Pinckneyville Middle School

Pinckneyville Middle School was named for a rural farming community that was founded in the early 1800’s. It developed along old Peachtree Road next to an ancient Indian trail. Reportedly, the area was first known as Turkey Gizzard, then Buzzard’s Roost. The name was later changed to honor a visiting dignitary, Charles Pinckney, an early statesman from South Carolina.

The community of Pinckneyville was on the stagecoach line between Augusta and Alabama. Two of the oldest known buildings were a post office and an inn which served as a rest stop for travelers. Mt. Carmel United Methodist Church, which still stands on Spalding Drive, was the first established church in the community, built about 1826. Washington Academy, at the presentday site of Shiloh Baptist Church on Spalding Drive, was the first school in the area. A second school, Crabapple Academy, was built near the present site of Pinckneyville Middle School. The land that Pinckneyville sits on was an apple orchard owned by a prominent family in the community, the Westbrooks.

Pinckneyville is located near Technology Park in Peachtree Corners at 5440 West Jones Bridge Road. Construction on Pinckneyville Middle began in May 1984, and was completed in the fall of 1985. It opened with 40 classrooms and an enrollment of 828. Since its opening in 1985, Pinckneyville has experienced steady growth in enrollment. In 1987, six new classrooms were added with another six completed in the fall of 1989. In 1996, a two-story addition of 17 new classrooms and a second gym was added to the facility and the latest addition of eight new classrooms was completed in the fall, 2000. In 2006 the enrollment was about 1,100. In 2017, the school’s enrollment sat at approximately 1,300. Pinckneyville is part of the Norcross High School Cluster with Peachtree, Simpson, and Stripling elementary schools serving as the feeder schools for Pinckneyville.

Pinckneyville has received many awards and recognitions. In 1992, Pinckneyville was named a Georgia School of Excellence and a National Blue Ribbon School, and for six years Pinckneyville earned the State Department of Education Pay for Performance Grant. In 2014, Pinckneyville was one of six Gwinnett school to host a site visit team that ultimately selected Gwinnett County Public Schools as the winner of the Broad Prize for Urban Education.

Pinckneyville students continually earn top honors in academic and fine arts competitions. The school’s Odyssey of the Mind teams do well in state competition. In 2015–16, Pinckneyville’s Readers Rally team won the Gwinnett County Championship in its division. The school’s fine arts program continue to enrich students’ experiences, with many students earning top honors Georgia Music Educators Association events for band, orchestra, and chorus. The school’s girls basketball team celebrated an undefeated season in 2015–16, winning the Western Division and the Gwinnett County Championship.

In 2015–16, Pinckneyville Middle School officially changes its mascot, formerly the Panthers, to align with the cluster. The school’s mascot is now the Pinckneyville Blue Devils!

Pinckneyville Middle School is a microcosm of the increasingly diverse student population evident throughout the state of Georgia. Pinckneyville boasts a high percentage of gifted students. In order to provide a rigorous academic curriculum and to take advantage of the rich mixture of cultures, Pinckneyville implemented the International Baccalaureate Program in 2004. Pinckneyville students have the unique opportunity to take three years of a foreign language in middle school while developing skills to prepare them to be citizens in a global society. Students can continue on to earn an International Baccalaureate certificate or diploma at Norcross High School. In addition, eighth grade students have the opportunity to earn high school Carnegie credit for specified courses in math, science, and foreign language.

In 2017, Pinckneyville and its sister cluster middle school Summerour offered students a new educational experience through the eSTEAM academies. These programs help better prepare students for Norcross High School and its Junior Achievement Academy and for the new Paul Duke STEM High School which opened in August 2018 in the Norcross Cluster.