WS Harlan Elementary School is an American

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

that was honored by the

Blue Ribbon Schools Program The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...

in 2009. First known as Lockhart School and established for the mill town's children, the school started in 1903 in a three-room frame building with Mrs. Christine McLeod as the first teacher and an enrollment of 75 students. The building was also used for Sunday school classes. That building was used until 1924 when a more modern school (the current grammar school building) was constructed of materials from Jackson Lumber Company and named W.S. Harlan Consolidated School in honor of the lumber mill's manager, William Stewart Harlan, who had secured its construction before his death in 1923. The junior high building was also built of Jackson Lumber Company materials and constructed in 1939 as part of the Federal Works Agency's Public Works Administration. The grammar school building is the oldest schoolhouse in Covington County, Alabama, still functioning as an active school. The school has served various grade levels through the years, from pre-K to eighth grade, but is currently an elementary school for students pre-K to sixth grade. The designations of the two buildings as "grammar school" and "junior high school" are in recognition of the days in which the school served students K-8. No matter the age of the students, W.S. Harlan School has educated the children of the Lockhart area since it was part of the mill-town community of 1903. An Alabama Historical Association marker was unveiled at the school on December 11, 2017. On the same occasion the school's auditorium was designated the Joann Welch Geohagan Auditorium in honor of her 48 years of teaching at WSH. In 2018 the Alabama Bicentennial Commission and Governor

Kay Ivey Kay Ellen Ivey (born October 15, 1944) is an American politician serving as the 54th and incumbent governor of Alabama since 2017. Originally a conservative Southern Democrat, Ivey became a member of the Republican Party in 2002. She was the 38t ...

recognized the school as a participating bicentennial school, and WSH became an Alabama Bicentennial PastPort site for Covington County.

References

{{Coord, 31.0160129, -86.3574473, display=title Public elementary schools in Alabama Schools in Covington County, Alabama