Senior Graduating Classes

In the beginning, South Ayden High School had a small student population, but it gradually increased over time. The first graduating class of South Ayden had only six students, and in the 1940s, there was a rise in the number of students. However, there was no graduating class in 1946 due to a law passed in 1942, which added twelfth grade to all public high schools in North Carolina. In the late 1940s, graduating classes tended to have around twelve to nineteen students. During the 1950s, there was a significant increase in the number of students in each graduating class, with most classes averaging around forty to forty-two students. In the 1960s, class sizes were affected by the baby boom from 1946 to 1964. The first graduating class of the baby boomers was in 1964, and the class size at South Ayden grew to fifty-eight students. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the number of students continued to grow, and the school had its highest enrollment in its last few years of operation. South Ayden closed its doors in 1971, and its student body was incorporated into the newly opened Ayden Grifton High School in the fall of 1971.