Pendleton County Middle School had its beginnings in 1989 when the Pendleton County Board of Education voted to move 8th grade students from Brandywine, Franklin and Upper Tract Elementary Schools to Franklin High School. This was to be the first step in a plan to create a junior high for all county 7th and 8th grade students. The 7th grade students from the same schools were moved the following year to Franklin High School.

The Junior High students were housed in the high school Vo-Ag building. Extensive renovations and improvements were made to this building to meet the needs of the junior high students. Some classes for the new junior high were held in the Franklin High School facility.

These moves were made by the Board of Education in an effort to consolidate classes from these smaller schools, thus freeing additional teachers and staff to improve the educational opportunities that could then be offered to all students. Wider ranges of opportunity were to occur in the areas of sports and the fine arts as well.

In the years that followed, the faculty at the junior high worked diligently toward developing a middle school curriculum for the students that was more in line with the students' ages and developmental levels. This was accomplished through various means, including trips to middle schools at other locations in the state and training offered in Pendleton County.

In 1998 the county high schools were consolidated and the remaining 7th and 8th grade students from Circleville were moved to the new Pendleton County Middle School, which was housed in one wing of the newly constructed Pendleton County Middle/High School complex.

The middle school has been very successful. Our students perform very well academically. We have a topflight sports program and have received a state commendation for one of our middle school programs. All students have opportunities to participate in fine arts programs like band, choir, and drama, and academic classes such as Algebra I and foreign languages.