the requirements for graduation set by county and state officials. A three-tier system of tracking is in place to allow learning in the skills, standard, and honors venues in order to best meet the needs of students at varying ability levels. To supplement all these offerings, the student body is also able to participate in a variety of extra-curricular sports ranging from wrestling to biking and an array of intellectual pursuits including a Beta club as well as many others.

Demographics

The faculty at Pigeon Forge High School is a certified staff of 53 full-time and 5 part-time teachers with an average class size of 25. Largely Caucasian, over 96% of PFHS teachers fall into this ethnic category. Over 50% of the staff has an experience level that exceeds five years.

Pigeon Forge High School is possessed of a student body of well over 700 members. With a slightly higher percentage of male students (54% to the females’ 46%), the student body is overwhelmingly Caucasian (91%) with small populations of Native-American (3%), Hispanic (2%), African-American (2%), Asian(1%), and other ethnic groups (1%) represented. Since PFHS is such a young school, data regarding prior ethnic representation within Pigeon Forge schools is limited, though the middle school’s past surveys indicate a rise in the presence of all minorities, particularly African-American and Hispanic students. As such, ESL or English as a Second Language classes have become a focus of some administrative attention in recent times in order to meet the needs of those students (2%) whose primary language is Spanish. Roughly 40% of students participate in the free and reduced lunch program. Overall attendance remains quite good, with only 5% of the student body absent on a daily basis. Transfer rates are relatively high, possibly due to the very nature of Pigeon Forge’s economy, which is predominantly seasonal.

External links

* [http://www.pfhs.net/frame.html Pigeon Forge High School Web page]