About
Plainview High School
Home of the four-time Alabama State 3-A Basketball Champions and two-time Alabama State 3A Softball Champions. Plainview High School is a public school for grades Pre-K through twelve located in Rainsville, Alabama. It is the only public school in Rainsville and has no feeder schools.
Plainview's enrollment tops 1200, with elementary grades making up a little more than half of the number. The percentage of student enrollment by ethnicity is approximately 75% White, with remaining groups of American Indian, Hispanic, Black, and Asian. These percentages remain relatively constant from year to year. Plainview is a Title I School, with around 60% of the population receiving free or reduced lunches in the CNP program. Eleven buses transport about 60% of the student body daily.
The school is located in the urban city of Rainsville, which has a population near 6000. Rainsville is located atop Sand Mountain and is centrally located in DeKalb County. The city has three manufacturing facilities and several other business enterprises, including two utility cooperatives.
Plainview has 100 staff members, including three administrators, two librarians, 2.5 counselors, 80 classroom instructors, instructional resource personnel, and support workers. There are three PreK units at Plainview, and both are housed near the campus in a separate facility, referred to as the "Early Learning Center". The campus has a full-time nurse and school resource officer present each day. The campus facilities include state-of-the-art facilities for vocational, technical, and family consumer arts and sports teams. The school has expanded its technology tools to include Google Classroom, Chromebooks, new fiber optics, and increased bandwidth and Wi-Fi. Each core subject teacher in grades 7-12 has a classroom cart of Chromebooks. In elementary grades, each grade shares a cart of ChromeBooks or iPads. The school operates on a seven-period schedule in grades 7-12. Elementary grades 2-6 use a departmentalized schedule with one teacher per grade level teaching up to four classes of a core subject each day.
Plainview School History
Plainview began in 1936 when a group of concerned community members built a school to serve the communities of Chavies and Rainsville, each had a small school. The new school was a frame building consisting of eight classrooms and an office for the principal. Students reaching high school age went either to Fyffe, Sylvania, or Fort Payne.
The school building was built on land donated by John Hopper and Matthew Patton. The school’s name came from Mr. Hopper. As community members tried to decide whether the school should be named Rainsville or Chavies, Mr. Hopper remarked from atop an unfinished building that he had a plain view of both communities. Thus came the end of the argument and the name "Plainview School".
During the early 1940s, two valley schools, Mt. Zion and Mr. Hermon, were consolidated with Plainview, and an army barracks building was brought in and converted into classrooms. In 1950, students and parents contributed money to build the gymnasium.
Between 1950 and 1953, the state built four rooms separate from the main building to house first and second grades. With local funds, a dwelling was bought to house the third grade. Eight more classrooms were built by the state in the 1950s.
In 1958-59, with enrollment at 595, Plainview sought to become an accredited high school. Patrons and teachers donated money needed to purchase additional acreage required before accreditation could be granted. The Class of 1959 was the first to graduate from Plainview High School.
By August, 2001, Plainview’s campus had grown tremendously. A large two-story structure occupied the front lawn, in the shade of the water oaks planted in 1938. ( Fun Fact, the foundation of the original white-frame building of 1936 was unearthed when this construction began.) The new structure featured two state-of-the-art science labs, two restrooms, a science preparation room, and three classrooms on the top level. The lower level had ten classrooms, two restrooms, and a teacher workroom. On the back side of the campus, a physical education facility had been built near the agribusiness department. The gymnasium included a small meeting room, two restrooms, and a concession in the lobby area, with two offices and two dressing room areas with showers and lockers in the back.
Plainview added a new elementary media center. This was built in the 2007-08 school year.
As the faculty anticipated moving into the new structures and getting rid of the portable and substandard rooms, the realization hit that Plainview still would not have a room for every teacher. Enrollment in 2007-08 is over 1300, and there are 82 faculty members.
