With Arlington High turning 20 this year and Arlington Community Schools passing its 10-year anniversary, Mayor Mike Wissman reminisced about how the school and district shaped the town.

The connection between the growth of the town and municipal school districts coincide for Arlington and the other five suburbs in Shelby County outside Memphis. Wissman and other municipal mayors have discussed recently how to adequately document the creation of their school systems as some elected officials, municipal staff and school district personnel who were key players have retired in the past several years.

Arlington High opened in the fall of 2004 when the town’s population was roughly 3,000. By the time the school district opened in 2014, that number was closer to 12,000, and today it is estimated at 16,000, more than five times it sizes 20 years ago.

Former Millington city manager Ed Haley was Arlington’s town superintendent when the land for the high school was gathered up.

“They were growing, and they needed a new school in the Lakeland/Arlington area,” Haley said. Jim Mitchell, then the superintendent for Shelby County Schools, contacted Haley to see if Arlington could come up with enough land, preferably 70 to 100 acres, for a new school.