Hughes School District 27 was a public school district based in

Hughes, Arkansas Hughes is a city in St. Francis County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 1,441 at the 2010 census, a decline from 1,867 in 2000. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

until it closed in Summer 2015 due to declining enrollment. The school district encompassed of land in St. Francis County and Crittenden County. It included Hughes, Horseshoe Lake, and the St. Francis County section of Jennette. Note: Since the production of the map, the Hughes School District merged into the West Memphis school district in 2015 Note: Since the production of the map, the Hughes School District merged into the West Memphis school district in 2015

History

Prior to

desegregation Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...

circa 1970, white and black children attended separate schools. Sheryl Owens became superintendent in 2013. She was the final person to hold the position of superintendent and the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

woman in the Hughes district to do so.

Enrollment decline and closure

According to Owens, circa 1996 enrollments declined gradually, and then around 2006 became severe. Owens stated that prospective teachers were wary of going to work for a district that could be forcefully consolidated in the future, and so the district had issues with recruitment. Under Arkansas law Act 60, the state can forcefully merge a school district which has fewer than 350 total students for a consecutive period of two years with another school district. The Hughes district had, in the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years, 348 students and 344 students, making it eligible to be merged. As the state determined that the district had financial problems, it was not eligible to apply for a waiver to stay open under House Bill 1263. In the 2014–2015 school year the Hughes district created a petition asking for a consolidation with the

Forrest City School District Forrest City School District 7 (FCSD) is a school district headquartered in Forrest City, Arkansas. In addition to Forrest City it serves other areas in central St. Francis County, including Caldwell, Colt, Madison, and Widener. The board h ...

, one which the district community anticipated would allow Hughes to keep an elementary school. However the Forrest City district stopped supporting the petition. The reason cited was that the Forrest City district was afraid of lawsuits surrounding the Hughes district. On April 9, 2015, the

Arkansas Board of Education Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage la ...

voted to consolidate the Hughes district with the

West Memphis School District West Memphis School District is a public school district that is headquartered in West Memphis, Arkansas, United States, covering sections of Crittenden and St. Francis counties. It serves most of West Memphis, the municipalities of Anthonyvi ...

Post-closure

The West Memphis district took possession of the buildings, then gave them to the Hughes municipal government in 2016. Denisa R. Superville of ''

Education Week ''Education Week'' is an independent news organization that has covered K–12 education since 1981. It is owned by Editorial Projects in Education (EPE), a nonprofit organization, and headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland in Greater Washington ...

'' stated that "The squat, brick buildings that were part of the Hughes district are in various stages of disrepair." The high school gymnasium was leased at no cost to the police chief, who made it into an after school center. Former Hughes board member Lincoln Barnett stated that several area businesses, as a result of the district closure, encountered financial problems. Hughes School District, in its existence, employed the largest number of people in Hughes.

Demographics

In the 2014–2015 school year the district had 318 students. There were students in the area who instead attended other Arkansas school districts or private schools, with many white students in private school. The percentage of Hughes school district students allowed to have free or reduced lunches, a sign of poverty, was 94%.

Academic performance

In 2014 the percentage of students passing benchmarks in state examinations in math and English reading was 45.8%. In the 2014-2015 year the state ranked the school district as "needs improvement", the second lowest rating.

Schools

The schools' mascot and athletic emblem was the ''Blue Devil'' with royal blue and white as the school colors. * Mildred Jackson Elementary School, served prekindergarten through grade 6. ** In the

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

period it served as the school for black children. In 2015 the State of Arkansas gave the school a "D" rating in its accountability rules. *

Hughes High School Hughes High School (HHS) was an accredited comprehensive public middle and high school located in Hughes, Arkansas, a part of the Hughes School District, until its entire school district was closed due to declining enrollment in 2015. The Hughe ...

, served grades 7 through 12.

References

External links

* * {{Defunct school districts in Arkansas Education in Crittenden County, Arkansas Education in St. Francis County, Arkansas Defunct school districts in Arkansas 2015 disestablishments in Arkansas School districts disestablished in 2015