Little Rock School District

Little Rock School District logo.

The Little Rock School District (LRSD) is a school district in Little Rock, Arkansas, comprising 64 schools and 26,000 students. Approximately 3,800 people are employed by the school district, distributed across thirty elementary school, seven middle schools, five high schools, a pre-K center, a career-technical center, an accelerated learning center, and two alternative learning schools.

Today the Little Rock School District operates 30 elementary schools (pre-k - 5), seven middle schools (6 - 8), five high schools (9 - 12), an early childhood center (pre-k), a career-technical center, an accelerated learning center and two alternative learning centers.

The five high schools in the district are Hall High School, J. A. Fair Systems Magnet High School, Central High School, McClellan Magnet High School, and Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School.

Middle schools in the district include Cloverdale Magnet Middle School, Dunbar Magnet Middle School, Forest Heights Magnet Middle School, Henderson Health Sciences Magnet Middle School, Horace Mann Arts and Science Magnet Middle School, Mabelvale Magnet Middle School, and Pulaski Heights Middle School.

Elementary schools in the district include Booker Arts and Science Magnet Elementary School, Forest Park Elementary School, Rockefeller Early Childhood Magnet Elementary School and Williams Traditional Magnet Elementary School.

The administrative building for the district is currently located at 810 West Markham.

History of the LRSD

The first public school in Little Rock opened on August 29, 1853, with fifty-two students under the tutelage of Hiram Scofield. This first school was located at the corner of Seventh and Scott streets. The school was administered by the Committee on Schools of what was then called the Little Rock City Council. The school closed during the American Civil War.

The Little Rock School District became established in February 1869 after an act of the Arkansas General Assembly. The first school board meeting occurred on February 16, 1869. The first president of the school board was Frederick Kramer, memorialized today by the Kramer School. The first superintendent of schools was N. P. Gates, selected in September of that year. The school district operated five schools by the middle of the 1870s. In the 1890s the district hired its first African American teacher Charlotte E. "Lottie" Stephens.

The administrative headquarters of the district was located at 800 Louisiana Street from 1892 to September 1961, when the building it occupied was sold to Capital City Business College.

Past and Present Board Members of the LRSD

• Frederick Kramer (1866-1894)
• E. V. Clark (1866-1869)
• Emanuel Armstead (1867-1870)
• J. R. Montgomery (1867-1870)
• M. L. Andrews (1868-1871)
• Benjamin Thomas (1868-1871)
• Jesse Kirby (1869-1872)
• R. B. White (1870-1873)
• W. W. Wilshire (1870-1873)
• J. W. Smith (1871-1874)
• E. T. Dale (1871-1872)
• D. P. Upham (1872-1875)
• Hartwell Ferguson (1872-1880)
• A.J. Thompson (1873-1876)
• Charles E. Cunningham (1873-1877)
• John B. Bond (1874-1876)
• Albert Cohn (1874-1877)
• William Thompson (1875-1878)
• George A. Hughes (1875-1888)
• Cullen G. Cribbs (1876-1876)
• Rollin A. Edgerton (1876-1895)
• Jacob F. Trumpler (1877-1880)
• James E. Rector (1880-1893)
• Henry L. Fletcher (1881-1883, 1888-1892)
• Daniel G. Fones (1883-1893)
• James W. Mitchell (1892-1895)
• Wallace W. Dickinson (1892-1895)
• Louis Cohen (1893-1900)
• W. T. Wilson (1893-1896)
• George H. Sanders (1893-1894)
• Jacob Niemeyer (1894-1897)
• J. A. Woodson (1894-1899)
• George L. McLean (1895-1901)
• George W. Thornburg (1895-1898)
• George L. McLean (1895-1901)
• Rufus J. Polk (1897-1900)
• Lewis W. Cherry (1897-1905, 1911-1914)
• Walter Pemberton (1898-1901)
• J. W. Beidelman (1899-1902)
• J. E. Williams (1900-1903)
• Morris M. Cohn (1900-1903)
• George L. Basham (1901-1904)
• Joseph H. Bilheimer (1901-1904, 1912-1921)
• Thomas M. Mehaffy (1902-1907, 1913-1916)
• Max Heiman (1903-1906)
• James H. Lenow (1903-1906, 1912-1915)
• John M. Dungan (1904-1905)
• Nal Williams (1904-1905)
• Lewis Rhoton (1905-1908)
• William M. Kavanaugh (1905-1914)
• L. B. Leigh (1905-1919)
• Lewis Wolsey (1906-1908)
• Samuel W. Reyburn (1906-1909, 1914-1915)
• John H. Hollis (1907-1913)
• Albert D. Cohn (1908-1909)
• Warren E. Lenon (1908-1911)
• Ashley Cockrill (1909-1912)
• E. L. Rogers (1909-1912)
• B. P. Kidd (1914-1920)
• Celsus P. Perry (1915-1920)
• Joseph B. Bateman (1915-1924)
• Mahlon D. Ogden (1916-1918, 1920-1923, 1929-1932)
• G. DeMott Henderson (1918-1930)
• Caughey E. Hayes (1919-1922)
• James Fairfax Loughborough (1920-1923)
• L. C. Holman (1921-1929)
• Lillian McDermott (1922-1946)
• J. P. Runyan (1923-1929)
• W. N. Brandon (1923-1932)
• H. T. "Will" Terry (1924-1939)
• W. A. McDonnell (1929-1939)
• David D. Terry (1930-1934)
• Homer Scott (1932-1938)
• Hardin Bale (1932-1941)
• Winnie Bess Rawlings (1934-1946)
• Robert Caldwell (1939-1945)
• Robert M. Williams (1939-1945)
• Murray O. Reed (1939-1945)
• E. F. Jennings (1941-1945)
• R. M. Blakely (1941-1947)
• William F. Steinkamp (1944-1951)
• W. E. "Gene" Bale (1945-1948)
• Werner C. Knoop (1945-1951)
• Edwin N. Barron, Jr. (1946-1955)
• Hardy L. Winburn (1946-1952)
• G. O. Dean (1947-1950)
• Graham R. Hall (1948-1950)
• Paul Y. Griffin (1950-1953)
• William G. Cooper (1950-1958)
• Louise McLean (1951-1957)
• Lucy Dixon (1951-1957)
• Foster Vineyard (1952-1955)
• R. A. Lile (1953-1958)
• Harold J. Engstrom, Jr. (1955-1958)
• Dale Alford (1955-1958)
• Wayne Upton (1957-1958)
• Henry V. Rath (1957-1958)
• W. Frank Lambright (1958-1958)
• Ed I. McKinley, Jr. (1958-1959)
• R. W. "Bob" Laster (1958-1959)
• Ben D. Rowland, Sr. (1958-1959)
• Everett Tucker Jr. (1958-1965)
• Russell H. Matson, Jr. (1958-1966)
• Ted Lamb (1958-1964)
• J. H. Cottrell, Jr. (1959-1964)
• B. Frank Mackey (1959-1962)
• W. C. McDonald (1959-1966)
• John A. Harrel, Jr. (1962-1968)
• James M. Coates, Jr. (1964-1967)
• Warren K. Bass (1964-1967)
• Jean Gordon (1965-1968)
• Edwin N. Barron, Jr. (1966-1970)
• Winslow Drummond (1966-1970)
• T. E. Patterson (1966-1982)
• Daniel H. Woods (1967-1971)
• William R. Meeks, Jr. (1967-1971)
• Charles A. Brown (1968-1972)
• Jim L. Jenkins (1968-1972)
• Bert O. Miller (1970-1973)
• George P. Beene (1970-1973)
• E. Kearney Dietz (1971-1974)
• Jim P. Spradley (1971-1974)
• Douglas A. Stevens (1972-1975)
• Robert M. McHenry, Jr. (1972-1978)
• Lucy Abraham (1973-1979)
• James M. Adams, Jr. (1973-1976)
• Arthur W. Gillum (1974-1983)
• Neill Hart, Jr. (1974-1977)
• B. Travis Tunnel, Jr. (1975-1978)
• Jim R. Newell (1976-1979)
• Vance Jones (1977-1980)
• Herbert C. Rule III (1978-1984)
• Robert L. Henry III (1978-1981)
• C. O. Magee, Jr. (1979-1982)
• Dr. Peter T. Sherrill (1979-1982)
• Betty Herron (1980-1983)
• Fay Southern (1981-1987)
• David Cockcroft (1982-1987)
• Herbert Yarbrough (1982-1988)
• B. G. Williams (1982-1985)
• B. Frank Mackey, Jr. (1983-1986)
• Willie D. "Bill" Hamilton (1983-1992)
• Ruth Shepherd (1984-1987)
• Thomas Broughton (1985-1988)
• Robin Armstrong (1986-1992)
• H.M. "Mac" Faulkner (1987-1990)
• Joyce Kelly-Lewis (1987-1988)
• Oma "O.G." Jacovelli (1987-1995)
• J. L. "Skip" Rutherford (1987-1991)
• Charles D. Young (1987-1988)
• Lawrence Hampton (1988-1988)
• Patricia Gee (1988-1998)
• Katherine P. Mitchell (1988-present)
• John Moore (1990-1993)
• Dorsey Jackson (1991-1994)
• George D. Cannon (1992-1992)
• John A. Riggs (1992-1998)
• Judy Magness (1994-2003)
• Linda Pondexter (1994-1996)
• Stephanie Johnson (1995-1995)
• Robert M. Daugherty (1995-present)
• Sue Strickland (1995-2006)
• Larry Berkley (1996-present)
• Mike Kumpuris (1998-2003)
• H. Baker Kurrus (1998-present)
• Tony Rose (2000-2006)
• Bryan Day (2003-2006)
• Tom Brock (2006-2006)
• Melanie Fox (2006-present)
• Charles Armstrong (2006-present)
• Dianne Curry (2006-present)

Past and Present Superintendents of the LRSD

• N. P. Gates (September 1, 1869-November 28, 1871)
• Jacob R. Rightsell (November 28, 1871-1874; 1884-1905)
• J. B. Bond (acting) (May 1, 1875-1876)
• J. M. Fish (1876-1884)
• Burr Walter Torreyson (1905-1909)
• Robert Cleveland Hall (1909-1941)
• R. T. Scobee (1941-1948)
• H. A. Little (1948-1953)
• Ed F. McCuistion (acting) (January 1, 1953-1 March 1953)
• Virgil T. Blossom (July 1, 1953-30 November 1958)
• Terrell E. Powell (acting) (December 22, 1958-1 August 1961)
• Floyd W. Parsons (August 1, 1961-30 June 1972)
• Paul R. Fair (July 1, 1972-6 January 1978)
• Winston F. Simpson (acting) (January 6, 1978-14 August 1978)
• Paul W. Masem (August 1978-May 1982)
• Ruth S. Steele (acting) (May 1982-June 1982)
• Edward L. Kelly (June 1982-June 1987)
• Vance Jones (acting) (July 1, 1987-October 1987)
• George D. Cannon (interim) (October 1987-December 1987)
• George D. Cannon (December 23, 1987-5 August 1989)
• Ruth S. Steele (July 15, 1989-30 June 1992)
• Cloyde McKinley (Mac) Bernd (July 1, 1992-30 June 1993)
• Estelle Matthis (interim) (July 1, 1993-1 October 1993)
• Henry P. Williams (October 1, 1993-July 1996)
• Don Roberts (interim) (August 15, 1996-September 1997)
• Leslie V. Carnine (September 1997-June 2001)
• T. Kenneth James (June 2001-June 2003)
• Donald Stewart (interim) (June 2003-August 2003)
• Morris L. Holmes (interim)(August 2003-June 2004)
• Roy G. Brooks (July 2004-August 2007)
• Linda Watson (interim) (August 2007-present)

References

• Mike Trimble, "Biggest Project Includes Leveling of Entire Block," Arkansas Gazette, March 21, 1968.

External links

• Homepage of the Little Rock School District
• Little Rock School District - A History of the Little Rock School District