Hardin, Arkansas

Last updated

Hardin is an unincorporated area in Washington Township, Jefferson County, Arkansas. [1]

Contents

It is on U. S. Highway 270. [2]

Education

Residents are in the Pine Bluff School District. [3] It is in a non-continuous part of the district, separated from the rest by the White Hall School District. [4] Students are zoned to Park/Greenville School for preschool, James Matthews Elementary School, Robert F. Morehead Middle School, and Dollarway High School.

History of education

Hardin previously had its own school district: it had elementary and junior high school levels, grades 1–9, in a two building facility, with one building newer than the other. The district paid for high school students to attend other schools. The district also had a residence for teachers. [2] The school was reserved for white children. [4] A fire destroyed the more recent building in either 1947 or 1948. A legal document stated "At that time the District was probably under some pressure to merge into a larger district" and that the fact that the Dollarway School District sent high school students to Pine Bluff High School of the Pine Bluff School District is possibly why the Hardin district chose to merge into the Dollarway district instead of an adjacent district. The building destroyed by fire was not rebuilt. [2] Dollarway annexed the Hardin school district in 1948. [5]

Hardin Elementary remained as its own school. [5] By the mid-20th century in the Dollarway district, black students in the district attended area black schools for black children and continued to Pine Bluff School District's Merrill High School while white students had a choice between Pine Bluff High School in the Pine Bluff district, Watson Chapel High School in the Watson Chapel School District, and White Hall High School in the White Hall district. [6] Four schools for black children combined into Townsend Park Elementary in 1951. In 1952 a junior high building in the Dollarway complex for white children opened. [7] In 1955 the district opened a high school for black children, Townsend Park High School, and in 1957 it opened Dollarway High School for white children, partly because in 1955 the Pine Bluff district stopped taking Dollarway students. [7]

Hardin Elementary closed in 1964. [5] A legal document stated "that building or its facilities came in need of substantial repairs or renovations which the District was unwilling or unable to make". [2] Pinecrest Elementary School had opened in 1961 to take overflow students from the Hardin area. [7]

In the late 1960s the Hardin area had 270 students at Dollarway schools, with five of them being black. [8]

Some Hardin parents advocated for re-separating the Hardin school district; on September 11, 1969, they voted to leave the Dollarway district, with the county board of education making a move to change funding. [5] The vote to separate was on a narrow margin. However the US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas blocked the split on the grounds that it was interfering with desegregation efforts as those were based upon the Hardin are staying in the district; the court stated that Hardin could split again once desegregation efforts ended. [2] John B. Pickhardt, an alumnus of University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, wrote that opposition to being in Dollarway had built up over decades partly due to the 1964 closure of the Hardin school and partly because the Dollarway board of education chose not to appoint anybody from Hardin to vill a vacancy, even though the perception elsewhere in the district was that Hardin residents did not want racially integrated schools. [5]

In 1969 Townsend Park High consolidated into Dollarway High, with junior high levels also combined into Dollarway Junior High. Elementary schools were consolidated in 1970, with grades 1–2 at Dollarway Elementary, grade 3 at Pinecrest, and grades 4–6 at Townsend Park elementary. [9]

In December 2020 the Arkansas State Board of Education ruled that the Dollarway School District should merge into the Pine Bluff School District as of July 1, 2021; the post-merger school district is to operate all existing schools from both districts. [10] Accordingly, the attendance boundary maps of the respective schools remained the same for the 2021–2022 school year, and all DSD territory became a part of the PBSD territory. [11] The exception was with the pre-kindergarten levels, as all PBSD areas are now assigned to Forrest Park/Greenville School, including the territory from the former Dollarway district. [12] In 2023 the district announced that Dollarway High would merge into Pine Bluff High School, and that Morehead Middle School would become the only middle school for all of the Pine Bluff School District. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altheimer, Arkansas</span> City in Arkansas, United States

Altheimer is a city in Plum Bayou Township, Jefferson County, Arkansas, United States. It is situated on the Union Pacific Railway, 11 miles (18 km) northeast of Pine Bluff. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 984, down from 1,192 at the 2000 census. As of 2018 the estimated population was 829 and was down to 696 in the 2020 Census, with zero change estimated in 2021 and 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pine Bluff, Arkansas</span> City in Arkansas, United States

Pine Bluff is the 10th most populous city in the US state of Arkansas and the county seat of Jefferson County. It is the principal city of the Pine Bluff Metropolitan Statistical Area and part of the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Pine Bluff Combined Statistical Area. The population of the city was 41,253 in the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sherrill, Arkansas</span> Town in Arkansas, United States

Sherrill is a town in Plum Bayou Township, Jefferson County, Arkansas, United States. Its population was 84 at the 2010 U.S. census. It is included in the Pine Bluff, Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Pine Bluff High School (PBHS) is a comprehensive public high school in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States. It, a part of the Pine Bluff School District, is the largest of three public high schools in the Pine Bluff city limits and four public high schools in Jefferson County. Established in 1868, the school's interscholastic sports programs are one of the nation's most successful with a football national championship and one of the state's highest number of state championships in football, baseball and track and field.

Watson Chapel School District No. 24 (WCSD) is a public school district serving the communities of Pine Bluff and Sulphur Springs within Jefferson County, Arkansas, United States. Headquartered in Pine Bluff, Watson Chapel School District employs over 300 faculty and staff to provide educational programs for students ranging from kindergarten through twelfth grade and enrolls more than 2,200 students.

Watson Chapel High School is a comprehensive public high school in the Watson Chapel School District in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, that serves grades 10 through 12. It is one of three public high schools in Pine Bluff and the only high school managed by the Watson Chapel School District. It serves as the main feeder school for Watson Chapel Junior High School.

White Hall High School is a public high school located in White Hall, Arkansas, United States. White Hall serves grades 9–12 for the White Hall School District.

Pine Bluff School District No. 3 (PBSD) is a school district headquartered in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The district has 10 schools with over 3,800 students and 500 employees.

White Hall School District (WHSD) is a public school district in northwest Jefferson County, Arkansas, United States. The district employs approximately 400 faculty members and staff to provide educational programs for students ranging from kindergarten through twelve grade. It currently serves more than 3,000 students. All schools in the White Hall School District are accredited by AdvancED.

Dollarway School District No. 2 (DSD) was a school district headquartered in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States. With over 1,600 students and employing more than 300 educators and staff, the district had three active school campuses at the end of its life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Dick, Arkansas</span> Unincorporated community in Arkansas, United States

Lake Dick is an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Arkansas, United States. Lake Dick is northeast of Pine Bluff and south of Altheimer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tucker, Arkansas</span> Census-designated place in Arkansas, United States

Tucker is an Unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson County, Arkansas. It is located 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Little Rock. It was first listed as a CDP in the 2020 census with a population of 95.

Wright is an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Arkansas, United States. Wright is located on Arkansas Highway 256, 7.5 miles (12.1 km) west-northwest of Sherrill. Wright has a post office with ZIP code 72182.

New Gascony, also known as Barraqué Landing, is an unincorporated community in Jefferson county, Arkansas, 13 miles (21 km) west of Pine Bluff, the county seat. It was founded by Antoine Barraqué, a 19th-century landowner, on November 29, 1832, and named for the Gascony region of France.

Sweden is an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Arkansas, United States. Sweden is located on Arkansas Highway 88, 16.1 miles (25.9 km) east of Pine Bluff. On January 22, 2012, an EF2 tornado struck Sweden, damaging grain bins and metal buildings; the tornado continued to a point northeast of Lodge Corner in Arkansas County.

Dollarway High School was a comprehensive public high school in northwest Pine Bluff, Arkansas that serves grades 9 through 12. It was one of three public high schools in Pine Bluff and was a part of the Pine Bluff School District effective July 1, 2021. Prior to that point it was the only high school managed by the Dollarway School District. Within the state, the school is often referred to as Pine Bluff Dollarway. It closed as of fall 2023.

Altheimer Unified School District No. 22, previously the Altheimer-Sherrill School District, was a school district headquartered in Altheimer, Arkansas. It served Altheimer, Sherrill, Wabbaseka, and other portions of Jefferson County, including the unincorporated areas of Lake Dick, New Gascony, Pastoria, Plum Bayou, Sweden, Tucker, and Wright. The district in the 1993-2006 period had 333 square miles (860 km2) of territory.

Merrill High School was a public secondary school in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, operated by the Pine Bluff School District. It was one of four high schools that served black students in the Pine Bluff area until the public schools were integrated in 1971.

Townsend Park High School was a segregated, all-black high school in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, operated by the Dollarway School District. As a result of the lawsuit Dove v. Parham, it was eventually merged into Dollarway High School.

Pastoria, also known as Pastoria Township, in an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Arkansas. It lost population to Sherrill, Arkansas after a rail line bypassed it in the 19th century.

References

  1. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Hardin, Arkansas
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Burleson v. COUNTY BD. OF ELECTION COM'RS OF JEFFERSON CO., 308 F. Supp. 352 (E.D. Ark. 1970)". Justia . Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  3. ↑ "2020 CENSUS - SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: Jefferson County, AR" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau . Retrieved 2021-06-29. - The map shows Dollarway School District as not yet merged into Pine Bluff School District; the merger occurred on July 1, 2021.
  4. 1 2 Pickhardt, p. 358. The source refers to the former Dollarway School District, which merged into the Pine Bluff district on July 1, 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Pickhardt, p. 385.
  6. ↑ Pickhardt, p. 359.
  7. 1 2 3 Pickhardt, p. 360.
  8. ↑ University of Detroit Journal of Urban Law . 54: 820. 1976. After these orders, the residents of the Hardin area, which had 265 white and 5 black students, petitioned[...]{{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ↑ Pickhardt, p. 386.
  10. ↑ Howell, Cynthia (2020-12-11). "State votes to combine Dollarway, Pine Bluff schools". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette . Retrieved 2021-02-23.
  11. ↑ "Annexation/Transition FAQ". Pine Bluff School District. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
  12. ↑ Murrel, I. C. (2021-06-28). "Dollarway alumni honor district". Arkansas Democrat Gazette . Retrieved 2021-07-04.
  13. ↑ Murrell, I. C. (2023-03-01). "Pine Bluff School District will consolidate junior, senior highs this fall". Arkansas Democrat Gazette . Retrieved 2023-03-03.

34°16′52″N92°09′01″W / 34.28111°N 92.15028°W / 34.28111; -92.15028

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.