Henderson County Schools
A new program of school consolidation begins in 1960 in the Henderson County Public Schools when two high schools officially open to students: East Henderson High School and West Henderson High School.
Students from the high schools in Flat Rock and Dana began attending East Henderson High School. Students from high schools in Fletcher, Mills River and Etowah began attending West Henderson High School. The Balfour School had discontinued high school classes earlier. Many high school students in this community also began attending West Henderson High School. There were no changes at Edneyville High School at this time.
The former Flat Rock High School now became a junior high school with grades seven and eight for students who lived in the communities of Flat Rock, East Flat Rock, Green River, Tuxedo, Zirconia, Valley Hill and Crab Creek.
Schools at Dana, Mills River, Etowah and Fletcher continued to serve students in the seventh and eighth grades.
Due to overcrowding at the East Flat Rock Elementary School, a second elementary school was built in the community. In 1963, Hillandale Elementary School opened.
Integration
In 1962, 60 students from Transylvania County left the segregated black Ninth Avenue School in Hendersonville and began attending the public schools in Brevard.
In 1963, parents of six students in Hendersonville requested that their children be transferred out of the black Ninth Avenue School to the “all-white” schools in the city of Hendersonville. The applications were rejected due to facility concerns with construction issues at the Rosa Edwards School.
A class action suit was begun against the Hendersonville City Board of Education in U.S. District Court. The Hendersonville School Board did not oppose the suit and stated there was a plan for acceptance of 56 black students into the city school system.
The Hendersonville plan was followed in May 1964 by the Henderson County Board of Education. The plan showed approximately 200 black students in the county and the students would be enrolled in the school’s closest to their homes for the 1965-66 school year.
The last graduating class (16 students) from Ninth Avenue School held its commencement May 27, 1965.
By the fall of 1965, all schools in Henderson County and the city of Hendersonville were integrated.
The hiring of black teachers from the former Ninth Avenue School became an issue. For more information, see https://casetext.com/case/chambers-v-hendersonville-city-board-of-education
Hendersonville City Schools
The former Ninth Avenue School became Hendersonville Junior High School in 1966 for children of all races in the seventh and eighth grades.
In the city of Hendersonville, Bruce Drysdale Elementary School opened in 1960 to serve students in the first through third grades. Rosa Edwards Elementary School continued to serve students in the fourth through eighth grades until the Hendersonville Junior High School opened in 1966.
Private Schools
In 1961, there was another private school in Henderson County when Faith Christian Day School opened. Private schools still included Immaculata School, Blue Ridge School for Boys and Fletcher Academy.
Blue Ridge Community College
In 1969, voters approved a bond issue and special tax levy for the formation of Henderson County Technical Institute, now known as Blue Ridge Community College. By 1970 the name was changed to Blue Ridge Technical Institute. Classes opened with 101 students in temporary quarters on N. Main Street, and then a renovated automobile dealership on Church Street, behind today’s Historic Courthouse, was the site of the school. After a fire destroyed much of the Flat Rock Junior High School, classes were also held in the surviving structure in Flat Rock.
In 1974, the college moved to its current location in the area of the Barker Heights and Tracy Grove communities on land given to the school by Sadie Smathers Patton. About 1979 the name was changed to Blue Ridge Technical College and by 1980 plans were underway for an expansion and new buildings. In 1987 the name changed again to Blue Ridge Community College.
Sheltered Workshop (Vocational Solutions)
In 1968, the Sheltered Workshop opened in Henderson County to provide education for the developmentally disabled. The purpose was to train older youth and adults in jobs and job skills. The Kiwanis Club started the program in a small structure off N.C. 191. The N.C. Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, Henderson County government, the United Way and other organizations and individuals contributed funding.
By the mid-1970s, the workshop was on Ehringhaus Street with a greenhouse for training, and also a sewing room, a dormitory and training in ceramics. Later, farm training was conducted on a farm off Kanuga Road.
The name was later changed to Something Special. Today, the facility on U.S. 176 in East Flat Rock is known as Vocational Solutions.