Editing Rockmart, Georgia (section)

==Education==
The city of Rockmart is a part of the [[Polk County School District, Georgia|Polk County School District]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.polk.k12.ga.us/|title= Polk School District|publisher= Polk School District |access-date= September 4, 2012}}</ref> It has one high school, [[Rockmart High School]]; one middle school, Rockmart Middle School; and two elementary schools, Eastside Elementary and Van Wert Elementary. Rockmart High School is the only high school in the city of Rockmart and serves the [[Aragon, Georgia|Aragon]] community as well. As of the 2011/12 school year, the school had an enrollment of 837 students and 50.10 classroom teachers (on an [[full-time equivalent|FTE]] basis), for a student-teacher ratio of 16.71.

In 1912, the [[Georgia Legislature]] created the public school system in the state of Georgia. That year, the city of Rockmart began the Rockmart School System in the building vacated by the [[Piedmont Institution]] (established in 1889 by the [[Methodist]] [[North Georgia Annual Conference]]). It had closed after a 23-year existence in 1912, after it was purchased by the Rockmart School Board of trustees. Rockmart High School was in the building until it burned down in 1915. The building was later rebuilt until the building burned down again in 1940. The current lot is now the Rockmart Governmental Complex. Prior to the Polk County School System of Georgia, RHS had its own city school system and rival school [[Cedartown High School]] also had its own city school system in [[Cedartown, Georgia|Cedartown]].

The Polk County campus of [[Georgia Northwestern Technical College]] is also located in Rockmart.

===Racial integration===
Prior to the [[racial integration]] of the Polk County School System, two high schools existed in Rockmart—Rockmart High School and Elm Street High School—which served the [[African American (U.S. Census)|African American]] community of Rockmart. The integration of the school system began in the year 1964 when some African American students began attending Rockmart High School until total integration was achieved in 1965 with the closing of Elm Street High School.