Louise Durham Elementary School

The Mena Little Cats Basketball Camp came to a close on Friday at the Union Bank Center. There were smiles all around as awards were given for their hard work this week. GO BEARCATS!!!

The Mena Public Schools are excited to welcome MEGAN AUER to our staff! Hi! My name is Megan Auer. I will be teaching 2nd grade at Louise Durham this coming school year! I earned my Bachelor’s degree in Elemenatry Education from Northeastern State University and my Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from William Woods University. I have taught for 14 years, teaching kindergarten, first grade and second grade. Chad and I have been married for 18 years. We have two sons and one daughter. In my free time I enjoying gardening, camping and family movie/game nights. I am thrilled to be apart of Mena Public Schools family!

Wednesday was the first day of the Little Cats Basketball Camp at the Union Bank Center. Coach Randy Peters & the Bearcats put camper thru their paces. Those left handed layups were a challenge.. GO BEARCATS!!!

The History of Mena Public Schools Part 4: During the school years of 1907-1920 many changes were taking place in the history of education in Arkansas. The Uniform Text Book Law and the Compulsory School Attendance Law were passed by the Arkansas Legislature. Also measures for the protection of the health of small children were passed and the public drinking cup was banned. Compulsory vaccinations against smallpox was instituted. Another great step forward was the coming of the Free Textbook Law. Some of the money raising projects carried out to provide for the needs of the school included teas and plays. With the funds thus obtained many things were bought. Among these were a large Victrola for music appreciation, a suitable and large library for the children, a number of appropriate pictures by master artists, a large school bell, and a first aid cabinet. The community’s educational needs had increased so greatly that in 1922 the Central and High School buildings were added on to and a manual training building was erected. Furthermore, in the 1932-33 school year a model college for the home economics department was provided. Mr. J. E. Bishop, Superintendent of Mena Schools, said he had a faculty of twenty teachers as good as the best in the state. In 1926 the rating of the schools was raised from a “B” to an “A”. In 1927 the high school became a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. This was as high a rating as any school in Arkansas could achieve at the time. In 1934 school census showed 1,103 pupils attending the Mena Schools. All the pupils walked to school in those days. For many years about one fourth of the children brought their lunches to school in a sack or lunch pail. The rest of the pupils walked home for lunch. When the Junior High School was started they built a cafeteria for all the schools in Mena. Central pupils were transported by buses down there to eat every day. The transportation of Mena students by bus increased as consolidation proceeded in the county. Each time one of the outlying schools closed and sent its students to Mena, a new bus had to be added to the school’s growing fleet. By now each classroom had its own library in the room. In 1940 the Mena High School and its contents were destroyed by fire. Shortly thereafter a new high school was constructed on the corner of Mena Street and Church Avenue. In the spring of 1940, plans were made for a lighted athletic field. In the fall Mena defeated Hartford 27 to 12 in the first game to be played on the newly lighted field. The new high school was used for the first time in April 1943. On May 20, 1943, thirty-one seniors graduated.The Boyd Stadium was constructed on the athletic field in 1946. In 1947 a $40,000 bond issue for a new Southside School to be built in Stilwell Park was secured. This new building was scheduled for completion in the fall of 1948. The years 1950-1951 were busy building years for the district. A new home economics cottage was built, a band building was erected, remodeling took place for grades 6-8, and buildings acquired from the Fair Association were remodeled for vocational agriculture classes and shops. Check back for part 5 next Wednesday!

Preparations for 2022/2023 are well underway & Mena librarians met today to discuss and share practices related to the library. Pictured are Holli Plunkett-MHS, Tiffany Williams-LDE, Staci Brooks-MMS & Paula Cox-HHE.

Final day of Coding Camp at Louise Durham Elementary. The kids had a Blast!

The summer of learning continues for teachers at Louise Durham Elementary. Several attended a conference conference at DeQueen called “Personal Climate & Culture” featuring teacher/comedian Gerry Brooks. https://www.youtube.com/c/GerryBrooks

The History of Mena Public Schools Part 3: In September 1907, Louise Durham became principal of Southside School. The school population had continued to increase and Mrs. Mershon’s primary enrollment of 113 was exceeded by Miss Durham’s room enrollment of 125. Some years later, when Mrs. Mershon and Miss Durham were reflecting back on their years of heavy enrollment they asked, “How did we ever manage it?” One replied in the familiar saying of a Polk County pioneer, “If en we hatter… we hatter.” Fortunately the pupils seemed most eager to learn and there were very few distractions to interfere with the school life. The home, the school, and the church were the three institutions that most influenced a child’s life. Besides a place of learning, the school was also a place for satisfying their cravings for social life and recreation. The Southside School had a baseball team of which it was justly proud. The team sometimes played inter-school games with the fifth and sixth grades of Central School, the Lutheran School, and St. Joseph’s Academy. Usually the Southside team was the winning team. County school fairs were popular from 1907 until 1920. By 1908 there were 1200 school children in the three wards and it became necessary to plan for a separate building for high school students. In 1908 Mena graduated four students, all female. In 1909 the first unit of the high school building had been erected. It was built on the corner of Magnolia Avenue and Eleventh Street at a cost of $12,000. The superintendent was W. T. Adams. It was during this school year that the school paper, “The High School Yell” made its first appearance. Dorothy Shaver was editor-in-chief. The “Yell” was published for a number of years and often contained articles and poems of real merit and special interest to the student body. The class of 1909 was also all young ladies. The ten graduating members of the class received their diplomas at the Opera House. An admission of .25 cents was charged to attend the graduation exercises in order to help pay for class expenses. The first football game was played in 1912. In the game the Bearcats played DeQueen. DeQueen won by a score of 20-6. There were only thirteen boys on the Mena squad. Additionally, only two boys had ever even seen a game. One eyewitness said, “The small squad made up for lack of knowledge by rough play.” The high school did not have electric lights until the class of 1914 had lights installed as their graduation gift back to the school. Check out Part 4 next Wednesday.

It was a fun jam-packed afternoon at the Economics from Hero to Hero day camp at Louise Durham Elementary! We acted out our own community, became specialists in an assembly line, played lots of games, and had a very special guest, Mayor Seth Smith!!!

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Day 1 of Creative Camp and our HEROES got to design and make their own keychains!

The Whitt & Watkins Basketball Academy began on Thursday at the Union Bank Center. The morning session is for 1st-8th grades & the afternoon session is for 9th-12th grades. It continues on Friday & Saturday. GO BEARCATS !!!

Mena leaders are attending training with the DeQueen Mena Education Service Cooperative at Degray State Park this week. Administrators from schools across the DMESC area are attending.

These HEROES will be coding pros in no time! Coding Camp continues at Louise Durham Elementary.

Mena teachers are already learning new skills to help with engaging lessons. Tuesday at HHE they were participating in Summer PD learning how to use new technology… BenQ interactive panels have been installed & will help teachers interact with students.

The history of Mena Public Schools! Part 2: In 1901 the schools were under the supervision of S. H. Allen a graduate of Ouachita College. Mena had made such rapid progress by this time that they had built and furnished three buildings containing eight large rooms of the common school grades. Central School was built in 1904. This two story red brick building was erected on the site where the First Baptist Church is now located. There were eight classrooms and one teacher for each grade first through eighth. There were times when enrollment in each room might reach 55 or 60 students for each teacher. A high wire fence was stretched from the front porch to Port Arthur Avenue to separate the girls on one side toward the library and the boys on the ninth street side. In each room was a large stove. The custodian really had to get up early to start eight separate fires and keep two full coal buckets in each of the rooms. He would go around sometimes three times a day to put the coal in the stoves. Only occasionally did the teacher have to perform this task. All the school children were suppose to bring a cup from home since the Janssen Park Spring was the only source of drinking water. Paper cups had not been introduced as yet. Teachers had spring duty in those days. The children went by rooms to the park to get water three times a day. The children did not take the drinking cups home. It was thought that the construction of the Central School would accommodate the school population for some time to come, but by 1905 it was necessary to provide other facilities as those housing the school population of the new boom-town of Mena were greatly over-worked. The first buildings that had been erected for school purposes were bulging with children. To provide further housing facilities, the Southside Ward School was built. This was a neat frame building of two rooms. At this time the late and much beloved Prof. W. T. Adams had supervision of the schools. He was untiring in his efforts to build up the city schools. Mrs. Ruby Grant was the first principal of the new school. Miss Mable Adams, now Mrs. John Mershon, was the primary teacher. Mrs. John Mershon had a room enrollment of 113 pupils. The town of Mena continued to grow rapidly and by 1907 it was necessary to add another room to the Ward building. Check bac next Wednesday for part 3!

Day 1 of Mrs. Ricker's Coding camp at Louise Durham Elementary! Our HEROES are having a blast!

The Little Ladycats Camp got underway on Wednesday at the Union Bank Center. It was a great first day with 60 campers. We will welcome any new campers Thursday, $30.

Mena Public Schools will offer breakfast and/or lunch to anyone 18 and under free of charge beginning June 6th,2022 through June 30th 2022. Locations are: Louise Durham Elementary 106 N. Reine in Mena on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mena Middle School, 700 S Morrow St. Monday -Thursday. Times are 8:00am to 8:30am for breakfast, 12:00pm to 12:30pm for lunch.

The Mena Public Schools Year End Celebration was held on Tuesday in the Performing Arts Center. A number of employees were recognized for their years of service. 1 YEAR MADYSON BIRTCHER JAMIE GROGAN WANALYNN ALEXANDER JORDAN BAILEY REAGAN BLACK ALEXA BREWER BRIANNE BURFORD CHRISTIE CHANDLER VINCENT COLEMAN LANA COOGAN HANNAH CRAFTON SHANDA CRAIG CARRI CRANFORD AUDRA CUMMINGS SHELBY GARCIA ERIN GRANT LEANNA HARPER JESSICA HUGHES AMBER LABERTEW SHANNON LYLE KRISTEN MANASCO MALLORY MCCONNELL CHERISH MICHAEL ABBY MINTON ISAAC MINTON REAGAN PETERS ASHLKEY PREGON JAQUELINE REDFEARN LISA ROBERTS KRISTI SCHULLER AILEEN SIRKIS KATHRYN SMITH ABIGAIL TILLEY TIMOTHY WALSTON COURTNEY WARREN ERIKA WILLIAMS BRIANNA PETERS LIBERTY JACOT 5 YEAR SARAH BILLINGS RACHEL CARTER DANIEL HENDRIX ALYSSA HOSTETLER CHARMAINE MARTIN KENNEDY MCCORMICK JILL NEWBOLT CYNTIA STANDRIDGE LEAH TAYLOR 10 YEAR KRYSTAL BOYD PEGGY FOSTER LORRIE HENRY TIFFANY LUTTMER AMY MONTGOMERY LINDA SHELLEY TERESA TORIX SCOTT WRIGHT 15 YEARS CE;ESTE ASHCRAFT DIANNE HUNTER MITCH MILNE SHERMA PETERS DEE SMITH HEATHER GOSS 25 YEARS STACI BROOKS DALYNNE RANDOLPH NATHAN STONE 30+ YEARS LEO BARGE TODD COOGAN TERESA CLARK BECKY RICHARDSON MEGAN TIBBS BRYAN MAYE PATTY OGLESBY ANNITA HENDRIX RETIREES RODNEY PURVIS LINDA COLLINS JIMMA HOLDER KAREN PURVIS