Facilities. Craigmont is situated on a 50.44 acre campus. The 7 1/2-acre building consists of 116 teaching stations, a 20,000-plus volume library, a 750-seat learning center, a 500-seat cafeteria, a planetarium with a forty-foot dome, two gymnasiums, four science labs, a television station, two home economics labs (one with a functional Tea Room open for business on special occasions), a computer information systems center, two band rooms, an orchestra room, two vocal music rooms, three art centers, an outdoor classroom and a horticulture center with a green house.

History. Constructed in 1974 on the northwest corner of Craigmont Street and Covington Pike in Memphis, Tennessee, Craigmont High School is the Optional International Studies School for the Memphis City Schools District. Craigmont has a proud tradition of excellence in academics, including the United States Department of Education Blue Ribbon School of Excellence award, a Magnet Schools of America “Award of Merit,” and inclusion in Redbook Magazine’s list of “America’s Best Schools.” Although some of these awards are dated, Craigmont continues to raise the bar for other schools; this year Craigmont is the only school in the District to be selected by the University of Memphis as a Professional Development school, which will result in close partnerships with university students and staff working with our students and staff to create and practice new ideas in teaching and learning. The school is highly noted for visual and performing arts awards and for the intense concentration on social studies and foreign languages that promote a multicultural education and encourage students to become global citizens and thinkers.

Originally, Craigmont was designed as a comprehensive school for grades seven through twelve. Then, in 1974, the school split into a junior high and a high school with separate administrations within the same building. Most recently, in 2001, it became a school for grades nine through twelve, when the seventh and eighth grades moved down the street to their new home at Craigmont Middle School.

Physical Characteristics. To some, the three story slab of desert tan bricks may be an imposing and even odd structure for a school, since there are very few windows in the building. Yet, current and former students see an academic oasis, crowded with windows of opportunity. Craigmont is a large school. Indeed, with seven and one-half acres under the same roof, the fifty-acre Craigmont campus qualifies as huge. Size alone, however, does not make Craigmont unique. Facilities include an outdoor classroom; a nature trail and stream bed; multiple visual arts studios; performing arts classrooms; several science and technology laboratories; two gymnasiums; a “tea room” dining area for faculty and guests; a Hall of Flags, featuring 174 flags from countries around the world; home economics facilities; industrial arts and technology classrooms; a greenhouse; and the school district’s only fully functional planetarium, open to our students and to the community. Our in-house television production studio, WCHS, delivers the school news every morning. Outside, the building is surrounded by playing fields and practice fields for various sports and has large grassy commons, where students may relax and study in areas decorated with flowers and shrubs planted and maintained by the horticulture classes. Inside, the walls of the building are painted with student art, and individual classrooms are painted and decorated to reflect teachers’ personalities. Additionally, the building is equipped for handicapped students, with ramps and an elevator. These students are supplied personal assistants when necessary.