Information Sheet

 

 

R         Laclede County (Mo.).  Superintendent of Schools.

855                  Directories, 1943-1946.

                                    One folder.

 

 

 

These are four Laclede County, Missouri, school directories, published in consecutive years (1943-1944 through 1946-1947) by County School Superintendent Hazel Ponder.  Included are district numbers and names, teachers’ names and salaries, total assessed valuations and tax rates, enrollment and average attendance, and names of members of the School Board for each district.

 

These mimeographed school directories vary little in format from year to year.  Mrs. Hazel Ponder was Superintendent for the entire period.  The first page is a listing of state and local office holders.  Subsequent pages contain lists of “high school districts,” one-room schools, and two-room schools.   The last page contains summary statistics for the entire county.

 

At that time Laclede County had four “high school districts” (Lebanon, Conway, Phillips­burg, and Competition).  The “rural” districts contained a single one- or two-room schoolhouse.  The rural schools are listed in numerical order for each category (one-room or two-room), and in­clude the name of the school, assessed valuation and tax rate, enrollment and average daily atten­dance, and names and addresses of members of the local school board.  The name of each teacher is included, along with his or her monthly salary, experience in years, and hours of college study.

 

During this period the total “enumeration” of school-age children fell from 5,112 in 1943-1944 to only 4,677 in 1945-1946, before recovering to 4,719 in 1946-1947.  In 1943-1944 there were 66 one-room schoolhouses, 11 two-room buildings, 6 “transported rural schools,” and 4 high schools.  In 1946-1947 there were still 87 schools, but only 61 were one-room, 8 were two-room, and 14 were “transported rural schools.”

 

Only one school, Sumner School in Lebanon, was identified as “colored.”  It offered no high school course in 1943-1944 and 1944-1945, but did so in 1945-1946 and 1946-1947, al­though just one teacher taught all of the classes.

 

 

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