Dollarway School District

The Beginning It was named after Dollarway Road, with a one-room school for white students opening in 1914. Initially the district only operated elementary and junior high school level education and was racially segregated; religious entities educated black students in the district's beginnings. By the mid-20th century black students were educated in area schools for black children and continued to Pine Bluff School District's Merrill High School, while white students attended the Dollarway School and then 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 School District. After World War II African-Americans moved into the district to work at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, prompting the district to build new schools to accommodate them. Dollarway annexed the Hardin school district in 1948. The four black schools were combined into Townsend Park Elementary School, which opened in 1951. 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. John B. Pickhardt, an alumnus of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, stated that the district was already spending less per capita to educate black students than white ones and so "there was little economic incentive to integrate". In June 1959 black parents sued the district after it kept refusing desegregation requests. Judge Axel J. Beck of the Eastern District of Arkansas ordered the district to allow three black children to attend Dollarway High effective fall 1959, starting anti-integration efforts in the district. However Dollarway schools remained segregated for 1959-1960 due to a stay in the courts. The district enacted testing for black students who wished to transfer. Dollarway Elementary began hosting black students on September 7, 1960, with no incidents of violence occurring. The first black student at Dollarway High began attending in January 1963. Pickhardt stated that in the 1960s the Dollarway district board of directors allowed small numbers of black students to white classes, something area anti-racial integration groups did not oppose, and that such groups did not instigate violence. This meant that little negative press appeared in the newspapers and slowed the rate at which black students appeared in area schools. As a result of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the district created a new desegregation plan involving "freedom of choice" where parents choose which school their children will attend. Due to still relatively low numbers of black students attending white schools, Pickhardt wrote that the freedom of choice plan effectively kept races separate. Late 1960s court cases however forced districts to change their freedom of choice plans to outright combine schools, and Henley ordered changes to the school system effective 1969. 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. Pickhardt 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 fill a vacancy, even though the perception elsewhere in the district was that Hardin residents did not want racially integrated schools. White flight occurred over several decades. 1970s to 2020 In 1979 the Jefferson County School District dissolved, with a portion of the students going to the Dollarway school district. In 2006 the Dollarway district was in financial distress. The Altheimer Unified School District consolidated into the Dollarway School District on July 10, 2006. and the Altheimer board also agreed to the consolidation. This consolidation meant that small towns and rural areas in northern Jefferson County, including Altheimer, Sherrill, Wabbaseka, Tucker, and Plum Bayou, became a part of the district. In addition the district operated two bus mechanic stops, with the Pine Bluff one serving the majority of the population of the district and the Altheimer one moving children from the Altheimer area to the schools in Pine Bluff. The Dollarway district, in 2007, was no longer in financial distress partly because the State of Arkansas gave the district $1,700,000 to help the district absorb the Altheimer district. From about 2008 to 2018, the poor economy of Pine Bluff prompted parents to leave the area, and accordingly, Dollarway district officials have an estimate of an enrollment decline of about 900 for the period. A 2011 State of Arkansas legislative research document stated that additionally the Dollarway district lost enrollment while the Watson Chapel and White Hall school districts' enrollment remained constant, and it concluded that Dollarway students were leaving to go to those districts and private schools and charter schools. Superintendent Arthur Tucker stated, as paraphrased by the document, "he believes some of these losses result from the poor reputation the Dollarway School District has in the area and the rundown school facilities." By 2015 a millage increase had been voted down so the majority of the board was reluctant to put another on the ballot. The Arkansas Department of Education took control of the school district in 2012 due to failing to meet state education guidelines. In 2014 state control ended and the school board resumed operations. State control resumed in 2015 due to low test scores. The State of Arkansas designated the school district as being in "academic distress" from 2011 until 2016, and after an audit found issues in financial reporting, in April 2016 the Arkansas Board of Education also ruled that the district was in "fiscal distress". the Dollarway School Board exempted the district from a state law that normally allows parents in one school district to have their children sent to attend schools in another school district. Parents from seven families, including the president of the Dollarway Parent Teacher Organization, Annie Bryant, argued against the exemption; Bryant stated that due to the large number of students on free or reduced lunch, it was clear that the students had no other choice but to go to public schools, and therefore the district ought to allow transfers. As of that year there were no persons requesting that their children be transferred from another school district to the Dollarway district. Takeover and closure In 2015 the Arkansas State Board of Education took control of the district. Barbara Warren became superintendent as per the school board naming her to the position. The Pine Bluff Commercial praised the state takeover and criticized the previously elected school boards. In 2020 the district had 921 students. 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; all seven Arkansas state education board members approved this. According to the consolidation plan, all schools of the two districts will continue to operate post-merger. Ryan Watley, the CEO of the organization Go Forward Pine Bluff, argued that Dollarway no longer was viable as an individual school district. Joni Alexander, a member of the Pine Bluff City Council, argued that the post-merger school district boundaries in effect privilege students in the White Hall School District; he pointed to the City of White Hall having fewer people than the City of Pine Bluff. The Pine Bluff Commercial stated that there was a lack of comment in the Arkansas state board of Education meetings and that there was a "lack of any significant outcry from patrons or anyone else for that matter." ==Geography==

The pre-Altheimer merger boundaries included two non-contiguous portions, each between the White Hall School District. The part to the west included unincorporated areas such as Hardin, and the part to the east mostly included unincorporated areas between the Arkansas River and Pine Bluff, with a northern part of Pine Bluff included. The merged area from the Altheimer district, with an additional of area, includes the municipalities of Altheimer, Sherrill, and Wabbaseka. It also includes the unincorporated areas of Lake Dick, New Gascony, Pastoria, Plum Bayou, Sweden, Tucker, and Wright. ==Demographics==

In the mid-1950s about 50% of the students were black and about 50% were white, with the former concentrated east of Dollarway Road, and the latter west of Dollarway Road, with the western Hardin part of the district predominately white. All 1,679 Townsend Park students were black, and of the 59 teachers, three were white. Circa 1969 there were about 270 Hardin students at Dollarway schools, 5 of them being black. Due to white flight the number of white students declined. 92% of the students were black as of 2007. In 2015, according to Bryant, about 98% of the district's students were on free or reduced lunches. Circa 2016 it had 1,171 students. In May 2020 that figure was down to 941, and by December that year it was down to 921. Its projected 2021 enrollment was 904. 901 was the enrollment in the final school year. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette stated that according to analysts, the district's cash reserves eroded because it was not pulling in as much funds as the student enrollment had declined and that bankruptcy was a possibility within several years in the future. ==Operations==

In the mid-1950s the district was spending less to educate black students than to educate white students, with $120 per capita on the former and $157 per capita on the latter. The district headquarters was, in 2012, on the same campus as Dollarway High. The 2012 Arkansas legislative document stated that as a result the workers in the two facilities were in "close proximity". ==Academic performance==

Dollarway School District is located in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and operates five schools, serving students from pre-kindergarten to grade 12. According to GreatSchools, a larger number of schools in this district are rated below average in school quality. However, students at many of the schools in this district are making about the same academic progress as the state average. Dollarway High School is the only high school in the Dollarway School District and is ranked 221-267th within Arkansas 2. The AP® participation rate at Dollarway High School is 26% and the total minority enrollment is 97% 2. The graduation rate at Dollarway High School is 75%, which is well below the state median 2. In a December 11 article, state education Secretary Johnny Key said that Dollarway “has made great strides” under Warren, noting progress in its academic program and financial management 3. “The district has made significant progress both fiscally and academically,” Key said at the time of the board vote 3. == Schools ==

Open at time of dissolution: • Dollarway High School, serving grades 9 through 12. • Robert F. Morehead Middle School, serving grades 5 through 8. • Formerly Dollarway Junior High School, it started as a school for white students, established with funding from a federal grant awarded in 1952. By 2006 it was known as Dollarway Middle School and had 458 students. • James Matthews Elementary School, located in Pine Bluff and seservesrekindergarten through grade 4. • It was built in 1987 on the former Pines Drive-In Movie Theater, with the kindergarten wing opening the following year. Circa 2001 it had about 400 students, and around that time it was only for grades K-2. In 2006 it had 283 students in grade school and 80 in preschool. • Townsend Park High School ; Elementary • Altheimer–Martin Elementary School, located in Altheimer and serving prekindergarten through grade 5. • Altheimer-Martin Elementary School, a Dollarway School District elementary school, occupied the former high school facility. The building was built in 1987. It included a gymnasium. was a school for white children. Effective 1970 it became the school for all students in grades 1-2 for the district. • In 2012 the Arkansas Delta Resource Center sought to begin using the former Pinecrest building. By 2018 the campus was not in use. The district considered demolishing the building after selling the land. • Townsend Park Elementary School, located in Pine Bluff, was a school for black children. It was east of Dollarway road. It was built next to Merrill Park, named after Merrill High School principal William J. Townsend, after the district received a federal grant to do so in 1951. It had 712 students in 1958. In 1969 it had 15 white students, even though Judge Henley wanted the school to be at least 23% white. Effective 1970 it became the school for all students in grades 4-6 for the district. By 2002 it had about 262 students and was for grades 5–6. By 2006 it had north and south campuses, with each having 245 and 248 students, respectively. == References ==