The 1940s
Significant curriculum changes advanced Cherryville High School through the 1940s. By 1943 the nine-month school year was incepted, increasing annual school days from 160 to 180. A 12th grade was added to the high school in the fall of 1945 and the ninth grade officially became the first year of the high school program.
Cherryville City Schools Superintendent Foster W. Starnes devoted much effort to the erection of large, modern auditorium in 1949 with an impressive price tag of $125,000 and the auditorium was named after him. In that same year a vocational wing was added to the east side of the high school building to accommodate home economics, agricultural and "shop" instruction.
The spring of 1947 marked the first graduating class, having completed 12 years of formal instruction. The class of 1950 was the first to hold commencement exercises in the new "F.W. Starnes Auditorium", it having been named in honor of the Cherryville City Schools Superintendent.
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