Chapter Twenty-Five

Education and Schools 1930-1976

By: Mary Martin

Page 432-436

"With the ropes of the past let us ring the bells of the future."... Anonymous.

With six fine high schools operating within the borders of the county, the most skeptical had to admit that a great work had been done by the Marion County Board of Education.

In the County School Notes of August 23, 1930, Mr. P. V. Blankenship, County School Superintendent, stated that a number of good school buses had been bought for the transportation of pupils in the larger schools.

That year the buses reached only main roads in each district with children meeting the bus at the nearest point to their homes. The enrollment for the entire school at Yellville-Summit was 428. Bruno reached a high school enrollment of 100, and Flippin senior high school reached 110.

The buses were not the type with heating facilities and all of them were not equipped with padded seats. A typical bus about that time was somewhat like this-a continuous seat front to back, one on either side and one called the "straddle board" down the center. This was the main bus. For shorter routes the buses, similarly made, were on the beds of 1/2-ton pickup trucks. These buses were usually individually owned. The bus owners were paid from the schools' operating funds.

Each district received money from millage voted by its patrons and revenue from industries such as railroads, mines, etc.

The 1920's with post-war inflation had given people high hopes of advancing educationally. However, the depression plus the drouth of the 1930's caused numerous unforeseen problems. At that time farming was the dominant means of livelihood for most Marion County families. The closing of banks, the drop in prices of livestock, and no rain to grow cotton, grain crops and vegetables caused hardships that are difficult for anyone who has not experienced such to realize.

As the old saying "Where there's a will, there's a way" goes, the natives of the county did not quit but sought a means of better educating their children. One set of books (bought by the parents) often had to last from year to year for a family of five or six children. Clothes well worn but patched and clean were handed down from child to child or given to someone who could wear them.

Teachers in the larger schools taught for $50 per month in warrants. Those warrants were discounted by 25% to obtain cash, at first. However, as time went on and the economic situation grew tighter, it was hard to even exchange warrants to pay taxes. Fortunate indeed were they who could hold those warrants for two or three years and receive the full amount for them.

Some of the smaller districts were fortunate enough to have money to pay the teacher $35 or $40 per month cash. The teachers did the janitor work and other tasks along with the teaching. These terms of school were usually short.

It was not until after WW II that the average teacher received as much as $100 per month in Marion County.

Educators could see the need for advancement and for better methods of teaching. Thus, required teacher training came into existence all over the state. Extension courses were offered in Yellville and Harrison. Teachers and anyone else who wished would work all day then go to classes one night each week for sixteen weeks to obtain three hours of college credit. At times teachers who were working toward a college degree formed car pools from different areas in the county and drove to Harrison after school, stayed in class for three hours, drove home and were ready for classes by eight o'clock the next day.

On Saturdays some Marion County teachers drove to Conway, sat in classes for six hours, drove back home and readied things for the next week's school by Monday morning. Those trips to and from classes were beneficial to educators. Discussions of ideas and methods of handling certain problems were probably as informative as many of those required three-hour classes. It was not all seriousness. Exchanging quotes from children in the classrooms were amusing and interesting.

The teacher turnover throughout the county from the 1940's until the present time has been at a low percentage. Each of the larger schools has had a number of teachers staying with them for twenty years. Several have stayed for twenty-five years or more.

A report on the Yellville-Summit School Follows:

HIGHLIGHTS

The Flippin school had made rapid growth in the late 1920's. It was guided through the 1930's and early 1940's by an efficient school board and a school superintendent, Mr. G. B. Keeter, who held the respect and confidence of the majority of the patrons of the district.

Mr. Keeter stayed with the school for fifteen years. During those years he had seen the first graduating class of six in 1929 grow into classes of twenty or more. After the depression hit and the banks closed, he stayed on. Often he took any other work he could get to help support his family. He did not stop with being superintendent-he taught American history, Latin, math or any other subject necessary. He was basketball coach and always had out standing teams.

Succeeding G. B. Keeter as superintendent in Flippin school have been Guy Berry, James Holland, John Q. Adams, Exel Smith, W. F. Hayes, 0. H. Burns, R. E. Parker, K. K. Richardson, Kent Butler, Harry Morrow, Laverl Cheek and Wallace Sneed.

Some teachers (natives of Marion County) who have taught in Flippin from the 1930's until 1976 have been Anna Kate (Rose) Jarman, Arthur Wood, Earl Berry, Zena (Huddleston) Milum, William Arthur McVey, Mildred Parnell, Bernice Treadway, Kerry Keeter, Georgia (Keeter) Wood, Elsie McCracken, Dixie (Pyle) King, Sibyl (Gibson) Dardin, Clara Wolfe, Larry Hurst, Anita (Briggs) Wood, Pam (Yarbrough) Hurst, Abbie (Wolfe) Estes, Dr. Doyle Hurst, Ralph McNair, Billy Pyle, Berna (Risley) Dieslinger.

Teachers who taught in Flippin for ten years or more have been Ralph W. Wood, Mrs. Anne Ellis, Mrs. Geneva (Snipes) Hurst, Miss Annis Fouts, Mrs. Joan Hickey.

Teachers who taught twenty years or more are Mrs. Faye Briggs and Mrs. Amber Lack.

Teachers who taught over twenty-five years were Mrs. Cora (Linck) Taylor (26 years), Mrs. Bernice (Adams) Johnson (27 years) and Mrs. Mary Martin (30 years).

While Laverl Cheek was superintendent (1964-1972), two Federally- funded programs became part of the curriculum. Headstart, a program de signed for preschool children from low income families, was started in the summer of 1965. Later, it became (and still is) a full school term program. The Follow-Through Program, a follow-up of Headstart, was started in 1969. Both programs have brought more parent involvement in the school. The supportive services such as medical and dental care, nutritional and social services, are noticeable assets.