Highland School of Technology is a magnet public

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

located in

Gastonia, North Carolina Gastonia is the largest city in and county seat of Gaston County, North Carolina, United States. It is the second-largest satellite city of the Charlotte area, behind Concord. The population was 80,411 at the 2020 census, up from 71,741 in 20 ...

. It is the first

magnet school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...

available to students in the

Gaston County Schools Gaston County Schools is a public school district located in Gaston County, North Carolina. With 30,046 students enrolled in 56 schools as of the 2021–22 academic year, it is the tenth largest public school district in North Carolina. Scho ...

public school district and draws students from each of the other nine high schools in the district. The percentage of students at Highland from a particular feeder high school is equal to the overall percentage of that school's students in the district. Students are selected through a lottery among qualified 8th-grade applicants.Official Highland website
. Retrieved on 2008-07-24. The school opened to freshmen and sophomores in the 2000 school year. The first graduating class was in 2003. Highland School of Technology has had four principals: David Baldaia, who was the school's inaugural principal, but he left without serving a year to start

Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philip ...

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (abbreviated CMS) is a local education agency headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina and is the public school system for Mecklenburg County. With over 147,000 students enrolled, it is the second-largest school ...

system. Lee Dedmon UNC Center "6 foot 11 and 3/4" became the principal in 2001 and remained at the helm until July 1, 2013 when he retired and was succeeded by Denise McLean as principal of Highland. McLean had at one time served as Dedmon's assistant principal at HST. On June 27, 2019, James Montgomery was assigned by the school board to become principal for the 2019–20 school year. Elizabeth Leonard serves as assistant principal and Forshee Blair serves as athletic director.

Campus and facilities

Highland School was remodeled from the former Highland Junior High School. The new configuration of the hallways has three hallways, a gymnasium, and a football field. The halls are labeled A, B and C, and are quasi-sorted by career-technical academy. For example, the A hall has all of the medical classrooms, such as the dental lab located in the vicinity. There are two commons areas: Medford Commons, in which all students congregate and socialize before going to classrooms, and Times Square, where the halls meet.

Vocational academies

Each student enters the school as a member of one of the three academies. Within each academy there are various pathways available for the students, each with its own sequence of required courses. The three academies offered are (effective for the Class of 2015): *Business, Legal Studies, & Information Sciences *Health Sciences *Manufacturing and Engineering/Graphics

References

External links

Official Highland School of Technology Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Highland School Of Technology Public high schools in North Carolina Schools in Gaston County, North Carolina Magnet schools in North Carolina