Maplewood High School

PROUD PROWLING PANTHERS

Historical Background

Maplewood High School opened its doors in 1956 to a community that had a long-standing desire for a school. It is located barely one-fourth mile east of Nashville’s historic Dickerson Road and borders on Ellington Parkway on the west. The school faces Maplewood Lane from which it derived its name and sits on land once owned by Jere Baxter (1852-1904), a prominent Nashvillian who was both a strong supporter of public education and an entrepreneur. Where horse-drawn surreys and carriages once traveled down the lane to the home Maplewood, today, shiny automobiles and yellow school buses make their way on the same lane to Maplewood Comprehensive High School.

Maplewood originally opened with 13 teachers and 404 students enrolled in grades 7 and 8 and continued to increase with a grade each year. By 1961-62 the enrollment had reached 1468; that spring 84 students comprised of 51 girls and 33 boys were in the first graduation. The school grew rapidly because of the development of residential subdivisions including Gra-Mar, Hillhurst, Bellshire, Oak Valley, Shepherdwood, Kemper Heights, Haynes Heights, Haynes Manor, Parkwood, and Trinity Hills. In the meantime, zone changes and the construction of Ewing Park School also influenced enrollment. Another transition occurred when East High School was closed. In the spring of 2003, enrollment increased at Maplewood by nearly 300 students as a result of re-zoning two feeder schools. This re-zoning pattern still remains. In addition, a small English Language Learner student population was transferred from Maplewood to another high school.

At the beginning of 2005-2006, a guidance counselor, an attendance officer, and a social worker were new personnel additions. Other changes included a new head coach, a librarian, and two new assistant principals, one of whom had been a teacher at the school. Significantly, a new executive principal was welcomed, the eighth person to serve in this position in half a century had been assigned to Maplewood. The number and variety of trophies on display, the students who have received outstanding and unique recognitions as identified in the yearbooks, and the success of many of its graduates reflect a school environment that has enriched the lives of many students. More recently Maplewood has faced challenges, especially the graduation rate, not uncommon to some public high schools across the nation and will require much effort to overcome. Test scores indicate in some areas that progress is being made as the school moves forward and expects to show continued improvement.