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SCHOOL RECORDS (continued from Page 1)
of contracts for supplies and services. Special requests
for expenditures were submitted for consideration. For
example, in 1888 a teacher
requested a bell and a revolving chair. She got the bell,
but not the chair.
The boundaries of school districts determined where
individual student attended classes. The first school
board divided the county into four commissioner districts
so that each of the four commissioners could have
responsibility for one large district. Boundary
descriptions were recorded in minutes for November 20,
1865. Each commissioner was ordered to renumber the
existing schools in his district, beginning with one at
the north end and then proceeding south. To meet changes
in the law three years later the reorganized school board
abolished the commissioner districts and returned to the
use of election districts as the larger unit. The
individual commissioners no longer had responsibilities
for individual schools because the boards of trustees for
school districts were reestablished. These local boards
hired teachers and maintained and managed the
schoolhouses. The minutes of May 19, 1868 referred to a
book, not known to be extant, showing the bounds of all
school districts.
Evidently the initial efforts at defining school
districts were not maintained sufficiently. On September
19, 1905, the commissioners noted that the boundaries of
many districts were unknown. They ordered that a county
wide survey be conducted, to include, besides the
boundaries, the locations of all schoolhouses, their names
and numbers, and road distances between schools. Other
information to be determined about each school included a
general physical description, dimensions, when built,
construction cost and materials, number of rooms, type and
condition of outbuildings and fences, and inventory of
furniture. The time limit of six months was not met, and
an
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extension was given on April 10, 1906. No further mention
of this survey was found.
Initially the residents of the school districts
annually elected the school district trustees, three for
each school. If a district contained two schools, one
for whites and one for African-Americans, each school
had its own trustees. The county school commissioners
filled vacancies occurring between elections. Beginning
in 1892 the commissioners annually appoint the district
trustees. The names are recorded in the
proceedings.
The school commissioners had the authority to confirm
the district trustees' selection of principals,
teachers, and assistant teachers. The names, along with
the district and school numbers or names, were usually
recorded in the minutes. The commissioners handled the
process as a routine matter with little controversy. In
1895, however, several parents protested the hiring of
some teachers, but their concerns did not prevail. The
commissioners also set salaries, scheduled times for
teacher
certification examinations, accepted resignations,
handled complaints against teachers, and heard appeals
of firings. In 1890 the school board did reverse a
decision by district trustees to dismiss a teacher, but
only because of improper procedures.
Some teachers were expected to perform janitorial
duties. In 1906 the school board confirmed that teachers
in rural schools were responsible for keeping the school
buildings clean and warm. No janitors could be hired for
these schools.
Teaching was a profession readily open to women, but
only if they were unmarried. On April 4, 1899, the
school commissioners confirmed the policy of refusing to
hire a married woman as a teacher. But on September 19,
1905, the board overruled this policy by confirming a
married woman as a teacher despite the opposition of one
commissioner.
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