The Auburn City School District or Auburn City Schools is the school district of Auburn, Alabama, United States. The superintendent is Dr. Cristen Herring.
History
Early history of Auburn schools
The earliest settlers of Auburn made the establishment of a school in the town as the first priority; before the first structure was built in Auburn, lots were sold to provide funds for the "Auburn Academy".[2] This school, which went through several name changes before becoming what is today Auburn High School, was originally private, and private schools provided all education in Auburn until the late 1860s. By 1868, a public grammar school was operating in Auburn, part of the Township 19, Range 26 schools, holding classes in the same building as the private Auburn High. A public school for blacks in Auburn was established by 1871.[3]
On February 17, 1885, the state legislature authorized the Auburn School District, with an elected school board and the power to levy a 0.5% tax on sales in the town limits of Auburn.[4] This new district took over the private Auburn High School, and created the first full public school system in Auburn. A new brick school building was built in 1899, and the district was rechartered in 1901 with an appointed school board and right to charge tuition.[5] In 1914, Auburn High School became independent of the district by becoming the county's flagship high school, "Lee County High School", but the lower grades, now known as the "Auburn Grammar School" continued under the control of the Auburn School District in the 1899 building.[6] The Auburn School District ceased operation in 1931 when the lower grades were moved to become part of Lee County High when that school occupied the current Auburn Junior High School building.[7]
From 1931 until 1962, schools in Auburn operated as part of the Lee County School District. Overcrowding that threatened the accreditation of Auburn High School and stretched many Auburn schools' facilities to the limit led to the creation of the Auburn Committee for Better Schools in 1959, which recommended the formation of a new city school district in Auburn to provide funds to alleviate the overcrowding.[8][9]
The Auburn City School District
Superintendents of the Auburn City Schools
Name
Years served
E. E. Gaither
1962–1968
Wayne Teague
1968–1975
Allen D. Cleveland
1975–1982
Ed Richardson
1982–1995
Michael Martin
1995–2000
J. Terry Jenkins
2000–2012
Karen Teague Delano
2012–present
After an informal referendum on May 25, 1959, in which the citizens of Auburn overwhelmingly voted to favor a new city school system (521-8) and a tax increase to support the system (468-48), the Auburn City Council established the Auburn City School District on October 3, 1961. The school district began operation for the 1962–1963 school year, assuming control of eight schools from Lee County on October 1, 1962. The Auburn City School Board immediately began planning for the construction of a new Auburn High School to alleviate the overcrowding, with Auburn voters approving taxes for that purpose in 1965.[9]
Also in 1965, Auburn City Schools began the five-year process of school integration. The first black students were admitted to Auburn High in June 1965, with four grades desegregating each of the following three years. The district fully integrated 9th and 10th grades in 1969, with the rest of the district reaching full integration by the beginning of the 1970–1971 school year.[9][10]
Closure and consolidation of outdated schools brought the Auburn City Schools to six campuses by 1983.[11] Expansion of existing school campuses kept up with growth until the 1992 construction of the Auburn Early Education Center, the state's first large public kindergarten-only facility.[12] New elementary schools were constructed in 1998 (Yarbrough & Ogletree) and 2008 (Richland) while expansion of other campuses continued virtually non-stop from the 1990s into the 2010s.[13]
Historic grade alignments
Grade
1961–1966
1966–1969
1969–1970
1970–1973
1973–1983
1983–1992
1992–1998
1998–2002
2002−2003
2003–2013
2013–2014
Grade
K
Cary Woods, Dean Rd., or Wright's Mill Elementary
Cary Woods, Dean Rd., or Wright's Mill Elementary
Cary Woods, Dean Rd., or Wright's Mill Elementary
AEEC
AEEC
AEEC
AEEC
AEEC, Cary Woods, Dean Rd., or Richland Elementary
K
1
Boykin St. or Lee County Training Elementary
Cary Woods, Dean Rd., Samford Ave., Community Center, Armory, or Wrights Mill Rd.
Boykin St. Elementary
Cary Woods, Dean Rd., or Wright's Mill Elementary
Boykin St. Elementary
Cary Woods, Dean Rd., or Wright's Mill Elementary
Cary Woods, Dean Rd., or Wright's Mill Elementary
Cary Woods, Dean Rd., Ogletree, Wright's Mill, or Yarbrough Elementary
Cary Woods, Dean Rd., Ogletree, Wright's Mill, or Yarbrough Elementary
Cary Woods, Dean Rd., Ogletree, Richland (after 2008), Wright's Mill, or Yarbrough Elementary
1
2
2
3
Ogletree, Pick, Wright's Mill, or Yarbrough Elementary
^"Auburn Town Lots for Sale", Columbus Enquirer, December 22, 1836; "To the Public.", Columbus Enquirer, February 22, 1838
^J.E. Summerford, Annual Report on the Condition of Education, 1869; J.F. Yarbrough, "Annual Report of J.F. Yarbrough County Supt. for Lee County Alabama for Scholastic Year ending Sept. 30, 1871."
^Acts of Alabama, 1884 Act 398, "Auburn school district".
^Mickey Logue and Jack Simms, Auburn, A Pictorial History of the Lovliest Village (Auburn: s.n., 1996), 50; cts of Alabama, 1900 Act 375.
^"Auburn May Get County High School", Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, May 3, 1914.
^Ann Pearson, "The Auburn Female Institute", Opelika-Auburn News.
^"High School Faces Possible Loss of Accredited Status", Lee County Bulletin, December 15, 1955.
^ abcLibby Brown, "Auburn City Schools News Release", 1986.
^Minutes of the Auburn City School Board, May 18, 1965; Minutes of the Auburn City School Board, July 1969.
^Minutes of the Auburn City School Board, November 1982.
^Minutes of the Auburn City School Board, June 1991.
^Minutes of the Auburn City School Board, May 1998; Beverly Harvey, "Richland Elementary set to open in 2008", Opelika–Auburn News, April 19, 2007.
