by Charity Dorman Submitted by Sally Metcalf Dawson
Old Beckville never had a school but there were three schools in the vicinity. Mr. Isaac R. Youngblood gave some land for a building a few miles west of town. The building erected there was to be used as a school and also for church services. The Kuykendall school was located southwest of town and the Booty school was east of Beckville. These buildings were made of logs. The water supply came from nearby springs. The buildings had wooden shutters at the windows and were heated by fireplaces. Later glass windows were brought from Shreveport and installed. Children sat on benches made without backs. They wrote on slates and had to buy their books. The pupils were not divided into different grades, but were classified by the reader they used. All teachers were men in these first schools.The Booty school was used during the first year of the new Beckville settlement near the completed railroad. The following year a new school building was completed. It consisted of two rooms, both being seated with double benches and desks.
In 1891 a new and larger building was planned and the old one was sold to the carpenter who was employed to build the new one. Classes were held in the Baptist Church until the building was completed in the spring of 1892. The new school was located on a slope north of the depot and was known far and wide as Hewitt Institute. Dr. Edwin Walker, the present superintendent, has an office on that location at the present time. It was a wooden two-story building. All elementary grades were downstairs and the high school was upstairs. There were now five teachers and "Professor" Stewart remained as superintendent.
A fourth school was built in Beckville in 1911 a short distance north of the Hewitt Institute. This building was constructed of brick and had six classrooms. Three of them were on the second floor and could be converted into an auditorium with a raised stage. This building served the needs of Beckville until 1930.
Consolidation of the little rural schools with larger schools began in the late twenties. Some people in town had hopes that the six one-room schools in the surrounding communities would consolidate with Beckville school. After some delay, the Beckville system was joined by the following schools: Rock Hill, Scruggs, Youngblood, Harris Chapel, Broom, and Sand Hill or Sims. The enlarged district thus formed, covered 102.5 square miles.
This created a need for a new school building. A two-story building of brick was erected on the site of the old Hewitt Institute in 1930. It had thirteen classrooms, a large auditorium, and indoor toilets for pupils. Six buses brought children from outlying communities. Enrollment was 635 that year and remained at about that number for several years. Teachers were added to the faculty until in the late thirties there were nineteen. Then enrollment began to fall off as people moved away to work in defense plants. A census of 1943 shows only 362 white children of school age within the district. The faculty was limited to eleven teachers for the 1943 – 1944 term.
The gymnasium was started in August of 1946. It was of brick and was located just north of the shop. It included, the main gym with dressing rooms for both boys and girls, a stage with dressing rooms, toilet rooms, and on the south end was a cafeteria. The first meal in the new cafeteria was served February 12, 1947.
An extensive repair job began on all school buildings in 1947. All interiors were painted, windows repaired and painted, new desk chairs purchased, all lighting equipment was redone, and a new communication system was installed.
In September 1965, students had a choice of attending Sunset School or Beckville Consolidated School. In September 1966, a total integration took place and Sunset was left vacant until September 1970, when new rooms were added to Sunset and the name was changed to Beckville Elementary School. Then the first six grades were moved to that building. A new cafeteria was added to the building, which included the main kitchen that served both schools.
At the same time Sunset was being enlarged, a new red brick high school was constructed. The 1971 graduating class helped move the books, desks, and other supplies that the high school students would use that fall.
Four years later a music room and a library was added to Beckville Elementary. They were occupied for the school term of 1975-1976.
During the 1978-1979 school year the Beckville School Board voted on a bond issue for approximately three million dollars to improve the school system. It was quite an extensive building program which included the following projects: a new band hall, gymnasium, middle school, addition to high school, auditorium, vocational building, football stadium, field house and tennis courts. The old gymnasium was repaired and improved. Sixth grade was then moved to the new Beckville Middle School to join the seventh and eighth grades.
This same bond issue was used to add four more rooms to Beckville Elementary. The first and second grades moved into their new quarters at the beginning of the 1979-1980 term. An early childhood room was created by using some available space in the existing building.
The Beckville Elementary School has continued to expand as enrollment increases. Two new kindergarten rooms and a new early childhood was occupied at the beginning of the 1981-1982 term. The elementary school was still crowded so additional rooms were planned and construction started in the fall of 1982. By March of 1983 the contractors had completed the project of doubling the size of the cafeteria and building three new first grade rooms on the east side of the present school. The three first grade classes will move into new space again for the 1983-1984 term.
The construction of a new bus barn was also completed in the spring of 1983. A new cafeteria for the high school was finished in the fall of 1983.
By the fall of 1988, three second grade rooms were added and an enclosure was made for them with the three first grade rooms that had been added in 1983. The library was enlarged in 1990, and a computer lab was added for grades 2-5 in 1993. A writing-to-read lab was started in the fall of 1994. Changes are being met to meet the needs of the people.