Editing Avery County, North Carolina (section)

===Avery County schools===
[[Avery County Schools]] has eight schools housed on seven campuses, ranging from pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade: five elementary schools, two middle schools and a central high school. Avery High School has close to 700 students and is located near Newland. It is scheduled for large-scale renovations by 2023.<ref>{{Cite web |title=AHS Renovation Project |url=https://www.averyschools.net/ahs-renovation |access-date=August 8, 2022 |website=Avery County Schools |language=en-US}}</ref> Avery High has a dual enrolment partnership program with Mayland Community College, which allows students to earn college credits while still in high school.<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 2, 2019 |title=High School Programs - Mayland |url=https://www.mayland.edu/academics/high-school-programs/ |access-date=August 8, 2022 |language=en-US}}</ref> The two county middle schools are: Avery Middle<ref>{{Cite web |title=Avery Middle School |url=https://www.averyschools.net/avery-middle |access-date=August 8, 2022 |website=Avery County Schools |language=en-US}}</ref> across from the High School built in 1978 and Cranberry Middle in Cranberry on a joint campus with Freedom Trail elementary near Elk Park was built in 1998.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Freedom Trail Elementary School |url=https://www.averyschools.net/freedom-trail |access-date=August 8, 2022 |website=Avery County Schools |language=en-US}}</ref> Other county elementary schools are located in: Newland, Crossnore Elementary was built on a new campus in 2003, Riverside Elementary in lower western Avery built in 1987 and Banner Elk Elementary.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Avery County Schools |url=https://www.averyschools.net/ |access-date=August 8, 2022 |website=Avery County Schools |language=en-US}}</ref>

Three small local high schools were closed in 1969 with the opening of the present central Avery County High School near Newland.<ref>{{Cite web |title=AHS About Us |url=https://www.averyschools.net/ahs-about-us |access-date=August 8, 2022 |website=Avery County Schools |language=en-US}}</ref> Crossnore High School was torn down in the early 1970s.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Patrice |date=March 3, 2022 |title=Through the Years: Crossnore School |url=https://www.crossnore.org/through-the-years-crossnore-school/ |access-date=August 8, 2022 |website=Crossnore |language=en-US}}</ref> The largest of the old high schools, Cranberry High School, is now preserved as a community center in Cranberry near Elk Park.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cranberry High School |url=http://www.carolinaxroads.com/2021/08/cranberry-high-school.html |access-date=August 9, 2022 |language=en}}</ref> Numerous older historic rock work schools built by the Depression-era [[Works Progress Administration|Work Projects Administration]] (WPA) that had been community K-8 schools were closed, starting with the old Riverside School in 1987.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Riverside Elementary School |url=https://www.averyschools.net/riverside |access-date=August 9, 2022 |website=Avery County Schools |language=en-US}}</ref> Both Elk Park School and Minneapolis Schools were closed in 1998 and consolidated into the new Cranberry Middle-Freedom trail School. Beech Mountain school was the last K-8 school in Avery County. It was closed in 2008 and is now a community center. The area students were moved to Cranberry Middle-Freedom Trail School.<ref>{{Cite web |last=marisa.mecke@mountaintimes.com |first=Marisa Mecke |title=Better together: Freedom Trail Elementary and Cranberry Middle celebrate 25 years under same roof |url=https://www.averyjournal.com/news/community/better-together-freedom-trail-elementary-and-cranberry-middle-celebrate-25-years-under-same-roof/article_2120e970-0c9c-5541-82f6-202c5b2e9900.html |access-date=August 8, 2022 |website=The Avery Journal-Times |language=en}}</ref>  The last WPA school still operating in the county was the old downtown Banner Elk School, which closed in 2011 and reopened on a new campus located between Banner Elk and Sugar Mountain.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Home |url=http://www.historicbannerelkschool.com/ |access-date=August 9, 2022 |website=www.historicbannerelkschool.com}}</ref>