This site is designed for Plainview teachers, students,  parents and others interested in our school.   The School News page will be for activities and news about the Plainview.   The Sports News page will help you to keep up with Plainview Sports.   We will strive to keep both as up to date as possible.
      
ABOUT US:
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     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.  There is a city library and two large public arena venues in the city.  Northeast Alabama Community College is within ten miles of Plainview School.  The DeKalb County Vocational Technical School is two miles from Plainview School.   The DeKalb County Schools Coliseum is next door to the school and serves as the home court arena for the varsity basketball teams at Plainview. 
     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, chrome books, new fiber optics, and increased band width and Wi-Fi.  Each core subject teacher in grades 7-12 has a classroom cart of chrome books.  In elementary grades, each grade shares a cart of chrome books or ipads.  The school operates on a seven-period scheduled day 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 offers the following to its students in an effort to provide them with educational and social opportunities: virtual school, distance learning, dual enrollment, response to instruction intervention (RtI), credit recovery, English Learner (EL) classes, special needs instruction and resources, career prep instruction, vocational classes, career technical programs, college-prep classes, drama and theatre productions, marching and concert band, Beta Club, Mu Alpha Theta, various sports, and a variety of extracurricular organizations and clubs. 

Plainview School History

Plainview High School, situated atop Sand Mountain, is DeKalb County’s largest and youngest high school. The school is two miles east of Rainsville and is centrally located in the county. It has no feeder schools.
Plainview began in 1936 when a group of concerned community members built a school to serve the communities of Chavies and Rainsville, which 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".
The water oaks on the front lawn were planted in 1938 by Ernest King, principal, and became the namesake for the high school yearbook, "Aqua Oaks" twenty years later.
Four more rooms were soon added, one by one, by the Parents Teachers Association to accommodate the growing enrollment. Over the next fifteen years, the group furnished in-door restrooms, an additional well, walkways, more classrooms, and a lunchroom.
During the early 1940’s, 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 third grade. Eight more classrooms were built by the state in the fifties.
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.
The main campus building in 1958-59 was a white frame U-shaped structure. Other out-buildings were also used to house students. In 1961, the state furnished a home economics building, and in 1962, four classrooms, a library, and science building.
In 1963-64, a band building was built and dedicated to the memory of David Kirk, son of Principal W. D. Kirk. The present agribusiness building was constructed in 1966. In 1967, a modern brick building was built to replace the frame structure erected in 1936. This building connected most of those built earlier and put all regular classrooms under one roof. The new building included the lunchroom, guidance office, lounge, main office, and sixteen classrooms. Today, these structures, plus others making a total of 36 classrooms, are referred to as the "main building". They comprise the center of the campus.
By 1967, enrollment had topped 1000. In three years, Plainview had risen from the smallest school in the county to the largest.
The enrollment continued to grow and new buildings were added or enlarged to ease the load. Two rooms now used as learning disabilities classrooms were built about 1969. Four mobile classrooms came in 1973, two elementary rooms in 1974, gymnasium renovation in 1977, another elementary classroom in 1980, additions to the band room in 1982, and air-conditioning throughout in the early 1980’s. The field house was constructed by concerned parents in 1974-75 and enlarged in 1984. The Rainsville Civic Center, originally built as a municipal facility, was completed in 1981 and was used by join-agreement for physical education classes. In 2001, the DeKalb County Board of Education purchased the Civic Center and re-named it the DeKalb Schools Colesium. It serves now as an extension of Plainview School, with use by other DeKalb County schools.
Two new elementary classrooms were completed on the east side of the campus in 1991, along Plainview Street. Two more rooms were added to this in 1994, and two more rooms opened for occupancy in August, 1996. This wing houses kindergarten classes.
During 1993, several improvements and additions were made in the area of the football field. This included a new concession stand/restroom/ticket booth building and concrete walkways around the field and to the home and visitor seating areas.
In the mid-90’s, many interior improvements were made around campus, including repainting of all classrooms and hallways. New floor coverings for the entire building were completed in 1994. Lowered ceilings and light fixtures were added in 1995. Covered walkways to the agribusiness building, to the gymnasium, and to the street on the east side of the building were erected in the 1994-95 school year.
A computer laboratory building was completed and furnished in the 1994-95 school year. The same year saw a new visitor dressing room/storage/ticket booth facility built near the football field. Local monies raised within the community funded the majority of these expenses. The dwelling once used as a classroom was moved from the campus in the summer of 1994 to improve the parking area for buses. In 1997-98, the fieldhouse was enlarged, refurbished, and bricked. In Fall, 2000, a new band concession building was added at the football field..
Six classrooms, two restrooms, and an office complex were occupied in March, 1999. They were attached to the kindergarten wing and housed second grade classes, the elementary principal and clerical aide. With state mandates to lower pupil-teacher ratios and a growing enrollment, more teacher units were hired in elementary grades and portable buildings were brought in or built on-site as temporary measures. Serious talk about an expansive campus addition began to look like a reality when Governor Siegleman declared that all substandard and portable classrooms in Alabama would be abolished. With his declaration, bond monies became available for new construction.
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 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.
In its fifty years as a high school, Plainview has had only ten principals.  Mr. Chris Clark was named principal  and he replaced Mr. Rutledge in August 2022.    Mr. Richard Rutledge was named as Plainview principal in January of 2020.  Mr. Rutledge replaced Tony Richards  who resigned in November of 2019.   Mr. Richards replaced Ms. Rita Barksdale in July of 2015.  (Mr. Charles Warren was interim principal in April, 2015).  Ms. Rita Barksdale was placed as principal in January of 2012 replacing Mr. Ronald Bell who retired in December of 2012.  In July of 2006, Ronald Bell was named as Plainview principal replacing Felicia Boland. Felicia Boland was placed as Plainview High School’s principal in July, 1998, upon the retirement of Bob Gray. Mr. Gray had been principal since 1985. He replaced H. M. Everett, Jr., who had served as principal for six years upon the retirement of W. D. Kirk in 1979. Mr. Kirk’s tenure as principal began with the 1959-60 school year. Willard Israel served as Principal when Plainview School became Plainview High School in 1958-59.
Plainview today remains one of the leading schools in DeKalb County. Test scores, athletic achievements, band recognitions, and academic accomplishments continually rank the school in the top three. Community support, pride, and involvement plus the dedication of knowledgeable faculty members help make Plainview School an outstanding educational institution.