Gadsden County School District
Gadsden County School District (GCPS), or Gadsden County Schools (GCS), or Gadsden County Public Schools (GCPS), is a school district headquartered in the Max D. Walker School Administration Building in Quincy, Florida. It serves Gadsden County. History. Several area private schools served county students before the formation of the school district, which occurred during a meeting in the county sheriff's office on September 18, 1869. The district initially enrolled about 2,500 students. Throughout much of its history it relied on Rosenwald schools. Many of its contemporary school buildings opened in the 1960s. Prior to 1970  the school district had autonomous community schools and racial segregation; at that time all schools were integrated and the district was unified, with centrally located schools. After 1970 the white student population declined, with some students going to the Robert F. Munroe Day School and the Tallavanna Christian School. According to Headley J. White, author of the 2006 PhD thesis "Effects of Desegregation on Gadsden County, Florida Public Schools 1968-1972," in post-desegregation Gadsden County, white students attending most Gadsden County public schools experienced stigma. Many black students no longer worked on tobacco fields, causing the tobacco industry in  the county to suffer and therefore damaging its economy and causing Gadsden County's population to decline. By 1999 the majority of white students were in private schools. In 1999 a "Florida Trend" article written by Cynthia Barnett described the county public schools as representing "everything wrong with the state's public schools: High rates of illiteracy, delinquency, drop-outs and teen pregnancy." Circa 2002 the school district had almost 10,000 students. In 2017 the school district had 5,400 students. Schools. High schools: PK-8 schools: Middle schools: Elementary schools: Alternative: Former schools. High schools: Middle schools: Elementary schools: Early childhood