(Transcribed by Leora White, 2007)

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN BEAUREGARD PARISH

A Thesis

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the

Louisiana State University and

Agricultural and Mechanical College

In partial fulfillment of the 

Requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts

In

The Department of Education

By 

Jennings B. Pugh

B. A., Louisiana Polytechnic Institute, 1924

1939

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

                             The writer wishes to take this opportunity to express his appreciation to those who assisted in making this study possible. He wishes to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to the three Superintendents of Beauregard Parish Schools, L. D. McCollister, D. G. Lunsford, and K. R. Hanchey, for supplying the data, and especially to Dr. Homer L. Garrett, under whose sympathetic guidance and direction this thesis was written. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF MAPS

LIST OF GRAPHS

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER
I.  Introduction

II.  The Administration of  Superintendent L. D. McCollister

III.  The Administration of  Superintendent D. G. Lunsford

IV.  The Administration of  Superintendent K. R. Hanchey
V.  Conclusion

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIOGRAPHY

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE   

I.  Value of School Property (1913 - 1921)

II.  Sources of Money (1913 - 1921)

III.  Special Taxes

IV.  Disposition of Money (1913 - 1921)

V.  Qualification of Teachers (1913 - 1921)

VI.  Men and Women Teachers

VII.  Average Monthly Salaries of Teachers (1913 - 1921)

VIII.  Transportation (1913 - 1921)

IX.  Length of Session (1913 - 1921)

X.  Enrollment (1913 - 1921)

XI.  Libraries in the Schools (1914 - 1920)

XII. Property (1921 - 1928)

XIII.  Sources of Money (1921 - 1930)

XIV.  Disposition of Money (1921 - 1930)

XV.  Qualifications of Teachers (1921 - 1930)

XVI.  Average Monthly Salaries of Teachers (1921 - 1930)

XVII.  Transportation (1921 - 1930)

XVIII.  Enrollment (1921 - 1930)

XIX.  Consolidated Schools in Beauregard Parish     

XX.  Sources of Money (1930 - 1937)

XXI.  Total Cost of School System (1930 - 1937) 

XXII.  Disposition of Money (1930 - 1937) 

XXIII.  Average Monthly Salaries of Teachers (1930 - 1937)

XXIV.  Transportation (1930 - 1937)

XXV.  Indebtedness of the Beauregard Parish School System (1936 - 1937)

XXVI.  Enrollment (1930 - 1937)

XXVII.  Qualifications of Teachers (1930 - 1937)

LIST OF MAPS

I.  Parishes About Which Histories of Education Have Been Written

II. Creation of Beauregard Parish

III. School Districts in Beauregard Parish

LIST OF GRAPHS

I.  Increase in Value of School Property (1913 -1921)

II.  Comparison of Cost of Instruction and Capital Outlay (1913-1921) 

III.  Increase in Cost of School System (1913 - 1921)

IV.  Trend of Teachers’ Salaries (1913 - 1921)

V.  Comparison of Loans and Payment of Debts

VI.  Total Cost of the School System (1921 - 1930)

VII.  Average Monthly Cost per Child (1921 - 1930) 

VIII.  Average Monthly Salaries of Teachers (1921 - 1930)

IX. Receipts from State Sources

ABSTRACT

It is the purpose of this study to trace the development of the Beauregard Parish Schools since the creation of the parish in 1912.  The data necessary for the study were taken from the records of the Beauregard Parish School Board, the Annual Reports to the State Department of Education, personal interviews with the three men who served as Superintendents during the existence of the parish, and any other available sources.  The attack on the problem is from the historical standpoint.

When the parish came into being in 1912, the foundation of the school system was already laid.  As a part of Calcasieu Parish, school districts had been created, school taxes had been passed, and approximately fifty schools had been built. The further development of these schools paralleled to a certain extent those of the state.  This development fell roughly into three periods, the administrations of L. D. McCollister, D. G. Lunsford, and K. R. Hanchey.  These periods were characterized, respectively, by the awakening of public interest in the school system, the consolidation of small schools, and the restoration of the financial balance of the school system.

 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The Problem

        It is the purpose of this study to trace the development of the Beauregard Parish Schools since the creation of the parish by the Legislative Act of 1912.  This is to be an account of the public educational system of the parish as a whole and not of the individual schools.

        The data necessary for the development of the study has been taken from the records of the Beauregard Parish School Board and from the reports of the Parish Superintendent to the State Superintendent of Education.  Contact was made with the three men who served as Superintendents of the Beauregard Parish Schools during the existence of the parish, in order to secure their viewpoints of conditions at the time they served as superintendents.  Other available sources were tapped, such as printed matter and previously-written theses pertaining to the subject.

        The attack on the problem is from the historical standpoint.  The subject matter is divided into three periods as defined by the terms of the three parish superintendents, and will include such topics as finances, high school education, consolidation, transportation, and teachers, as special features.

        This thesis will serve to enlarge the existing library on the history of education in Louisiana.  In 1924, T. H. Harris, State Superintendent of Education in Louisiana since 1908, wrote as part of his work on a master’s degree at the Louisiana State University the history of public education in Louisiana. (1)  Since 1927 other theses have appeared, tracing histories of some of the individual parishes and various other studies of particular aspects of education in specific schools.  These are all housed at the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.  This thesis constitutes the seventeenth of those dealing primarily with the history of education in the parishes, namely:  Acadia, Calcasieu, Concordia, Franklin, Grant, Lafayette, Lafourche, Lincoln, Livingston, Ouachita, Terrebonne, Natchitoches, Rapids, Sabine, St. James, and Washington. (2)   The map on the following page shows the location of these parishes.

MAP I

PARISHES ABOUT WHICH HISTORIES OF EDUCATION HAVE BEEN WRITTEN 

Setting

          The geography and history of the parish has already been fully described by Mrs. Lether E. Frazar in her Annals of Beauregard Parish. (3)  However, since these things have a direct relation to the development of the education in the parish, a brief resume or description will not be amiss.

          Beauregard Parish is the center of the highland district of Southwest Louisiana, on the Texas border, bounded on the north by Vernon Parish, on the east by Allen, and on the south by Calcasieu.  It was a part of the territory purchased by the United States from France in 1803.  Because of the rapid growth of the population, the Territory of Orleans was divided in 1809 into twelve counties for the purpose of carrying on local government, the present Beauregard Parish being a part of the Parish of Opelousas.  In 1812 a new division was made, some of the lines following those already drawn by the church, and like the church parishes, these new districts took the names of the Saints. (4)  Opelousas Parish became St. Landry Parish, with the town of Opelousas as its parish seat.  In 1840 this parish was divided into two parts, St. Landry and Old Imperial Calcasieu, the latter including the present parishes of Allen, Beauregard, Cameron, Calcasieu, and Jefferson Davis.  At first, Marion was the parish seat, but later Lake Charles took it place. In 1870 Cameron Parish became a separate entity.  Beauregard Parish came into official being in 1912, when an act of the legislature divided Calcasieu into four parishes.  The actual division did not take place, however, until 1913. (5)

MAP II

CREATION OF BEAUREGARD PARISH

          The parish was originally settled by an Indian tribe which roamed the highlands of Louisiana and Texas.  Four Indian villages still survived in 1848 when the first clearings were made in the Sabine forests by white colonists from Hancock County, Mississippi.  Beauregard Parish has now a population of more than 13,000 and comprises an area of 717,470 acres.

          Beauregard was rich in natural resources, principally timber of Long Leaf Pine variety, when it came into being in 1912.  Extravagance and waste in subsequent years took a heavy toll, but the advanced ideas of the pioneering inhabitants are gradually restoring the parish to its former affluence.  The vast forests of virgin pine were cut so that the lumber mills located mainly in DeRidder, Bonami, Longville, and Merryville might be kept supplied with timber, but it was not done wisely, and soon the forests were depleted and that territory formerly covered with trees was converted into a stump-covered prairie. (6)   The people turned to other industries, among them cattle and sheep raising.  In 1936, DeRidder was the largest wool market in Louisiana.  Other products of district were cotton, Satsuma oranges, peaches, pears, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, poultry, and turpentine. (7)   Among the important industries are the Price-Booker Manufacturing Company of DeRidder which makes pickles, and DeRidder’s hardwood mill.

          Beauregard formerly was remote from the other parts of the state, but it is connected with them now by good paved highways and four railroads:  the Santa Fe, Kansas City Southern, Missouri Pacific, and Southern Pacific.

          Within the parish there are nine enterprising little towns, DeRidder, with an estimated population of 6,000, is the parish seat.  The others are Merryville, Longville, Carson, Singer, Ragley, Sugartown, Kipling, and Dry Creek.

          The educational facilities in the parish are very good.  Sugartown High School was the first high school in Calcasieu Parish to own its own building, and it still has a splendid school system.  Other approved high schools are located at DeRidder, Merryville, Singer, Dry Creek, Hyatt, and Kernan, lately changed to Ragley.   Merryville is a Smith-Hughes school.

Early Schools

         When Beauregard Parish was created in 1912, its status was not that of a frontier district but of a thickly settled region in which modern institutions were already established.  The struggle for the inauguration of such institutions as the church, the town, and the school had been waged earlier by the first settlers while the area was still a part of Calcasieu.  Superintendent Harris, in his History of Public Education in Louisiana, (8) and Bayne, in his History of Education in Calcasieu Parish, (9) describe adequately the events of that early battle for the cultural influences of the public school.  At first the fight had been largely local in spite of the efforts on the part of many public spirited men toward state support of schools.  As early as 1803 Governor Claiborne had gained the recognition of the legislature of the importance of state aid in the provision of education for the children, and by 1811 some financial support was offered.  School Acts of 1821 and 1833 further advanced the cause, but it was the General School Act of 1847 which really laid the foundation for the modern public school system.  One year later the first settlement in Beauregard Parish was made.

          In spite of the favorable attitude of the state leaders toward the development of a public school system, the going was not always easy.  It was only by efforts of the individuals living in Calcasieu Parish that any schools were built at all.  Like other parishes and territories in the state, the well-to-do inhabitants hired private tutors for their children or sent them to cities where enterprising school masters had set up private schools.  Rich and poor alike distrusted the public school because too often the instruction was inferior and the buildings inadequate, or because of personal or family pride.  Then, too, progressive development was impeded by the unrest of the times, and it was brought almost to a stop by the Civil War.  Poverty, poor leadership, and poor legislation retarded the growth of what school system was left by the Carpetbaggers and the Negroes. 

          It was greatly to the credit of the leaders in the parish itself, and particularly of Superintendent John McNeese, that great strides were made in the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth.  The work which he began toward erection of school buildings, provision for less interior instruction, and consolidation of some of the smaller schools constituted a valuable heritage for the infant parish of Beauregard, so that its school officials had but to take up where the others had left off.  At this time there were in existence in the parish fifty schools, among them the following:  DeRidder, Merryville, Singer Graded School, Longville, Dry Creek, Ludington, Meadows, Center Hill, Blewett, Welborn, Dewey, Baggett, Kipling, Hyatt, Bilbo, Bear, Mystic, Brushy Creek, Clarks, Evart, Pine Grove, West Tram, Carson, Fulton, Sugartown, Camp Curtis, Pine Ridge, Shady Grove, Fields, Union, Barentine, Bivens, Woodburg, Smyrna, Hopewell, Pleasant Hill, Anacoco, Mulberry, Oakland, Union, Juanita, Wade Nelson, Bundicks, Bonami, Edith, Spring Hill, Hickory Branch, Hickman, Bonami Front, Howard Branch, and Right Hand.

CHAPTER II

THE ADMINISTRATION OF SUPERINTENDENT L. D. McCOLLISTER

          The development of the public school system in Beauregard Parish, while paralleling to a certain extent that of the state, was determined by the policies and practices executed by the administrative heads of the local unit.  L. D. McCollister was the first to serve in that capacity in Beauregard.  In the eight years of incumbency he did much to awaken the public interest in free public schools and to provide wider opportunities for those who desired them.  This chapter is an account of his progress along the various lines.

          The first meeting of the Beauregard Parish School Board was held on January 7, 1913, in the Courthouse in DeRidder where it still meets. (1)  The Board was composed of one member from each of the seven wards, namely:

          Ward 1,       O. W. Young, Fields, Louisiana  

          Ward 2,       A. O. Gunter, Merryville, Louisiana         

          Ward 3,       A. I. Shaw, DeRidder, Louisiana (President)  

          Ward 4,       J. H. Derks, Longville, Louisiana 

          Ward 5,       J. E. Moore, Newlin, Louisiana  

          Ward 6,       T. J. Jackson, Bear, Louisiana (Vice-Pres.)  

          Ward 7,       Abner Talbert, Sugartown, Louisiana

L. D. McCollister was unanimously elected Parish Superintendent.  To him and the seven members of the board was delegated the important task of providing educational facilities for the children of the area.  This was not a small task in spite of the beginnings of a school system bequeathed to them by Calcasieu Parish of which Beauregard had so recently been a part.

Districts

          As a part of Calcasieu Parish, the Beauregard area had comprised school districts No. 8 - 28.  The Beauregard Parish School Board retained these districts almost intact, even using the numbers for a few years. (2)   The boundaries were vague, however, and in many cases overlapped.  The map on the following page shows these districts as originally delineated by the school board.  The red lines show the original lines and the blue the existing ward lines which are now used in school districts.

MAP III

SCHOOLS DISTRICTS IN BEAUREGARD PARISH

          The districting of the parish was a progressive undertaking.  As the population increased and industrial development went forward, more schools were demanded and were built.  Each new school composed a new district.  Some of the old districts were combined when it was found advisable in the interest of consolidation.  By 1916 the districts had been renumbered and fifteen additional ones created.

Trustees

          While the ward was the unit of representation on the School Board, the district was the administrative unit.  Each district had local trustees who were appointed by the School Board as a whole.  These trustees were recommended by the leading citizens of the community.

          The duties of the trustees were to visit the schools in their districts regularly and report to the School Board on the conditions found there.  In addition they were allowed the privilege of recommending teachers to the Board, and their recommendations were generally followed.

          The importance of the trustee declined in the later years of McCollister’s administration, and he is rarely seen today.  The extensive consolidation of the schools in the parish reduced the number of districts so much that the school districts were later made synonymous with the police jury wards and the School Board member of the ward served in the capacity formerly filled by the trustee.  

The Physical Plants

          The school buildings for the fifty schools existing in 1913 in no way complied with the standards set up by the local and state administrators. With the exception of DeRidder, all of them were wooden structures.  Most of them consisted on only one room, and only three - DeRidder, Merryville, and Sugartown - had more than four rooms.   According to the annual report  to the State Superintendent, (3) at the end of the session 1913 - 1914, there were in the parish one brick building valued at $5,600, forty frame buildings valued at $61,994.96, and nine frame buildings not owned by the Board.  Table I shows the value of each type of property owned or used by the schools in the years from 1913 to 1921.  The total value of the property owned by the Board in 1914 was $123, 302.77.  By 1918 there were two brick buildings and thirty-nine frame buildings owned by the Board and five not owned.  At the end of McCollister’s administration there were two brick buildings and thirty-four frame buildings, all built since 1913.  The following graph shows how the value of school property had advanced from its earlier figure to the sum of $639,378.00 

GRAPH I

INCREASE IN VALUE OF SCHOOL PROPERTY

1913-1921

TABLE 1

VALUE OF SCHOOL PROPERTY

1913-1921

          The minutes of the School Board reveal the details of the building operations.  All the buildings were erected by means of special district taxes.  Every election held for the purpose of voting such taxes carried except three, and two of these districts each levied the tax in the following year.  A partial list of the special elections ordered by the School Board are:

          At the meeting of the School Board on July 12, 1913, the Hams Creek School was ordered sold for ten dollars to John Alston.  Shady Grove and Bundicks Schools were consolidated.  In December of the same year the old buildings of Oak Grove, Pleasant Hill, West Train, Spring Hill, and Hickory Branch were ordered sold and their sites restored to their former owners. (4) New sites for the Pleasant Hill and Shady Grove Schools were accepted from the Hudson River Lumber Company.  Many of the sites were thus obtained, and, indeed, twelve or fifteen of the schools had been built at the instigation of such companies, since it was to the advantage of the lumber mill owners to keep their workers contented and prosperous.

          In 1914 the Ragley Lumber Company agreed to pay half the cost of a building for the consolidation school of Ragley and Fulton.  In the same year the Union and Kipling Schools were combined, a new site for the Pujo School accepted, and the new school of Beckwith on the Singer-Carson Road was authorized. (5)  New buildings for Hyatt, Bilbo, Union, and Pujo were completed, the old buildings ordered sold, and their sites reconveyed to the former owners.

          In 1915 operations were equally as numerous.  The completed buildings at Hopewell, Anacoco, Oretta, Dry Branch, Grabow, Pine Grove, Bancroft, Meadows, and Kipling were accepted by the Board, the Right Hand building was ordered sold, and the Right Hand School was consolidated with Ragley.  The petitions for schools at Edith and Black Creek were ordered tabled for future consideration.

          Consolidation had taken place to such an extent by 1918 that there were only thirty-four of the original fifty schools remaining, namely:  DeRidder, Merryville, Singer, Sugartown, Longville, Welborn, Brushy Creek, Union, Sweetville, Gearen, Bear, Barentine, Dry Creek, Bonami, Carson, Ragley, Meadows, Dry Branch, Ludington, Oretta, Anacoco, Hopewell, Kipling, Beckwith, Hyatt, Pleasant Hill, West Train, Wade Nelson, Clark, Pine Grove, Pine Ridge, Shady Grove, Mystic, and Spring Hill.  There were eight Negro schools, located at DeRidder, Merryville, Ludington, Bonami, Carson, Longville, Center Hill, and Bancroft.

          The height of the buildings program inaugurated by Superintendent McCollister was reached in 1920 when eighteen buildings were either completed or under construction, the total capital outlay for the year being $184,213.55.  

Financial Support

          There was no money for school purposes in the treasury of the newly-created parish when the Board held it first meeting, and the funds which had been collected by Calcasieu Parish for education in the Beauregard area had not been turned over to them as yet.  In order to keep the schools going for the remainder of the session 1813 - 1914, the Board borrowed money from the bank.  The minutes of the meeting of September 6, 1913, reveal that the funds due from Calcasieu had been received.  The following is a copy of the resolution of the Board to accept them: (6)  

Whereas, this Board has received through its treasurer, L. D. McCollister the sum of Thirty-six thousand four hundred and twenty-four and

sixty-six hundredths (36,424.66) dollars itemized as follows:

From Fuller M. Hamilton, treasurer of School Board of Calcasieu Parish, and as custodian of school funds belonging jointly with Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, and Jefferson Davis, and therefore the School Board of this Parish issue a quietus to said Hamilton.

At this same meeting the Board prepared a budget for the school year 1914 - 1915 as follows:

          The anticipated receipts fell far short of the actual receipts, as did the expected expenditures, but the finances were so well managed that there was a cash balance of $34,592 at the end of the fiscal year.  Table II shows the source of money received for the maintenance of the schools for the years from 1913 to 1921. 

TABLE II

SOURCES OF MONEY

1913-1921

       In recent years it has become the aim of the State Department of Education to let the state supply as much of the money for the support of the schools as possible.  However, the chief sources of money in the administration of McCollister was the special tax of the district and the police jury appropriation of three mills, made compulsory in the state in 1914.  The special tax went as high as 24 mills in some of the districts in 1918 and 1919.  Table III shows the amount of special taxes voted in the districts, and amount used for maintenance, the amount used for building and equipping houses, and the maximum tax rate in the districts.

TABLE III
SPECIAL TAXES
 

      The Beauregard Parish School endeavored to abolish district and ward taxes and to levy the taxes on a parish-wide basis, but evidently the parish was still too large, and such cooperative attempts failed.  In 1914 and again in 1917 elections were called by the Board for this purpose, and though the taxes carried, the district taxes were continued.  

        Table IV shows the disposition of the money for the upkeep of the schools. Possibly the largest single item of expense on the whole was instruction with a capital outlay a close second. The cost of instruction increased from $53,371.11 in 1913 to $192,486.51, or nearly fourfold. The capital outlay varied from $23,719.00 in 1913 to as low as $13,332.00 in 1917, and as high as $184,313.00 in 1920.

TABLE IV

DISPOSITION OF MONEY

I. CURRENT PAYMENTS

*a. Transportation

b. Agricultural Extension

II. OTHER PAYMENTS

The following comparative graph of these two items of expenditure shows that the cost of instruction as shown by the broken line was higher every year except two than the capital outlay.

GRAPH II

COMPARISON OF COST OF INSTRUCTION AND CAPITAL OUTLAY

1913-1921

        The total cost of providing and maintaining a public school system in the parish increased from $101,972 in 1913-1914 to $636,245 in 1920-1921, or over six fold.  The following graph reveals the sharp upward trend caused by the higher costs of living after the World War.

GRAPH III

INCREASE IN COST OF SCHOOL SYSTEM

1913-1921

          The average monthly cost per child of the school system was as follows:

Teachers

          The status of the teacher changed greatly during the eight years of Superintendent McCollister’s administration.  In the days immediately following the creation of the parish the teachers were on the whole very young and inexperienced, poorly trained, and proportionately poorly paid.  Living accommodations were not  necessarily of the best, and it was extremely difficult for teachers with families to find lodging of any sort without the aid of the lumber company in the country.  Commuting was impracticable because of the poor condition of the roads.  Those who had access to the railroads were the only ones able to leave the communities in they taught except rarely.

          In order to improve the work of the teachers in the face of the poor training, or the lack of it, which the teachers had received, Superintendent McCollister established the custom of holding a teachers’ institute for all of those in the parish for the first week of the school year.  Speakers from the main colleges and universities of the state or neighboring states were invited to instruct the teachers in the most accepted teaching procedures.  The State Department of Education approved this organization and gave financial as well as moral support.  As the Normal schools began to develop more fully, however, and the educational requirements for certification were place on a higher plane, these institutes rapidly became unnecessary and were finally merged with the State Teacher’s Institute.  The amounts paid out by the parish for the conduction of the institute in the first few years were as follows:  1913-1914, $1,015.43; 1914-1915, $1,105.35; 1915-1916, $1,074.65.  The institutes were discontinued after 1916 except for the year 1919-1920 when $407.35 was allotted for the purpose.

          Prior to 1913 teachers were selected by the Superintendent on the recommendation of the local trustees or the School Board member.  The examination of the teachers had also been left to these local authorities in many places, but John McNeese while Superintendent of Calcasieu Parish had standardized the system of certification in the Parish.  Then, too, the Burke Bill passed by the state legislature in 1912 had overruled the earlier school Act which had made certification of the teachers by the state optional, and had taken the mater out of the hands of the Parish altogether.  Thus, in 1913 the standards governing the qualifications of teachers were more rigid than before, and the personnel of the school system had already begun to improve. 

           The following table shows the types of certificates held by the teachers.

TABLE V

QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS

1913-1921

          Those who held B. A. degrees were eligible for first grade certificates without an examination.  The others received first, second or third grade certificates according to the results of the examination.  Of the eighty-nine teachers in the parish in 1913-1914 there were only twenty-nine who did not hold first grade certificates, and this number fell in the years 1919-1920 to seventeen out of one hundred thirty-four.  The steady growth in the number of teachers holding baccalaureate degrees revealed the professional interest of the group.  In 1913 there were only thirty-five teachers with degrees, but in 1921, ninety of the 150 teachers held them.  Thirty-five of the 150 teachers employed held first grade certificates. 

          The teaching force in Beauregard Parish in 1913 was predominantly female, as it is today.  In the years during the World War the percentage of men teachers fell even lower then usual, returning to normal, however, in 1919.  The following table shows the number of men and women teachers in each of the years of McCollister’s administration.

TABLE VI

MEN AND WOMEN TEACHERS
 

          The salaries of teachers increased nearly twofold during the eight years.  Table VII shows the average monthly salaries of the male and female teachers and the total sum expended.

TABLE VII

AVERAGE MONTHLY SALARIES OF TEACHERS

1913-1921

        In 1913 the average salaries for the men and women teachers were close together, the men’s being nearly a third larger.  By 1921 the disparity between the two was more pronounced, as shown in the following graph.  Both had risen far above the 1913 level, but the women’s salaries had followed a downward trend until 1916, when the rise began.  The women’s salary is shown by the broken line in the following graph.

GRAPH IV 

TREND OF TEACHERS' SALARIES

1913-1921

        The first salary schedule adopted by the Board provided for a minimum salary of $35.00 per month and a maximum of $125.00.  The scale was as follows:

        A motion to exclude all married women teachers was unanimously adopted at a meeting of the Board on May 16, 1913.  On January 4, 1918, however, a second resolution was adopted to the effect that do to the scarcity of teachers, married teachers be employed. 

        It would be useless to include here a complete roster of the teachers of the parish during the term of McCollister, but it is interesting to notice the names of the some men and women who have become prominent educators, namely:  Miss Clyde Mobley, Miss Lela Tomlinson, D. G. Lunsford, who succeeded McCollister, and Ward Anderson, now Superintendent of the Lake Charles City Schools.  

Transportation

        It was the policy of Superintendent McCollister to provide transportation for all children who lived more than two miles from the school.  To accomplish this he awarded contracts to wagonette carriers to the lowest bidders.  All wagonettes were required to make an average of ten pupils transported, the minimum salary for such a number being $30.00 monthly.  For each pupil over ten, the driver was allowed $2.50 per month until a maximum of $60.00 was reached.

        Pupils out of reach of the school were paid $5.00 per month to help them attend.  In 1920 this was changed by a resolution providing that pupils who lived more then two and one half miles from school and who were not furnished transportation should be paid twenty cents per day of actual attendance. (7)   If the pupil was not present for a total of fifteen days, no fee was paid.

        The improvement of the automobile and of the roads brought about a change from wagonettes to school buses late in McCollister’s administration.

        Table VIII shows the cost of the transportation, the number of vehicles in use, the number of children to whom this service was made available, and the average monthly cost per child.  The cost increased in somewhat the same proportion as the other school costs, varying from $4,557.19 in 1913 to $26,566.76 in 1921.  The average monthly cost rose from $2.78 1916 to $5.83 in 1921.

TABLE VIII

TRANSPORTATION

1913-1921

Enrollment

        Attendance at school was made compulsory by an Act of the state legislature in 1914 for four months and in 1916 for seven months.  Special elections had been held in most of the districts for the purpose of voting upon the issue, and had carried in some and lost in others.  McCollister, however, had adopted the policy of compulsory education, and employed a truancy officer to enforce it.  In spite of that fact, some of the educables were not enrolled.  The percentage of educables enrolled in each of the eight sessions was as follows: 

        The parish schools were well in accord with the state regulation concerning the length of the session.  The following table shows the number of months and the number of days of each session. 

TABLE IX
LENGTH OF SESSION

1913-1921  
 

          The enrollment in the schools did not increase more rapidly than the normal increase in population would indicate.   Table X shows the enrollment in the high school, in the elementary schools, and in both schools together.  The enrollment of the high school increased more than twofold in the eight years, but the increase in the elementary school was small. 

TABLE X
ENROLLMENT

1913-1921  
 

Vocational Subjects

          The encouragement of the state education administration for the inclusion of agriculture and home economics in the high schools of the state took the form of annual appropriations as well as moral support.  Availing himself of this aid, McCollister, early in 1913, (8) made provisions for the improvement of the agricultural department in the Sugartown High School so that it would meet the state requirements and gain state recognition.  The following year an agricultural teacher was hired for the parish at $1200 a year. His work was successful and resulted in an increased growth of interest in the subject.  So powerful was the stimulus in favor of agricultural education that the Rice Land Lumber Company donated a site for a Merryville High School with the provision that an agricultural high school be built thereon. The building was completed and in use by July 13, 1920. (9)  The agricultural departments were partially financed by the state appropriation for agriculture and the Smith-Hughes fund.

          Home economics departments were included in nearly all the high schools. Those recognized by the State Department of Education were at Merryville, Longville, and Singer.   

Libraries

          As early as 1913 the administrators of education in Beauregard Parish were aware of the importance of a library to the school system.  In that year the schools averaged about one book per pupil, which was rather high at that early stage in the history of library development.  The libraries were partially supported by donations, the remainder being derived from the parish maintenance fund.  The following table shows the number and value of the books in all the schools.

TABLE XI

LIBRARIES IN THE SCHOOLS

1914-1920  
 

Summary

          There is no better way to summarize the development of the Beauregard Parish Public Schools during the administration of Superintendent McCollister than to quote his very words.  The following is an account of his administration as told by him in a personal interview on January 7, 1939, just twenty-six years from the day on which he was elected:

In 1913, I became Superintendent of Beauregard Parish, which together with Allen, Jeff Davis, and Calcasieu was carved out of old Calcasieu.

That we might begin operation as soon as division was affected money was borrowed from the bank, and after dividing the school board into three divisions with service for two, four, and six years, we began to function as an educational unit.

Since there were no school buildings that met the requirements, a building program had to be launched at once, and in order to do this taxes had to be voted in the different districts into which the Parish was divided for school conveniences.  This was easily done, because the big property owners were non-residents and couldn’t vote.

Those who had the right to vote the taxes on the districts had large families to educate and didn’t have much taxes to pay because they owned very little property.  The taxes, in the main, were paid by the lumber companies who owned practically all the virgin pine of the parish, which covered a large part of it.

The lumber companies were anxious for good schools and as long as the districts were laid out in a way that didn’t legislate against them, they were willing for taxes to be assessed.

During the eight and one-half years that I served as Superintendent, we built commodious High School plants in different parts of the parish and central schools in all the districts both for white and Negroes.

The Merryville Agricultural plant was second to none in the state at that time.   Because of my fairness to the large companies who were operating in the parish, they practically donated 160 acres of land for the school site.  On that site we erected a commodious brick building that served the community well, and provided for considerable growth.   In connection with the main school building we erected a fine auditorium that would seat four or five hundred people.  We also built there a Home Economics building, a teacher’s home, a janitor’s home, and a large barn.  These were buildings that any community or town would have been proud of.  This plant was a model for the state.

At DeRidder, Merryville, Longville, Bonami, Carson, Ragley, Sugartown, and Dry Creek; also at a central location in the Southern part of the parish commodious High School building were erected that accommodated from one hundred to eleven hundred pupils.

In all the above mentioned towns five Negro schools were built.  The Merryville and DeRidder Negro schools were attractive high schools.  All our improvements were made possible by district taxes.

There was at one time a law that said banks must pay the same rate of interest to School-Boards on deposits that the school boards paid them on money borrowed.  That rate was 3%.  We borrowed money for several years at that rate.  The cashier of the banks of DeRidder with which we did business eventually came to us and said, 'We can’t afford to handle your accounts any longer that way.’   I don’t know of any other parish that got money on that basis.
 

Our school buildings were furnished with up-to-date furniture and our agricultural farms were good demonstrations of what could be done to improve agricultural methods in the parish.  No other parish in the state had finer Home Economics departments than we had at Merryville, Longville, and Singer.

We developed teachers in these departments that are now in the State Department of Education. Namely, Miss Mobley and Miss Tomlinson.  Also, we developed some leading educators in our agricultural schools at Merryville and Sugartown.

Our agricultural director of the Parish created considerable interest in stock raising and poultry raising.  Mr. C. C. Chapman has held very important posts in the State.  He was at one time connected with State Department of Education.

Our Negro schools emphasized Agriculture, Home Economics, and other industrial subjects.

During my term as Superintendent of this parish, I worked out a salary schedule that paid my teachers above the average of the state.  Many of the parishes studied our salary schedule carefully and approved it, but couldn’t see how we could pay it.  The State Department of Education thought our schedule good, and was anxious to see it adopted if the money could be provided.

There was no parish in the state that did more constructive work than we did and made more improvements in the same length of time.  We developed a system in Beauregard Parish that we were proud of, because it reached the children in a great way.  All were provided for, and compelled to attend under the compulsory law.  We enforced this law by employing a truant officer.

All of the children who were over two miles from a school were transferred.  If they couldn’t reach a regular transfer, we paid them to furnish their own transfer.

We never had but one tax voted on turned down, and it was voted in a short time afterwards.  Not only did our school board back up my program at all times, but always insisted that the superintendent attend the N. E. A. meetings at the expense of the School Board.  

Yours truly,                                                                                     

L. D. McCollister

 CHAPTER III

THE ADMINISTRATION OF SUPERINTENDENT D. G. LUNSFORD

          In 1921, at the end of Superintendent McCollister’s second term, the Beauregard Parish School Board elected as superintendent D. G. Lunsford, a man well fitted for the position, as he had served earlier as principal of the Merryville High School and as Superintendent of the East Feliciana Parish Schools.  Lunsford entered his office with much enthusiasm and immediately inaugurated a program designed to reduce the cost of education in the parish and at the same time improve the instructional facilities.  He served diligently for eight years, resigning in 1930, soon after he had been reelected for a third term. (1)

Consolidation

          Perhaps the greatest contribution of Superintendent Lunsford to the school system was the consolidation of the small schools of the parish into a few well-built, highly developed institutions.  The opposition which he met on all sides was not unnatural, since the idea was comparatively new and people had not yet become accustomed to it.  The fear of the destruction of the communities by the removal of the schools and the hazards to the children attending the longer journeys to and from schools caused much discontent, and even some show of mob violence.  In addition to this display of feeling there were such obstacles as the provision of the funds for the construction of these central schools and the construction of good roads to make transportation possible.  For both of these latter difficulties state aid was forthcoming.  In 1921 the state legislature had made provisions for the construction of good roads throughout the state. (2)  Even earlier than that, state funds had been appropriated for the purpose of assisting consolidation. 

          At the beginning of this period, consolidation had made some advancement, but because of the unimproved roads, the plan was not practical as a general policy of the Board.  One or two small schools had been absorbed by the Merryville Agricultural School, some by the new Hyatt School, and one or two at Singer and Dry Creek.  The few schools thus absorbed were in the immediate vicinities of the centers named, near enough to be served by horse or motor-drawn transports.
 

          The economic situation in the parish did much to discourage consolidation.  The establishment of towns was a natural and necessary product of large-scale sawmill operations.

        These towns, except in a few instances, were made up of non-home-owning populations.  The homes and facilities for community life were part of the company investment as public utilities, such as water, lights, streets, public buildings, and fire-fighting equipment.  In some cases the Parish School Board, with the help of local taxes paid mostly by the company assessments, built schoolhouses, and in other cases the houses were built as part of the mill’s investment in lieu of such local tax levies.  Bonami, Carson, Ragley, Longville, Grabow, Ludington, and a number of other places were the sites of prosperous towns now practically non-existent.  There was little or no basis for school consolidation in communities of this type.  The towns were in most cases too far apart for horse-drawn vans, and the connecting roads were not suitable for automobile transportation.   Demands for high school facilities were few beyond the localities served by the existing high schools, and these few were able to adjust themselves to some of the cooperative plans arranged with the School Board. Consolidation, therefore, had little effect upon the strictly mill town schools until the vanishing forests gave notice that their days were numbered.  The only experience that this type of school had with consolidation was when it was asked to absorb some isolated group nearby without a charge in its own status, thereby affecting an economy of school money.

          The mill towns, oddly enough, rarely coincided with the site of an established school.  Therefore, the coming of the new mills did not help enlarge the existing schools, but established a new set of schools over the same territory.  However, as the resources of an area were used up, the town would disappear, and the schools would be discontinued.  The few of the school population remaining would be transferred to the nearest school. 

          Other schools of the transient type were in the communities of Oretta, Longacre, and Pujo, which were built as experiments in population centers of social self-sufficiency.  In no cases were the projects advanced far enough to really test the success of the enterprise or to attain a permanent growth, but good schoolhouses were built and served the areas concerned until population centers shifted to other localities.

          In 1921, there were thirty-five schools in operation, seven of these being approved high schools, or applying for approval; five schools employed one teacher each; fifteen had two teachers each; and the remaining eight schools had from three to five teachers each.   Ward One was the only considerable political subdivision of the parish that attempted any general consolidation, and this was caused by recent shifts in population on account of the removal of several logging operations.  A school at Duett was so near the Calcasieu Parish line, and its Beauregard attendance procurable from only one direction, that as soon as road conditions warranted, consolidation with Hyatt was effected.  The school at Bancroft had advanced some pupils to high school rank, and with the completion of an improved highway, the school was discontinued and consolidated with Hyatt.  The Bevins School on the northern boundary of the ward also confronted the problem of advancing pupils into high school grades, and consolidated with the Merryville High School.  With these changes, Ward One became the first ward-wide consolidated unit in the parish, and held that position for many years.  About the same time, Broadlands, in Ward Four, was transferred to the Longville High School in the same ward.  The consolidation area of the Longville School included a large portion of Ward Six, in which several schools were still in existence; hence, while Ward Four was within itself consolidated, it did not belong to a completely consolidated district.

          The Anacoco School in Ward Two was the last school in that ward to consolidate with Merryville.  Several reasons contributed to the delay in this instance. The school was in a prosperous community that had a background of permanent residence, good attendance, and a local school history and tradition centering in the community.  The school house was approximately equidistant between the Merryville and DeRidder Schools.  The local schoolhouse was about the limit of distance that might be reasonably expected of the type of school bus in existence at the time. This implied the probability of about half the children going to Merryville and half to DeRidder, when, as a matter of fact, they did not wish to go to either. As a result, the School Board determined upon the policy of setting up a highly centralized elementary school in the district and transporting the high school pupils to Merryville. Within one or two years the practical value of the plan began to be lost as more and more pupils of the elementary school began to attend the town school.  Finally, the hard-surfacing of the Merryville highway and the acquisition of modern school buses of large capacity removed the physical obstacles to final consolidation, and Ward Two, though somewhat delayed, became a completely consolidated district.

          Ward Three, with nine schools and about one third of the population of the parish, gave little encouragement to the earlier consolidation movements, because of the crowded condition of the local school at DeRidder.  However, a high school building was erected at DeRidder in 1920, and this stimulated high school attendance both locally and from neighboring districts.  The consolidation of the interior schools of the ward followed along the same principal lines as were described in the consolidation of Anacoco with Merryville.  Two schools, Grabow and Pujo, were isolated and left with small attendance in former years by the removal of the industries.  The children from Pujo were moved to Merryville and those from Grabow to DeRidder as soon as road improvement permitted.  The towns of Ludington, Bonami, and Carson had large schools and modern facilities, and these continued until the mills finally closed.  Transportation previously provided for the high school students only was in most cases sufficient for the remaining pupils in all grades.

          Consolidation in Ward Five was following the usual course with Singer High School as the center to which one after another of the small schools had drifted, when the school at Signer was destroyed by fire.  For a year, practically the entire school population of the ward depended upon transportation.  The teachers were placed in other schools of the parish, and the buses from various sections of the ward went to Merryville, DeRidder, and Longville High Schools.  A building was erected by means of a ward-wide bond issue, and at the beginning of the year, without discussion, or any formality, buses were placed on all the important roads and the entire school population of the ward enrolled in this school. 

          Ward Six, with Ward Four, comprised the consolidated district of the Longville High School.  This comprised the largest area of any district in the parish under one consolidation unit.   The closing of the constituent schools followed about the same pattern found in the other consolidations through the parish.  Consolidation in this district was theoretically complete, but in reality the organization was looked upon as being in a sense temporary.  It was known that the centers of population were shifting.  In the latter part of the 1920 - 1921 session, the Longville mill burned, and was not rebuilt.  This disaster immediately removed the major taxable valuation from the assessment roll, and necessitated the early moving-out of most of the population of the town to get employment elsewhere.  The branch railroad that served the town was fast losing its importance, owing to the rapid disappearance of the lumber business, while the main line of the Missouri Pacific crossed the district twelve miles to the southward, and the intersection of the main highways was also twelve miles to the south.  However, as a high school and elementary school, Longville remained intact, composed of at least ten of the schools that had formerly served the area.  

          The consolidations that brought about the growth of the schools of Sugartown and of Dry Creek began when both were in Ward Seven, and it continued after the division when Sugartown became the school center of Ward Seven and Dry Creek of Ward Eight. (3)  Consolidation in these two schools had about the same experience as the other sections, except that most of the small schools were perhaps more deeply grounded in the sentiments and tradition of their communities.

          Thus it can be seen in the eight years of Lunsford’s administration intensive consolidation took place, reducing the number of schools from thirty-five in 1921 to seven, and putting the schools on a ward basis instead of minute districts.  The extra costs of consolidation were more than amply met by the savings in school administration. 

The Physical Plant

          So well had McCollister planned the physical plant within the parish that in the first few years of Lunsford’s administration little building was necessary.  It was only when the demands of consolidation and of bringing the plant up to date became insistent that construction was begun.  Bond issues had recently provided a new high school building at DeRidder, and a high and elementary school building and agricultural plant at Merryville.  DeRidder had one large building at the time the parish was organized, which had been provided by bond issues whose term of liquidation was for some years in the future.  These three were the only brick buildings in the parish, all financed by local bond issues.

          Table XII shows the kind and value of school property in the possession on the School Board from 1921 to 1928.   The statistics for the remaining two years were unavailable as the reports concerning this were discontinued.

TABLE XII

PROPERTY

1921-1928

          In 1921 there were two brick and thirty frame buildings.  By 1925 this number had decreased to four brick and twenty-one frame buildings, the two additional brick buildings having been constructed in 1921 and 1924.  One new frame building had been erected in 1922.  Other frame buildings were built in 1925 and 1926, so that of the four brick and nineteen frame buildings in the parish in 1928, two brick and three frame ones had been constructed by Lunsford.

          In view of the small amount of construction which took place, it was natural that the value of school property should increase but slowly.  As consolidation took place, the school plants not in use were disposed of and this caused a decrease in the value of the property.

          The value of school property in 1921-1922 was $645,448.  It rose to a peak of $715,000 in 1924-1925 to fall rapidly in 1927-1928 to a low of $600,758.

          Like McCollister, Lunsford financed his building operations by special taxes.  In addition, however, he floated a bond issue of $90,000 in 1926-1927 for the purpose of building the Singer School, which had been destroyed by fire. 

Financial Support

          The sources of the money for the schools were very nearly the same during Lunsford’s administration as during McCollister's.  The constitution of 1921 had fixed the minimum state school tax at two and one-half mills and the parish school tax at three, special maintenance taxes being allowed up to eight mills. (4)  These three sources - State, Parish, and Special Taxes - provided by far the largest part of the income of the schools.  Table XIII shows the sources and amount from each of the funds used to support the schools from 1921 to 1930. 

TABLE XIII

SOURCES OF MONEY

1921-1930

TABLE XIII (continued)

SOURCES OF MONEY

1921-1930

    One especially large source of funds during this period was loans from banks.  This supplied from $184,178 in 1921 to as high as $286,500 in 1925-1926, and a low as $80,000 in 1929-1930.  These were supposedly short term loans, but these and other debts accumulated during the years to cause a great drain on the financial resources of the parish at a later date.  As much as half and not less than a fourth of the total disbursement of each school year was employed in the payment of debts (See Table XIV).

TABLE XIV

DISPOSITION OF MONEY

1921-1930

The following graph shows the relation between the amount paid out on debts and the amounts received from short term loans each year.  The debt service is shown by the broken line and the loans by the unbroken line.

 GRAPH V

COMPARISON OF LOANS AND PAYMENTS OF DEBTS

          It can be seen that in only three years was the short term loan greater than the amount paid out, and in each case by only a slight margin.   However, in 1923 - 1924 and in 1924 - 1925, bond issues were floated to the amounts of $100,000 and $97,101, respectively, which amount had been only a little over half repaid at the end of the Lunsford administration.

          Lunsford received severe criticism from many because of the size of the debt he incurred.  According to Lunsford himself, however, the debt was but the natural result of the economic tendencies of the times.  He states as follows: (5)

Beginning with 1921 property values began a rapid and steady decline that within a decade removed more than sixty percent of the assessment from the rolls.  At the first appearance of declining trend in income the board’s credit was reduced to short time operating contingencies.  The existing debts of the School Board, which were scarcely out of proportion in times of rapidly rising assessments, fall rapidly into the “bad debt” class with the banks when the revenue sources began to decrease.  The School Board debt was caused by a combination of three major conditions. (1) Prior to 1917 the Parish had a large number of school districts and many of these were permitted to overdraw against the general fund, in various efforts to maintain a degree of uniformity over the parish.  The parish voted to dissolve all maintenance districts in favor of a parish wide millage for maintenance.  When this was done, the general fund immediately fell heir to the deficit represented by the existing combined overdrafts of the districts. (2) A number of small districts sponsored by saw mills were established and building taxes voted and the buildings were erected by the School Board, but in some cases the taxable values were removed before the expiration of the tax period, which resulted in the loss of some $80,000 between the total tax yielded by these districts and the building costs that were assumed by the Board. (3)  Rapid advance in salaries throughout the state necessitated increased expenses beyond the capacity of the general fund.

The 1921 session opened with approximately $258,000 indebtedness, represented by two months salaries due from the past year; various due open accounts; amounts advanced by mill companies or building houses; and by notes held by the banks.  General revenues anticipated for the coming year approximated the amount of the indebtedness.  In this condition the schools began the experience of maintaining their equilibrium while sliding down the financial toboggan set at a sixty percent grade.  The obvious alternative of closing down until sufficient taxes might accrue to establish a cash basis was impossible, for the school law provided that the revenues of any year are dedicated primarily to the operation of the schools for that year, and only the surpluses can be diverted to other purposes.  The methods of retrenchment consisted of radical reduction in salaries and operation costs; financing major building projects only with bond issues on the credit of the local building tax instead of the general fund; and the voting of increases in the special maintenance taxes.

          The economic conditions being as they were, then, it is natural to expect that the cost of operating the school system during this period should decline.  The following graph shows the trend:

GRAPH VI

TOTAL COST OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM

1921-1930

          The average monthly cost per child was as follows:

          The lowest average was $11.19, in the year 1929 - 1930, and the highest, $14.44, in 1925 - 1926.  Peculiarly, the average cost did not correspond to the general direction of the cost of the system.  Graph VII, on the following page, shows the irregularity of the trend.

 GRAPH VII

AVERAGE MONTHLY COST PER CHILD

1921-1930

 Teachers
 

          The standards governing the qualifications of teachers changed during Lunsford’s administration.  Instead of measuring teachers by types of certificates held, the Board laid stress on the number of years of college education each had.  In spite of these improved standards, however, the number of teachers fulfilling the maximum requirements was smaller than ever before.  The number holding baccalaureate degrees and first grade certificates decreased.  In 1921 - 1922 there were of the 150 teachers, eighty with B.A. degrees (see Table XV).  By 1924 - 1925, there were only thirty-two of the 124 teachers with baccalaureate degrees and thirty-eight with first grade certificates.  It had been worse than that the previous year when out of a total of 141 there were only thirty-one with B.A. degrees, and eighteen with first grade certificates.  The system of measurement changed in 1925 - 1926 but even so only about forty percent of the teachers held baccalaureate degrees in that year.  By 1930, two teachers held Master’s degrees and approximately the same forty per cent had baccalaureate degrees.

TABLE XV

QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS

1921-1930

        The teachers’ salaries which had increased so rapidly during McCollister’s administration fell steadily to a point below the pre-war stage.  The salaries of the men were not affected as greatly as the women, probably because most of the positions held by them were those of principal, coach, and agriculture teacher.  Table XVI shows the average monthly salary of the men and women up to 1926 and of the elementary and secondary teachers after that up to 1930. 

TABLE XVI

AVERAGE MONTHLY SALARIES OF TEACHERS

1921-1930

         *Salaries of Elementary Teachers

        **Salaries of Secondary Teachers

         Teachers’ homes had been provided in two of the school districts as early as McCollister's administration.  A third was built in the year 1923 - 1924, and two others in 1924 - 1925, making a total of five homes.  These constituted a valuable supplement for the teacher’s salary, as well as providing more comfortable living condition for them.  

          The graph on the following page shows the downward trend of the average monthly salaries of all the teachers.

  GRAPH VIII

AVERAGE MONTHLY SALARIES OF TEACHERS

1921-1930

Transportation

          Consolidation could never have become a major factor in school administration without the automobile, and, of course, automobile roads.  Motor transfers came very slowly; the first was at Merryville 1916 or 1917, and this did not extend the area of consolidation, but by making two trips replaced two wagon routes in different directions. (6)  The original truck chassis with homemade body, with curtain protection for weather served a great purpose in its day; it fought the first battle for adequate roads, and pointed the way to a modern system of school consolidation in rural sections.  With a consolidation program that included almost the whole of the parish came the realization that in the school administration of the future, transportation will always be a major item.  It was at this point that the School Board provided for factory-built school buses on its entire system.  This fleet of forty-one buses was the first parish-wide modernization of school transportation in Louisiana. (7)   The practice is almost universal now, and certain features of the regulations of the School Board at that time have become definite policies of the State School Board.
 

          The effect of increased consolidation upon transportation costs was naturally to increase them.  The per capita costs declined in the first year of Lunsford’s administration, and even though it increased in later years, it never went as high as it was in the years from 1918 to 1920.  It fell in 1929-1930 to $2.94, some sixteen cents more than the cost in 1915-1916.

          Table XVII shows the cost of transportation, the number of vehicles used, the number of children served, and the average monthly cost per child.  The total cost increased from $26,650.72 in 1921-1922 to as high as $56,802.15 in 1925-1926.  The number of transfers increased steadily from twenty-six in 1921-1922 to sixty-two in 1929-1930, proportionately with the number of children, which increased from 768 to 1689 over the period.

 TABLE XVII

TRANSPORTATION

1921-1930

Enrollment  

          The enrollment in the schools of Beauregard Parish decreased steadily from 4907 in 1921 - 1922 to 3095 in 1929 - 1930.  The enrollment of both the high school and the elementary grades decreased, but in proportion the elementary grades decreased to a greater extent.  In 1921 - 1922 the high school comprised 11.5 percent of the entire enrollment, while in 1929 - 1930, 22.3 percent of the students were enrolled in the high school.  Table XVIII shows the number of pupils enrolled in the secondary and elementary schools and the total number enrolled in the parish for each of the years of Lunsford’s administration. 

 TABLE XVIII

ENROLLMENT

1921-1930

Length of Session

          The school terms during Lunsford’s administration were all of nine month duration in spite of the shortage of funds, the number of days fluctuating between 169 and 180.

Provision for Out-of-the-Way Students

          Some families in Beauregard Parish lived nearer to the schools in the neighboring parishes of Calcasieu, Allen, and Jefferson Davis than to those in their own parish.  Residents of the neighboring parishes were in a similar position. In order that the children of these families be educated to the best advantage without incurring excessive transportation charges, agreements were made among the administration heads of these parishes whereby pupils could attend those schools nearest their homes, tuition being paid for those attending out-of-the-parish schools at the rate of the average cost per child in the parish.  For this purpose the Beauregard Parish paid out the following sums:  1926 - 1927, $2,012.48; 1927 - 1928, $285.76; 1928 - 1929, $669.78; 1929 - 1930, $789.94.  The large sum paid out in 1926 - 1927 was the accumulation of the tuition fees from 1920 to that year.

SUMMARY

          The administration of D. G. Lunsford as Superintendent of the Beauregard Parish Schools was characterized by an intensive drive toward consolidation of the schools.  As consolidation took place, the number of school districts decreased as did the value and amount of property owned by the Board, and the cost of the operation of the school system.  The standards of the teachers were raised but the teacher did not measure up to them as fully as during the previous administration.  The cost of transportation per capita declined as more children made use of the buses.  According to Superintendent Lunsford, this period might be summarized as follows: (8)

The liquidation of the larger portion of the outstanding debts, the absorption, not liquidation, of the large capital investment represented in the abandoned houses, and the development of a parish-wide consolidated high school system, are features of the period of 1921 - 1930, and they are notable, only when considered in view of the fact that they were accomplished without interruption of school terms, or slighting  the type of educational service rendered to the children of the parish.

 CHAPTER IV

THE ADMINISTRATION OF SUPERINTENDENT K. R. HANCHEY

          The election of K. R. Hanchey as superintendent of the Beauregard Parish Schools by the School Board took place on July 29, 1930. (1)  The new Superintendent took office under inauspicious circumstances.  Lunsford’s program of consolidation had finally prevailed in the public mind and the attitude of the populace was favorable, but the extent to which the school system had plunged into debt coupled with the financial status of the country at large following the stock market crash of 1929 made conditions rather precarious.  To Superintendent Hanchey was given the task of restoring the financial balance of the parish school system in a period characterized by lack of balance and by unrest.  That he succeeded is evident from the fact that in his seven years of incumbency, the general fund became clear of debt, the only financial obligation remaining in the parish being a bonded debt incurred for the purpose of constructing the DeRidder school plant.   

The Schools

           The consolidation movement had been pushed to completion by Lunsford, so that when Hanchey became Superintendent there was only one school in each ward in the parish.  The Longville High School, having burned in the year 1931 was replaced by an elementary school, and a high school was built in Ward Six, taking care of the high school pupils of Ward Four, named Kernan, which has recently been changed to Ragley.  The following table lists the names of the seven high schools of the parish and each of the schools that went to make them. 

TABLE XIX 

CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS IN BEAUREGARD PARISH

Financial Support

        The sources of income for the school system of Beauregard Parish had been greatly curtailed in the few years preceding Superintendent Hanchey’s election.  The decline in the value of property with the depletion of the timber resources and its accompanying removal of industries had brought about a lowering of the assessment in the parish and a corresponding lowering of the receipts of revenue from parish and district taxes (see Table XX).  The assessment had decreased for $10,700,000 in 1930 - 1931 to $5,522,507 in 1936 - 1937.  By this time it had become the fixed policy of the State Department of Education for the state to supply as much of the money for the current maintenance of the state school system as possible.  By 1936-1937 the state was supplying about 50 percent of the total maintenance fund in the state, and from 75-90 percent in some of the poorer parishes, (2) of which Beauregard was one.  Approximately three-fourths of this money was distributed on the basis of the number of educables, the remaining fourth taking the form of an equalizing fund.  The following graph shows the relative amounts received by Beauregard Parish from the state on the basis of the number of educables, as shown by the broken line, and the amount received for equalization.

TABLE XX 

SOURCES OF MONEY

1930-1937

GRAPH IX

RECEIPTS FROM STATE SOURCES

          It can be seen that while the amount received per educable increased slowly at a natural rate, the amount needed for equalization decreased between 1931 and 1933, but after that it advanced rapidly to an excessive figure in 1936 - 1937.  In that year 78.1 percent of the funds were received from state sources. (3)

          Other receipts which dwindled during Superintendent Hanchey’s administration were district and ward taxes which were prohibited by the state legislature except for building purposes.  Poll taxes were discontinued, severance taxes declined as a result of the depletion of natural resources, and the proceeds from the parish constitutional tax of five mills decreased as a result of the shrinkage of property values in the parish.

          Table XXI summarizes the total cost of the school system for the period, and shows the average monthly cost per child.

TABLE XXI

TOTAL COST OF SCHOOL SYSTEM

1030-1937

          From $13.63 in 1930 - 1931 the average monthly cost per child increased to $14.22 in 1931 - 1932, decreasing greatly in the following year to $9.21.  It had not returned to its former height by 1936 - 1937 when the average cost was $10.86.

          Table XXII shows the channels into which the school funds were diverted from 1930 - 1937.  The three largest individual items of expense were instruction, auxiliary agencies, and debt service. 

TABLE XXII

DISPOSITION OF MONEY

1930-1937

        The cost of instruction varied from $143,114 in 1930 - 1931 to $57,193 in 1933 - 1934, and back to $108,543 in 1936 - 1937.  The difference in the cost of instruction in the various years was hardly caused from the number of teachers as the number varied only from 95 to 106.  The average salary, however, was greatly reduced (see Table XXIII).  The average salary for 1930 - 1931 was $103.55, which fell to $91.69 in 1934 - 1935.  The minimum salary was $70.00 in 1930 - 1931, and decreased to $65.00 in 1932 - 1933, while the maximum salary of $300 decreased to $255.  Even with such drastic reductions, the Board was unable to supply the entire amount of money necessary for the maintenance of the schools, and was forced in 1931 - 1932 to issue scrip in lieu of some salaries; $300 of the superintendent’s salary and $25,385 of the teachers’ salaries was paid in this manner.  In order to redeem this in the following year, the Board found it necessary to reduce the school term to seven months.  The session of 1933 - 1934 would likewise have been cut if federal aid had not been forthcoming.  In 1934 - 1935, F. E. R. A. teachers supplemented the teaching staff to permit funds to be stretched over a nine months period. 

TABLE XXIII

AVERAGE MONTHLY SALARIES OF TEACHERS

1930-1937

          Except for a slight output for health services and agricultural extension, the sum listed under auxiliary agencies was used for transportation.  This sum decreased sporadically from $78,581 in 1930 -1931 to $37,188 in 1933 -1934 after which it increased to $43,050 in 1936 -1937.  

          Table XXIV shows the total cost of transportation, the number of vehicles employed, the number of children served, and the average monthly cost per child for such service.  The number of children transported increased irregularly from 1735 in 1930 - 1931 to 2043 in 1936 - 1937, the average cost varying inversely to it.   The number of vehicles and the total cost of the transportation varied in the same order, the costs of the 66 buses in 1930 - 1931 being $78,085.55.  This decreased to 49 vehicles at a cost of $30,809.06 in 1932 - 1933, and 44 vehicles at a cost of $36,657 in 1933 - 1934.  By 1936 - 1937 there were 56 vehicles operating at a cost of $40,780.91.

TABLE XXIV

TRANSPORTATION

1930-1937

          The amounts expended for repaying debts, however, was by far the largest item, in most cases totaling as much or more than the sum of the other two items.  The credit of the school system had been strained to the limit by the pyramiding debts of the previous years.  Failing banks and panic-stricken creditors decreed that the school system should retrench as far as possible until these accumulated debts should be paid.  Besides the aforementioned reduction in teachers’ salaries, the capital outlay was practically stopped, the costs of maintenance and operation of the schools were cut to a minimum, and the cost of transportation cut as much as feasible.  In this way extra funds were made available for the payment of debts.  In 1930 - 1931 the sum of $96,452 was expended for this purpose, $208,640 in 1931 - 1932, $129,074 in 1932 - 1933, $119,025 in 1933 - 1934, $114,598 in 1934 - 1935, $98,649 in 1935 - 1936, and $95,345 in 1936 - 1937, a total of $861,783 for the seven years.  As a result of this tremendous outlay, the indebtedness was retired to such an extent that the school credit was repaired and the school system was restored to its former financial status.  The following table shows the amount of indebtedness of the school system in 1936 - 1937.

 TABLE XXV

INDEBTEDNESS OF THE BEAUREGARD PARISH SCHOOL SYSTEM

IN 1936-1937

          In the session 1937 - 1938, the remainder of the debts against the general fund were liquidated, there being only a bonded debt of $86,900 against District No. 29, $68,000 of this being not due and the remaining $18,900 being a temporary loan. (4)  The reduction of this huge debt was probably the most significant accomplishment of Superintendent Hanchey’s administration, and can be said to characterize the period of his incumbency. 

          The enrollment for the seven years of Superintendent Hanchey’s administration remained practically constant, fluctuating between 2867 and 3026.  Table XXVI lists the number of pupils enrolled in the secondary and elementary schools and the total of both for the years 1930 - 1937.

 TABLE XXVI

ENROLLMENT

1930-1937

Qualifications of Teachers

          The standards of the teachers were not only maintained, but considerably raised during this period.  There were only two during the entire time who had less than two years of college training, and these were qualified by years of teaching experience (see Table XXVII).  Of the 99 teachers in 1930 - 1931, one had a Master’s degree, 36 had Bachelor’s degrees, 13 had three years of college training, and 43 had received two years of training in a teachers’ college.  By 1935 - 1936, out of the total of 102 teachers in the parish, two had Master’s degrees, 49 had Bachelor’s, 16 had three years of college work, and 33 had two years of college training.

TABLE XXVII

QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS

1930-1937

 CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

          When Beauregard Parish came into being in 1912, the foundation for a school system was already laid.  As a part of Calcasieu Parish, school districts had been created, school taxes had been passed, and approximately fifty schools had been built.  The further development of these schools paralleled to a certain extent that of the other schools of the state.  This development fell roughly into three periods:  the administration of Superintendent L. D. McCollister (1913 - 1921), the administration of Superintendent D.G. Lunsford (1921 - 1030), and the administration of Superintendent K. R. Hanchey (1930-       ).   These periods were, briefly speaking, characterized, respectively, by the awakening of public interest in education, the consolidation of the widely scattered schools of the parish into a ward-wide school system, and the restoration of the financial balance of the school system after its destruction by a combination of such circumstances as the depletion of the natural resources in the parish, the removal of the industrial companies, and the world-wide depression following the panic of 1929.

          In the first period the fifty or more schools created by the Calcasieu Parish School Board were combined until the number was reduced to thirty-five.  New buildings were erected by means of special taxes and donations.  The value of school property rose rapidly.  There had been no money in the school treasury at the beginning of McCollister’s term of service, but at its conclusion there were not only ample funds for current operations, but a good size bank balance.  The status of the teacher, too, had improved greatly during this period, both in training and in salary.  The average monthly salary rose from $64.72 to $125.61.  A system of transportation was inaugurated by which pupils living over two miles from school could be transported at the cost of the parish, and this service was facilitated by the improvement of the roads. By 1921 a total of 449 pupils were being transported in 20 vehicles at an average monthly cost of $5.83.  The enrollment of the schools had advanced from 3270 in 1913 - 1914 to 4696 in 1920 - 1921.  Agriculture and home economics were included in the school curriculum, and libraries had reached a rather advanced stage.

          During the second period, the 35 schools existing in 1921 had been combined into seven high schools and one elementary school, one for each of the eight wards of the parish.  It had not been easy, for Lunsford had met much opposition on all sides.  Adequate buildings had been provided for these school centers by local taxation and bond issues.  The value of school property declined sharply after 1925.  Through a combination of unfortunate circumstances the debts of the school system accumulated to an important degree, and the sources of income dwindled, necessitating a retrenchment of expenditures.  The average monthly cost per child enrolled fell from a height of $14.44 in 1925 - 1926 to $11.19.  There was some slight improvement of the qualifications of the teachers, but the average salary decreased to as low as $103 in 1926 - 1927.  As a natural accompaniment to consolidation, the number of buses increased by 1929 - 1930 to 62, transporting 1686 pupils at an average monthly cost of $2.94.  The enrollment decreased steadily to 3095 in 1929 - 1930.

          The most important development of the third period was the clearance of the debt from the general fund, which left only a bonded debt of $86,000 for one district, the major portion of that debt not being due.  The sources of income which had become very low were augmented by the state equalization fund which supplied nearly one-half of the parish school funds in 1936 - 1937.  The school term had been cut to seven months during the school year 1932 - 1933, but this contingency was averted in the following years by federal aid.  The average monthly cost per pupil of maintaining the school system decreased from $13.63 in 1930 - 1931 to $9.21 in 1932, rising in 1936 - 1937 to $10.86.  The average teacher’s salary fell to $91.69 during the depression years to rise to $102.55 by 1936 - 1937.  At that time, also, there were 56 buses transporting 2043 children at an average monthly cost of $2.22 per child.  The enrollment varied only slightly during this period, there being 2952 pupils in the eight schools in 1936 - 1937.  Qualification of teachers were higher, about fifty percent of them having B.A. degrees.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

          Annual Reports of the State Department of Education, 1913 - 1937.

          Bayne, Irman D.  The History of Education in Calcasieu Parish.  Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Louisiana State University, 1933.

          Biennial Reports of the State Superintendent of Public Education to the Governor and to the General Assembly, 1913 - 1937.

          Fortier, Alcee.  Louisiana, Vol. I.  Century Historical Association, 1914.

          Frazar, Mrs. L. E. Annals of Beauregard Parish.  Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Louisiana State University, 1933.

          Harris, T. H. History of Public Education in Louisiana.  New Orleans:  Delgado Trades School, 1924.

          Louisiana, 1927 -1928, pp.142-143.

          Minutes of the Beauregard Parish School Board. 

          The New Louisiana, 1936, p.47.

          Personal Interview with Superintendent K. R. Hanchey.

          Personal Interview with Superintendent D. G. Lunsford.

          Personal Interview with Superintendent L. D. McCollister.

          Scroggs, W. O. The Story of Louisiana, New York:  The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1936.

 BIOGRAPHY

          Jennings B. Pugh was born October 15, 1898, near the present town of Singer, in Beauregard Parish, Louisiana.  He attended the Singer School until he reached the eleventh grade, when he went to the Louisiana Industrial Institute at Ruston, there finishing the eleventh grade and a two-year course in Mechanical Engineering.  In 1924 he received his B. A. degree from that institution, then called Louisiana Polytechnic Institute. 

          He began his teaching career in 1919 as assistant principal of the Singer School, in which capacity he served for five years when he was transferred to Longville School, also as assistant principal.  In the session 1923 - 1924 he served as principal of the Longville High School, after which he quit teaching for five years.   In 1930 he returned to the profession as principal of Singer High School where he is now employed. 

          In 1926 he was married to Miss Florence Watson of Singer, and has two sons.

          He is now a candidate for the Master’s degree in the Department of Education in the Louisiana State University.

FOOTNOTES

CHAPTER I

1.    1.  T. H. Harris, History of Public Education in Louisiana.  New Orleans:  Delgado Trade School, 1924.

2.    2.  See Bibliography in Appendix A.

3.    3.  Mrs. L. E. Frazar, Annals of Beauregard Parish, Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Louisiana State University, 1933.

4.    4.  W. O. Scroggs, The Story of Louisiana, New York:  The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1936, pp.204 - 206.

5.    5.  I. D. Bayne, The History of Education in Calcasieu Parish, Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Louisiana State University, 1933, pp.1 - 2 .

6.    6.  The New Louisiana, 1936, p.47.

7.    7.  Louisiana.  1927 -1928, p. 142 - 143.

8.    8.  T. H. Harris, History of Public Education in Louisiana, New Orleans:  Delgado Trade School, 1924.

9.     9. I. D. Bayne, The History of Education in Calcasieu Parish,  Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Louisiana State University, 1933.

CHAPTER  II

1.     1.  Minutes of the Beauregard Parish School Board, January 7, 1913.

2.     2.  Ibid.,  April 22, 1913.

3.     3.  Annual Report of the State Superintendent of Public Education to the Governor and the General Assembly.  1914.

4.     4.  Minutes of the Beauregard Parish School Board, December 9, 1913.

5.     5.  Ibid.,  July 17, 1914.

6.     6.  Ibid., September 6, 1913.

7.     7.  Ibid.,   July 13, 1920.

8.     8.  Ibid.,  June 5, 1913.

9.     9.  Ibid.  July 13, 1920.

CHAPTER III

1.     1.  Minutes of the Beauregard Parish School Board, July 29, 1930.

2.     2.  T. H. Harris, History of Public Education in Louisiana, New Orleans:  Delgado Trade School, 1924, p. 108.

3.     3.  Minutes of the Beauregard Parish School Board, March, 13, 1928.

4.    4.  T. H. Harris, op. cit., p. 106.

5.     5.  Personal Interview with Superintendent D. G. Lunsford, January 24, 1939.

6.     6.  Ibid.

7.     7.  Ibid.

8.     8.  Ibid.

CHAPTER IV

1.    1.  Minutes of the Beauregard Parish School Board, July 29, 1931.

2.     2.  Biennial Report of the State Superintendent of Education, 1938, p. 25.

3.     3.  Ibid.

4.     4. Annual Report to the State Department of Education, 1937 - 1938.

 

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