Colored School
H. R. Jones, principal.
Tom Rutherford Jr., A. B. Turner, Lena Jones, Alice Shaw, and Maggie Hodge. The organization of this school has not been perfected, and the grades are not yet assigned.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas (007)
Tuesday, August 29, 1933
Local Schools to Begin Session on September 18th
The Mt. Pleasant public schools will begin their year's work on September 18th, according to Superintendent P. E. Wallace.
This date is somewhat later than usual, and the delay was caused by the new rural aid school law, which permits transfer of pupils from other school districts for the advanced grades. The set-up to provide transportation from other communities to Mt. Pleasant has taken considerable time, and has not yet been completed.
The new law bringing additional pupils here has made it necessary to enlarge the teaching force in the Mt. Pleasant schools to take care of the larger student body and the buildings will be rather crowded in the future as a result. In order to partially care for this situation, the seventh grade will no longer be taught at the high school building, but will remaps in the ward schools in the future.
The faculty for the schools for the coming year is as follows:
High School
P. E. Wallace, superintendent.
E. C. Brice, principal, and Mathematics.
A. L. Bennett, English.
H. W. Bullock, Spanish and coach.
H. L. Graham, History.
Miss Theresa Moore, Home Economics.
R. C. Morris, Science.
D. E. Peel, Latin.
J. R. Reynolds, History.
L. W. Vance, Mathematics.
C. P. Vickery, Vocational Agriculture.
Miss Cornelia Varner, English.
Warren Swan, Spanish.
West Ward
A. Winton, principal.
Mrs. Joe Black.
Mrs. J. R. Reynolds.
Mrs. Jesse Newman.
Miss Katherine Ford.
Miss Lelda Cargile.
Miss Ernestine Mason.
East Ward
Mrs. P. E. Wallace.
B. C. Pierce, principal.
Mrs. Vivian Fowler.
Miss Ruth Dansby.
Miss Annie Simms.
Miss Lena Mary Lundy.
Miss Bess Darby.
Colored School
H. R. Jones, principal.
A. B. Turner.
Tom Rutherford Jr.
Hattie Fortson.
Maggie Hodge.
Lena Jones.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas (007)
Friday, July 6, 1934
Colored School Gets Affiliation
Superintendent P. E. Wallace received notice Saturday that the colored high school of Mt. Pleasant has been made an accredited unit of the State affiliation system for schools of this kind, and has been given Class B credit.
The local colored school is recognized as one of the best in this part of the State.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Thursday, December 12, 1935
COLORED FOOTBALL TEAMS PLAY FRIDAY
We have been informed that the football teams of the colored schools of Mt. Pleasant and Mineola will play a game at the fair grounds Friday afternoon. Those who have seen these colored boys play say that they give a good performance with plenty of excitement.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Wednesday, May 26, 1937
Local School For Colored Is One of Best In the State
Every Teacher In The Organization Has a College Degree
As a result of a competition between the Booker T. Washington High School, local institution for colored students, and the other Negro schools of the state, it has recently been found that it is listed with only one other in the state as to standing and efficiency.
According to P. E. Wallace, Superintendent of the Mt. Pleasant school system, the Booker T. Washington school and one other are the only two colored high school institutions in Texas that require all teachers to have college degrees.
It was also pointed out that during the 1936-37 term the enrollment, including transfers, was 434, with an average daily attendance of 345, an excellent record in this type of institution. The recent graduating class, the largest in the history of the school, totaled eighteen.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Thursday, October 5, 1939
NEGRO FOOTBALL GAME AT STADIUM TONIGHT
The football team of the Booker T. Washington high school, colored, will play the Marietta team at the high school stadium tonight, and the principal, Tom Rutherford, assures you that this will be a good game because Marietta has a team which beat Gilmer last week.
Everybody is urged to come out and see the colored boys play, because there will be plenty of thrills because they all fight hard to win. You will not only get your money's worth, but encourage the local colored boys.
Mt. Pleasant Times Review, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Friday, October 29, 1948 -Section 6, Page 1
New Building Completed This Year
White And Colored Schools Enlarged This Year; Structures Added, Others Remodeled
There is no better way to study the growth of any community than to tabulate the increases, year by year, in enrollment in the schools of that community, and Mt. Pleasant's expansion over a period of years is definitely reflected in the school system.
There is very little known of the early schools of Mt. Pleasant and Titus County, with the exception that the first structure built for the purpose was a small frame building of one story, un-ceiled, and located about two or three blocks southwest of what is now the public square. Classes there were taught by a man by the name of Burnet Hill.
Other schools were built at later intervals. One of these was in the eastern portion of the town and was directed by J. F. Murray, and later still another one was developed on the west side by Dillahunti and Braswell.
Nearing the end of the last century, the schools were coordinated into a two-story frame building then owned by the Masonic Lodge. This soon became inadequate, however, and in 1897 another larger frame building was erected.
Within a few years, the town expanded rather rapidly and plans were completed for two modern structures, one of which was designed as a central building to house all grades from the primary through high school, and the other to accommodate only grammar school grades. They were appropriately named Central and East Ward, and both of these buildings, though remodeled to some extent, still stand.
During the school year of 1925, Central high school, a three-story brick and concrete building on North Jefferson, between Sixth and Seventh streets, was condemned by state officials as unsafe. Rather than to abandon the whole structure, the local school board decided to remove the top story and convert it into a grammar school, and at the same time begin construction of an entirely new high school. With the completion of this work, Mt. Pleasant then had three modern buildings for instruction of her children, but by 1938 all were so congested that still further expansion was needed.
Through the help of the Federal Works Agency and the Public Works Administration, the local board contracted for and built the present day junior high school and at the same time added a combination auditorium-gymnasium, both beautiful structures located adjacent to the high school.
The completed project gave Mt. Pleasant five educational building for the accommodation of White pupils and one for colored. Little history is available on the growth and expansion of Booker T. Washington high school for Negroes. For years, though, classes were taught in a frame building that was poorly equipped. In recent years, however, a fine brick structure was erected in the southwest part of the city, but even then, many needed facilities were left out.
At the close of World War II, Mt. Pleasant's school became so overly crowded from a sudden growth of the city that it was apparent that a large building program would have to be undertaken if modern teaching standards were to be maintained, and to most this need the board of trustees called an election to allow the patrons of the district to vote on a $175,000 bond issue.
The issue carried without any difficulty but the bonds did not provide enough money to do all that was planned by the board and so the old west ward structure, known for years as Central High School, was put up for sale and the district realized about $30,000 out of it.
By combining this sum with the $175,000 in bonds the school board had enough funds on hand to build a complete new west ward; to remodel and enlarge the east ward; to add a new building for Booker T. Washington; to redecorate all the other buildings; to provide cafeterias at each; to add complete new equipment for both the east and west ward structures, and to set up a group of army barracks and to convert them into visual aid buildings. All of this was completed at the beginning of the 1948 school term.
Already it is apparent that more school expansion will be needed in a few years, for Mt. Pleasant is continuing to grow and her schools must keep in step with the times.
To give the reader a more definite picture of what has been the growth of the schools in Mt. Pleasant, we can go back to 1915, the earliest year for which complete records have been kept, and we will find a total enrollment of 464 white students in all buildings, and 222 Negroes. These figures pushed upward, year by year, until at the close of the 1947-1948 term there were 1,180 white students in the system and 558 Negroes.
The 1948-1949 term will increase those figures by approximately five per cent.
LEONARD - THIS WAS A PHOTO CAPTION - PHOTO WILL NOT PRINT WELL
Mt. Pleasant Times Review, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Friday, October 29, 1948 -Section 6, Page 2
Booker T. Washington High
When Booker T. Washington high school for Negroes was finished years ago it lacked many of the conveniences accepted as necessities today. However these facilities were added during the past summer, along with an entirely new annex not shown in the above picture. It is located in the southwest part of the city.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Monday, August 22, 1949
Mt. Pleasant School System Starts
New Term With Its Biggest Budget
The budget for the Mt. Pleasant schools will be $287,774 for the coming school fiscal year, Superintendent Ray D. Brown announces. This figure is an increase of $79,996 over last year's budget of $207,778.
Cost of maintaining and operating Mt. Pleasant schools and payments on bonds are included in the proposed budget. A public hearing on the budget will be held at the high school building at 8:00 p.m., Monday, Sept. 12.
Brown said cost of maintaining and operating the schools will be $267,878, which includes $197,580 for teachers' salaries and $21,045 for principals' salaries.
Bond payments and interest will be $16,896, Brown continued. Other expenses include $8,000 for operating lunch rooms, $4,000 for utilities, $9,000 for janitors' salaries and supplies, $2,500 for insurance, $2,600 for a school nurse and nurse supplies, $4,000 for supervisor's salary, $3,000 for building maintenance and new equipment, and $12,600 for school administration, which includes the superintendent's salary, school secretary, tax collector and assessor, and office supplies.
The $1.50 school tax rate has been divided so that $1.10 will go for school maintenance and 40c for retiring bonded indebtedness. Th" tax rate will provide $76,500 in revenue. Additional income will include $97,962 from the state per capita payments and $109,001 will be provided by the state through the foundation program funds provided for in the recent Gilmer-Aikin school legislation and $8,000 from federal funds for hot lunch programs.
Brown said the state's contribution is $87,465 more than last year's amount, although the per capita allowance dropped from $55 to $50. The