Chronology

Joseph Dunn Hughes keeps a school in the Eno Church community

Pender lists a school run by Joseph Dunn Hughes near Eno Presbyterian Church in 1785, the earliest of the Hughes family schools that later produced Cedar Grove Academy.

Subject: Hughes Academy (Cedar Grove Academy)

A Mr. Graham and Miss Farley take charge of Hillsborough Academy

After William Bingham left in 1815, Hillsborough Academy was run for a time by a teacher named Graham, with Miss Farley presumably over the female department.

Subject: Hillsborough Academy

Senator Archibald D. Murphey of Orange moves for a legislative committee on public schools

Following Governor Miller's 1816 message, Orange County senator Archibald D. Murphey won a joint committee to study public education. Its report led to a second committee, also under Murphey, whose plan Pender credits as the groundwork of the later state school system.

Orange County seats a Board of Superintendents for its common schools

At its February 1852 term the county court elected an eight-man Board of Superintendents of Common Schools, among them William H. Brown, who at some point served as the board's chairman. That year a new state law obliged such boards to name committees to examine would-be teachers rather than merely allowing it.

People: Samuel Wellwood Hughes · William H. Brown

Orange County names a three-man Board of Education and a panel of teacher examiners

Under the Reconstruction school law the county had a Board of Education of W. N. Patterson, J. T. Hogan and Jones Watson in 1872. Samuel W. Hughes and Charles Curtis were among the county examiners who licensed teachers that year.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: Samuel Wellwood Hughes · Jones Watson · John T. Hogan · William N. Patterson

The county school board settles the school fund account with Treasurer David C. Parks

The Board of Education settled the school fund account with county treasurer D. C. Parks up to March 7, 1872. It showed $9,245.36 received from the state apportionments for 1869 to 1872 and the 1871 school poll tax, and $3,869.54 paid out to the townships.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The school board refuses back pay to a Mangum Township teacher accused of misconduct

Thomas Anderson asked the board to pay him for two months he taught without a contract. The board sided with the township committee, finding he had no contract after March 7, 1872 and citing poor discipline and improper conduct toward girls in his school.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The Board of Education divides the 1872 school fund among the townships by race

At its March 5, 1873 meeting the board named a teacher examining committee and apportioned the 1872 fund at the same rate per child for both races: $4,219.60 for 3,080 white children and $2,402.98 for 1,754 Black children across eight townships.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: Samuel Wellwood Hughes

John T. Hogan is chosen school committeeman for Hillsborough Township

When Alexander Dickens resigned as school committeeman for Hillsborough Township, the county Board of Education unanimously elected John T. Hogan in his place. At the same meeting it accepted Dr. Clop's resignation for Chapel Hill Township and chose John Hutchins.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The Board of Education appoints Hazel Norwood county examiner

The board filled the county examiner's post with Hazel Norwood after Dr. Morgan Clop resigned, and settled its account with the treasurer, who held a balance of $7,686.92 from the state's 1872 apportionment.

A county school census finds 24 more schoolhouses are needed

An 1874 count of school-age children by township found 2,380 Black children and set the need at 24 additional schoolhouses, ten of them in Hillsboro Township.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

James L. Currie becomes pastor of Eno Presbyterian Church

Currie, who had grown up in the Eno congregation under his father, the Rev. Archibald Currie, became its pastor in 1876, and that year also served the Fairfield and Little River churches. He stayed at Eno until 1896, and the congregation's third church was built during his ministry.

Subject: Eno Presbyterian Church · Little River Presbyterian Church

The school board orders a landowner to stop fencing off the Bethany Meeting House school

Told that William Jackson had fenced in the schoolhouse of District 15 at Bethany Meeting House and would not let school be taught, the board warned him to return the lot to the district committee or face legal action.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The school board approves Piney Mountain as school District 53

The board recognized Piney Mountain as District No. 53 and named its committeemen. At the same meeting it ordered that no committee contract teachers beyond the money apportioned for the year.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Subject: Piney Mountain School

Fairfield School is allowed to draw water from the county poorhouse spring

The board let the Fairfield school in District 21 use the spring at the county poorhouse for its water.

Subject: Orange County poorhouse (County Home)

The school board names committeemen for 52 numbered school districts

The board's 1877 appointments name every district school in the county, from North East and Deals Creek to Prospect Hill and Orange Factory, with three committeemen for each.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The school board creates Buckhorn school district from four neighboring districts

On petition, the board formed District No. 56, Buckhorn, from the corners of the Gravelly Hill, Ridge Meeting House, Tom's Creek and Woody's Road districts so the school would sit at their center. Elerby (No. 54) and Vickers (No. 55) districts had been formed shortly before.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The school board forms Center school district

A new District No. 57, called Center, was created with 34 white children and one Black child.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The new Board of Education sets aside $50 for an institute for Black teachers

At its first meeting in the Hillsboro courthouse, the board created under the 1885 school law organized with Joseph Harris as chairman and voted fifty dollars to hold a training institute for the county's Black teachers.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: George Tayloe Winston · James L. Currie

The school board requires the superintendent to visit every school and grade its teachers

On resolutions offered by Professor Winston, the board told Superintendent Currie to spend a day at each public school while in session, give each teacher a mark for practical skill, meet each district committee and report on where districts and schoolhouses should be, at $2.50 a day.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: George Tayloe Winston · James L. Currie

W. V. Andrews takes Professor Winston's seat on the county Board of Education

Professor Winston of the university left the new Orange County Board of Education six months after its first meeting, and W. V. Andrews was named in his place.

People: George Tayloe Winston

Superintendent Currie's first annual report lists each district schoolhouse as log or frame

Currie's report read to the board in January 1886 gave the first district-by-district inventory of schoolhouses for both races, most of them log buildings valued at $50 to $200, and a school term averaging ten weeks.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: James L. Currie

The school board asks the commissioners for a special tax to keep schools open four months

Superintendent Currie found the schools needed $2,000 beyond their apportionment to run the four months the law required, and the board petitioned the county commissioners to levy it. The board also set a floor of $40 for each white school and $30 for each Black school.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: James L. Currie

The county school board adds nine new school districts under Superintendent Currie

In the first years of the 1885 board, Superintendent James L. Currie laid out school districts and appointed committeemen, and by 1887 nine more districts had been created. In June 1886 he had told the board it needed $2,000 to keep the schools open four months.

People: James L. Currie

The school board forms the Mary Smith school district along the Chatham line

A new district in Chapel Hill Township next to Chatham County was created and its school named the Mary Smith School, District 39.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The school board pays H. O. Strain for an acre to build the Orange Church school

The board allowed H. O. Strain $20 for one acre on which to build a schoolhouse for white children of the Orange Church district.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The school board forms Occoneechee school district from land south of the Eno

The board created District 41, Occoneechee, from land south of the Eno River and part of the Hillsboro district.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The school board condemns a lot for a school for Black children at Walnut Grove

After two committees were named in March and September 1887 to condemn half an acre in the Walnut Grove district, the board had the deed for the site of a schoolhouse for Black children recorded on October 1.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The superintendent's report shows Black schools running half the term of white schools

Currie's annual report counted 33 white and 25 Black public schools. White schools averaged close to nine weeks of teaching and Black schools under four and a half, and Black women teachers earned $17 a month against $24 for white women.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: James L. Currie

The school board authorizes a countywide summer institute for teachers

The board empowered Superintendent Currie to hold a teachers' institute for the whole county that summer.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: James L. Currie

Black parents in the Cool Spring district petition for Black school committeemen

Black residents of the Cool Spring district asked the board to replace their school committee with Black members of their own choosing. The board tabled the request.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The school board creates Cole's District at Walnut Grove on Anthony Cole's petition

After Anthony Cole petitioned for a school for about 65 children, the superintendent held a public meeting and the board set up Cole's District, No. 42, cut from parts of the Caldwell, Little River, Oak Grove and Walnut Grove districts.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The school board forms Bethel district for the Bethel Church community

On a petition from the Bethel Church community the board created a new district, Bethel, No. 43.

The school board runs Harmony School directly when no committee can be found

Unable to find anyone to serve as its committee, the board placed Harmony School under its own supervision so a school could be taught there.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

B. C. Patton's report finds most Orange County schoolhouses still built of logs

Patton's annual report to the state counted 43 white and 41 Black schools with 1,425 white and 1,048 Black pupils. Thirty of the 43 white schoolhouses and 17 of the 24 Black ones were log buildings, and terms ran about twelve weeks.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The state superintendent tells Orange County to make its sheriff pay over the school taxes

Teachers were holding $500 in unpaid orders with nothing in the school treasury because Sheriff John Knox Hughes had not turned over the taxes he collected. Asked for advice, the state superintendent advised Patton to collect from the sheriff or take him to court.

John W. Thompson of Cedar Grove becomes superintendent of the Orange County schools

John W. Thompson, a Cedar Grove teacher, took over the county schools from B. C. Patton in June 1890. He held the post until the board was abolished in 1895 and stayed on as supervisor under the county commissioners.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: John W. Thompson

The school board rebukes teachers who skipped Charles McIver's institute

Told that some teachers had not attended the state institute taught by Charles D. McIver, the board passed a resolution regretting their want of zeal and noting that attendance was required by law.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The school board hires D. H. Thompson to audit the sheriff's school accounts

Rather than sue, the board engaged Major D. H. Thompson to go through Sheriff Hughes's accounts of school money, hoping to settle the matter without a lawsuit.

Annie L. Hughes keeps Cedar Grove Academy

Annie L. Hughes carried on a Cedar Grove Academy from 1894 until 1915, a decade after the death of Samuel W. Hughes ended his Hughes Academy.

Part of Cedar Grove and rural northern Orange · 201 events

Subject: Hughes Academy (Cedar Grove Academy)

Colonel George Tate is allowed to sell his county map to school committees

The board gave Colonel George Tate, maker of a map of Orange County, leave to offer it for sale to the school committee of every district.

James Long is elected to the county Board of Education after James Cole resigns

When James Cole left the Orange County Board of Education in 1894, James Long was chosen for the vacancy, a year before the legislature abolished the county boards.

The county is divided into five school townships, each with a five-man committee

When the county commissioners took over the schools, the county was regrouped into five school townships (Cedar Grove, Little River, Hillsboro, Bingham and Chapel Hill), each run by a committee of five in place of the many district committees.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The school board cuts its per-child apportionment and ties teacher pay to attendance

With little of the last tax levy collected, the board lowered its planned $1.35 a child to $1.25 for the county's 4,814 children, $6,017.50 in all, and barred the superintendent from signing pay orders for schools averaging under ten pupils.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

A new state act restores the Orange County Board of Education under C. P. Burch

After two years of the commissioners running the schools, a legislative act brought back the county board with C. P. Burch as chairman and Albert Holmes and James Monk as members. Capt. John P. Lockhart took Monk's seat when he resigned, and the board made John W. Thompson superintendent again.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: John W. Thompson

The school board tells township committees to build frame schoolhouses and stop patching log ones

The board urged every township committee to provide more comfortable frame schoolhouses and to spend nothing more repairing old log walls.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The 1899 school report shows two and a half times as much spent on white schools as Black

Supervisor John Thompson's report for 1899 counted 50 white and 25 Black schools and $4,391.51 spent on white schools against $1,688.09 on Black schools. Almost half the schoolhouses of each race were still log.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: John W. Thompson

A legislature-appointed Board of School Directors takes over the Orange County schools

An 1899 act abolished the county Board of Education, which met for the last time on March 7, and put in its place a Board of School Directors named by the legislature. The Orange directors organized in April.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Orange County adopts an American Book Company contract for school textbooks

The county commissioners, with the directors' consent, accepted the American Book Company's offer to supply textbooks and take old books in exchange, adopting a list headed by McGuffey's Eclectic Primer at ten cents.

Charles E. Maddry begins teaching Strains School near his boyhood home

Maddry, who had been a pupil there, took charge of the one-room Strains School below Nunn's Mountain northwest of Chapel Hill with sixty pupils aged five to twenty-one. Two years later he became county superintendent.

People: Charles Edward Maddry

The school board names committees for every district school, township by township

The July 1899 appointments list about 55 district schools in five townships, among them schools marked as Black at Payne's Chapel, North Side and Hillsboro, and white schools at Breeze, Efland, Rail Road and Flat Rock.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

A state Supreme Court ruling unseats a legislature-named school director in Orange

Following a North Carolina Supreme Court decision on the 1899 school act, the county board reorganized: director Stephen Forrest lost his seat and A. R. Holmes of the old Board of Education returned to finish a term running to July 1900.

The school board rules the Cannadas' Chapel Hill school is not a public school

The Chapel Hill district had contracted J. W. and C. S. Cannada to teach all its school-age children, but the teachers had not met the school law. The board declared the school was not a public school and withheld pay until they complied.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Hillsboro's commissioners refuse to deed the old Female Academy to the town school

The board had asked the town to deed the old Hillsboro Female Academy lot, near E. A. Rosemond's house, to the school committee. The town offered only a ten-year lease, which the board said the law did not allow it to accept, and it told the committee to find another site.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The Hillsboro school committee buys the town's first public schoolhouse and lot

The committee bought a house on a two-acre lot, known as the Wash Bruce or Gill lot, from E. S. Cooley for $500. Pender says Hillsboro had never before owned a school building; the county board furnished it and paid for repairs.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Subject: Hillsborough High School

The school board refuses to let Mormon elders preach in county schoolhouses

Among grievances heard in January 1901, the board went on record against allowing Mormon missionaries to preach in Orange County school buildings.

A school district is created south of White Cross on donated land

The board approved a new district south of White Cross whose land and building were given on condition that they revert when no longer used for a public school, with Sunday school and preaching allowed. Children of the Old Field school were moved to it.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Cedar Grove district finishes a new $279 schoolhouse with county help

The board paid $150 from the general fund toward the new schoolhouse of Cedar Grove District No. 6, which cost $279.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Subject: Cedar Grove schools

The county pays $214 toward a schoolhouse at Pleasant Green

The board paid Pleasant Green, District No. 1 of Little River Township, $214 for its school building.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Buckhorn residents build an academy that will also house the public school

The board approved a Gravelly Hill committee's plan to build an academy at Buckhorn and locate the public school there, retiring the old Buckhorn schoolhouse. The trustees guaranteed the board use of the building for school purposes permanently.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Caldwell Institute gets a large new school district

A committee from Caldwell Institute asked for one district made from parts of the Wilson, Little River and Poplar Grove districts. The board approved and had the boundary surveyed.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Subject: Caldwell Institute · Caldwell School

Caldwell asks for an election on a rural graded school

The Caldwell community asked for a vote on establishing a rural graded school, and the board asked the county commissioners to call the election.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: Charles Edward Maddry

Orange County teachers are offered the university summer school and pay tied to exam scores

The board accepted Dr. Venable's offer to admit county teachers to the University Summer School and set pay by the July examination: $35 a month for an average of 95 and $40 for 98.

People: Francis Preston Venable

Subject: University Summer School

The Rev. John C. Hocutt replaces Charles Maddry as county school superintendent

Maddry resigned in July 1904 to study at the Southern Baptist seminary, and the board chose his friend and former pastor John C. Hocutt to serve out the term. Hocutt stayed until 1908.

People: Charles Edward Maddry

The county counts 17 rural school libraries for white children and one for Black children

The 1905 annual statistical report found 18 rural school libraries in the county, holding 1,581 volumes in white schools and 92 in the single Black school library.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The school board helps Chestnut Ridge Institute after its dormitory burns

Taking account of the loss of its dormitory building by fire, the board paid Chestnut Ridge Institute the $15 balance owed for painting, patrons having raised $37.

Orange and Alamance agree on a shared Union School in the old Hebron district

At the request of Alamance superintendent William S. Long, the Orange board set up a school for a district lying in both counties, to be called Union School, formerly Hebron.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The school board divides the Hillsboro district and orders a two-teacher school at West Hill

The board split the Hillsboro district and ordered a school with two teachers built at West Hill, the mill section west of town.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Thomas Wingate Andrews is elected superintendent of the Orange County schools

When Hocutt resigned to give full time to church work, the board on July 6, 1908 elected T. Wingate Andrews, a new UNC graduate and grandson of the Calvander schoolmaster Calvin Andrews, to fill the unexpired term; he took office that October. He served until 1911 and prepared the county's ten-year school report for 1900-1910.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The county board builds a new school for white children at Efland

The board sought a state loan of $750 for a new Efland building, chose a three-acre lot of Jordan land south of the railroad, and had the superintendent hire carpenters while patrons supplied the framing and free hauling from West Hillsboro depot. It paid Mary W. Jordan $246 for the land in 1911 and sold the old Efland schoolhouse to J. R. Riley for $50 in February 1912.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Subject: Efland schools

The school at University is burned, and the board offers a reward for the arsonist

Fire destroyed the school building in the University community in the fall of 1910, and on November 3 the board asked the state for a $700 loan to rebuild it. In April 1911 the board offered a $100 reward, if the law allowed, for conviction of whoever had set the fire.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Subject: University Station

The county board auctions the sites of five abandoned schools

The Orange County Board of Education sold the grounds of the old Orange Church, Barbee, Cool Spring, Mill and Couch schools to the highest bidders, most of them neighbors of the sites, for sums between $5 and $20.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Eight new rural schoolhouses go up in Orange County in one school year

Lockhart's report for 1911-12 counted four new schoolhouses for white children and four for Black children, built for $4,515 in all. Seven Black schools still met in log houses, while no white school did.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: Samuel Paul Lockhart

The county board buys 2.46 acres from Mary E. Jordan for an Efland school

Early in Lockhart's term the board bought 2.46 acres at Efland from Mrs. Mary E. Jordan, paying $246, as the site for the Efland School.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: Samuel Paul Lockhart

Subject: Efland schools

Samuel Paul Lockhart rejects the school board's re-election of Superintendent T. Wingate Andrews

At its July 1911 meeting the county board of education re-elected T. Wingate Andrews as superintendent of schools. Lockhart, a candidate for the post, said he would not abide by the result because the election was illegal, and by August he was superintendent himself.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Samuel Paul Lockhart becomes superintendent of the Orange County schools

Lockhart, a Bingham and UNC student from the New Hope area, took over the county schools in August 1911 and set to work with the board on new schoolhouses. He served until his cousin R. H. Claytor defeated him in 1917.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: R. H. Claytor · Samuel Paul Lockhart

The county board agrees to pay half the cost of new schoolhouses built by local districts

At its meeting of October 10, 1911, early in Lockhart's term, the board planned new schoolhouses in several districts, the county paying half the cost and each community raising the other half.

People: Samuel Paul Lockhart

The old Cedar Grove one-teacher schoolhouse is moved to serve Black children

When Cedar Grove's white pupils moved to the new high school, the one-teacher schoolhouse was hauled to Baxter Thompson's land and used as a school for Black children.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Subject: Cedar Grove schools

The county board buys the Annie Hughes Academy to house a Cedar Grove high school

Answering a petition from Cedar Grove residents, the board offered on May 3, 1915 to buy the old Cedar Grove Academy from Annie Hughes and on May 15 paid her $1,500 for it, deeding her the lot of the one-teacher school it closed. The new Cedar Grove High School took grades one through eleven.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: Samuel Paul Lockhart

Subject: Hughes Academy (Cedar Grove Academy) · Cedar Grove schools

The county board re-elects Superintendent Lockhart and funds an assistant for him

The Board of Education returned Samuel P. Lockhart to office and set aside $400 to pay Mary O. Graham as his assistant.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: Samuel Paul Lockhart

The school board names Lula Cassidy rural supervisor and county canning agent

A week after electing Mary O. Graham supervisor, the board chose Lula Cassidy as rural supervisor and canning agent. In 1916 it put her in charge of a county-wide school commencement in Hillsboro.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: Lula M. Cassidy

The county board orders two privies built at every school

Meeting in August 1915, the board bought desks and equipment and voted to put two privies at each county school, paying half the cost and leaving the community to pay the rest.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

State and university educators set up a teacher-training program for Orange County

State superintendent J. Y. Joyner, rural schools chief L. C. Brogden and UNC's L. A. Williams met the county board and won approval for a 1916-17 plan of general teachers' meetings in November and March and group meetings at centers across the county, run by the UNC School of Education. Teachers were paid to attend, with a per diem and mileage for Saturday sessions.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Cedar Grove voters approve a special school tax district

The board allowed Cedar Grove to call an election on a special school tax in July 1917, and the returns reported in September showed 34 votes for and 16 against. The board then set pay for each Cedar Grove high school teacher at $50 a month.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Subject: Cedar Grove schools

Claytor's first report counts 42 one-teacher schools in Orange County

Claytor's 1917 report to the state listed 42 one-teacher schools, 19 white and 23 Black, with 2,569 white and 1,259 Black pupils. Nineteen Black schools had only benches and no desks.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

People: R. H. Claytor

Ida Lloyd becomes the first clerk in the county superintendent's office

Ida Lloyd was hired as office assistant to the county superintendent in 1918, the first to hold the post, and worked under R. H. Claytor, Glenn Proffit and G. P. Carr for about forty-two years.

People: R. H. Claytor

The county board decides to turn every one-teacher school into a two-teacher school

In January 1919 the board resolved to convert all of its one-teacher schools to two teachers, the same meeting at which it bought water coolers and erasers for the classrooms and raised the superintendent's pay.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

The county board commits $20,000 to a new Hillsboro school as a memorial to the county's war dead

The board first offered Hillsboro $5,000 for a new school plant if the town raised $2,500, then settled on $20,000, and asked that the building honor the men of the county killed in the First World War. It offered Carrboro $2,500 on condition that voters there pass a $20,000 bond issue.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Subject: Hillsborough High School

The county board sets out to close small weak schools and merge them with nearby ones

After visiting Orange Grove, which it kept as a three-teacher school, the board stated its aim of shutting small and inefficient schools and consolidating them with neighbors. The policy guided its building and busing decisions through the 1920s and 1930s.

Part of Building the public schools, 1868–1920 · 192 events

Ida Lloyd's pay as the superintendent's office assistant rises to $40 a month

Miss Ida Lloyd, Superintendent Claytor's office assistant since 1918, received her first raise in 1920, which brought her salary to $40 a month.

People: R. H. Claytor

The county board agrees to build a new school at Cedar Grove

On August 11, 1922, under superintendent Claytor, the county board agreed to build a modern school at Cedar Grove once state building-fund money came. The building was accepted in January 1924 and named Aycock School. Carrboro's new school, planned under the same program, was already going up in 1921.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

People: R. H. Claytor

Subject: Aycock School

Orange County begins merging its one- and two-teacher schools into larger ones

Claytor started the county's first round of consolidation in 1923, folding small schools into larger ones and seeking local tax elections, with a budget request of $92,100. Efland, Aycock and Hillsborough were to carry grades one through eleven and the rest grades one through seven.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

People: R. H. Claytor

Aycock School is built at Cedar Grove

The county board of education built a new school at Cedar Grove on land bought from Carl C. McDade, because state law barred board member Charles A. McDade from selling his own land to the county. Sam Johnson won the contract in August 1923 with a bid of $19,570. On January 7, 1924 the board voted to name the school Aycock instead of Cedar Grove, and on January 21 it inspected and accepted the building.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Aycock School

The county board moves $30,000 in building money to Efland and sets the order of its new schools

The board shifted $15,000 each from the White Cross and Caldwell building funds to Efland, reasoning that Efland had the greater need, a local tax with an eight-month term, and a paved road for school trucks. It then fixed the building order as Efland, White Cross, Orange County Training School, Orange Grove and Caldwell.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Orange County Training School / Lincoln High School · Efland schools

A new consolidated school for white children is built at Efland

The board let the Efland contract to A. R. Davis for $21,388, with steam heat by Dermott of Durham, placed the school east of the highway and made the contractor replace inferior brick. The board inspected and accepted the building in March 1925, and John Efland paid $1,135 for the old white schoolhouse.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Efland schools

A new consolidated school is built at Orange Grove

The board let the Orange Grove contract to A. R. Davis for $13,600 and set the school about half a mile from the old one on the road to Hillsboro. It inspected and accepted the building in March 1925.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

A new consolidated school is built at White Cross on the Saxapahaw road

After neighbors rejected a site at the crossroads near Leuco Lloyd's, the board placed the new White Cross school on the north side of the Chapel Hill and Saxapahaw road and let the contract to A. R. Davis for $14,436. It accepted the building in March 1925 and sold the old White Cross schoolhouse to F. J. Eubanks for $250.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: White Cross School

The county board orders its first school buses

The board ordered ten trucks, six GMC, two Reo and two Chevrolet, with bus bodies from the Carolina Body Company of Greensboro, to carry children to the new consolidated schools. At an August hearing in the courthouse some residents urged the commissioners not to sign the notes for the buses, but no action was taken against them.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

People: R. H. Claytor

The county board sells four rural schools closed by consolidation

Consolidation had emptied the Fairfield, Fairview, South View and Sunnyside schoolhouses, and the superintendent was ordered to sell them. Fairfield went to the trustees of Fairfield Presbyterian Church for $200 and Sunnyside to Ivan Lloyd for $115.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Fairfield Presbyterian Church

Harmony School patrons protest a merger with Aycock School

A delegation from Harmony School went before the board to object to consolidating their school with the new Aycock School at Cedar Grove. The board told them no such step was planned, though Harmony was merged into Aycock six years later.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Aycock School

Orange County joins neighboring counties in summer schools for its Black and white teachers

The board agreed to pay a share of a summer session for Black teachers held jointly with Durham and Person counties, and to send its white teachers to a session shared with Person. Pender, then a young teacher, attended the white teachers' session.

The old Caldwell schoolhouse is sold as a new consolidated school is built

When the county built a new consolidated Caldwell School in 1925, the board sold the old one-teacher schoolhouse and its site to R. E. Clements for $160 on May 4, 1925.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Caldwell School

The county board merges Little River Township's schools into a new Caldwell School

Little River patrons voted in March 1925 for a new school at Caldwell, the board let the building contract to B. F. Blanchard for $12,956.20, and C. S. Miller gave seven acres just beyond Caldwell for the site. In June the board consolidated every school in the township except Schley into Caldwell, which opened with 124 pupils.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Caldwell School

A Superior Court judge rules against the county school board in the Efland School site dispute

The county board of education had gone to court against Thomas Forrest and James O. Webb over the acre-and-a-fraction Efland School site. At a hearing in Graham the judge ruled against the board, which told its lawyers to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Efland schools

Mary Hyman becomes supervisor of the Orange County schools and brings in standardized testing

Mary Hyman of New Bern came to Orange County in 1926 as school supervisor. She pushed teaching by projects and units and was the first to give standardized I.Q. and achievement tests in the county schools, using the scores in promotion; after parent complaints she was not reelected when her five-year term ended in 1931.

Damascus School burns over the Christmas holidays

A committee from the Damascus community told the board in January 1927 that their school had burned during the holidays and asked for a one-teacher school to replace it. The board voted to build and equip a new building for no more than $800.

The county board auctions seven more schoolhouses closed by consolidation

Early in 1927 the board sold the Pleasant Green, Orange Chapel, Oaks, Union Grove and Meredith schools, most for between $60 and $150, and turned down the bids for New Bethel and Poplar Grove.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

The county board hires a rural school supervisor at the urging of Edgar W. Knight

After Edgar W. Knight explained the value of a rural supervisor, the board authorized one at $2,400 a year plus $600 for travel, provided the state paid half. Mary Hyman held the post by 1929 and was kept on in 1931 over some local opposition, but the board did not rehire her after her 1932 report.

People: Edgar Wallace Knight

The county board merges Chestnut Ridge, Jordan's Grove, Smith Level and Grover into larger schools

Over objections from families who wanted to keep neighborhood schools, the board sent the pupils of Chestnut Ridge to Gravelly Hill, those of Grover and Jordan's Grove to Aycock, and those of Smith Level to Carrboro. It then adopted a school budget of $180,849.25 for 1930-31.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Jordan’s Grove School · Aycock School

St. Mary's School burns and the county builds a new one

Fire destroyed St. Mary's School on November 3, 1930. With $2,500 from the county commissioners on top of $1,800 already set aside, the board let J. H. Liner of Cedar Grove build a new school for 84 children for $4,638.30 and received it on January 5, 1931.

Subject: St. Mary's School

The county board merges nine more rural schools into larger ones

At a special meeting on reorganizing the schools, the board sent Merritts to Chapel Hill, Damascus to Carrboro, Tom's Creek and Rock Hill to Orange Grove, Union and Rehobeth to Efland, and Harmony with others to Aycock, leaving few one-teacher schools for white children.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Aycock School

The county board sets bus driver pay and a one-mile limit on walks to the bus

The board paid student drivers $10 a month and adult drivers $20, and told the superintendent to lay out truck routes so that no child walked more than a mile to a bus. A few weeks later the state told the superintendent that $15 a month was the most a driver could be paid.

The county board bars hiring teachers related to a school's committeemen

The board ruled that every elementary teacher must hold at least a Primary C or Grammar Grade C certificate when elected, and that no one could teach in the county if a wife, child, brother or sister sat on the school committee.

White Cross School burns and the board orders a new building

The board learned in April 1933 that the White Cross school building had been destroyed by fire and authorized a new one for $10,859. At the same meeting it set aside $3,325 for two new rooms at Efland.

Subject: White Cross School

Parents turn back a plan to merge the Aycock, Efland and Hillsboro schools

A large crowd of parents appeared before the board to fight a plan that would have folded the Aycock, Efland and Hillsboro schools into one. The opposition was strong enough that the board dropped the plan, which returned in 1963 as Orange High School.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Orange High School · Aycock School · Efland schools · Hillsborough High School

Black families from five northern Orange schools ask for a brick consolidated school

Parents from five schools for Black children, Cedar Grove, Carr, Harmony, Sartins and White Oak, asked the board for a new brick building to replace them. The board promised to look into it; a site near Vincent's Store for a Cedar Grove school for Black children was bought in 1946.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Cedar Grove schools

The county school board buys land for a new Black school in Hillsboro

The Orange County Board of Education bought the Hillsboro colored school site from Louis Wilson and George Mayo, paying $1,100 to each. The new school for Black students went up there that year.

Subject: Central High and Central Elementary, Hillsborough

The county board applies for home economics and agriculture teachers at Hillsboro School

The board voted in April 1936 to apply for teachers of agriculture and home economics at the Hillsboro School, while seeking federal funds for new buildings and additions.

Subject: Hillsborough High School

The county board agrees to build an agriculture building at Aycock School

Aycock principal Mrs. V. L. Warren and the school committee asked the board for a two-room brick building for agriculture classes, and the board agreed to provide it.

Subject: Aycock School

The county buys land from Mary Vincent for a Cedar Grove school for Black children

In May 1945 board members Charlie Stanford and James Compton were asked to find a site near Vincent's Store crossroads for a Cedar Grove school for Black children. The board bought the land from Mary Vincent for $1,000 in 1946.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Cedar Grove schools

The county board approves twelve classrooms and a gymnasium for Central School

The board approved a building program of twelve classrooms and a gymnasium at Central, the county's school for Black students in Hillsborough.

Subject: Central High and Central Elementary, Hillsborough

The county board closes Orange Grove School and sends its pupils to Hillsboro

The board discontinued Orange Grove School and first planned to split its children between Hillsboro and White Cross. Parents objected strongly to White Cross, so the board voted to send them all to Hillsboro; the school site went to Cane Creek Baptist Church for $50 in 1947.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

The county board ends high school classes at Efland

The board voted to discontinue Efland High School and send its students to Aycock and Hillsboro, leaving Efland an elementary school.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Aycock School · Efland schools

A community cannery is set up at Aycock School

G. A. Munn and E. F. Cude told the board in July 1947 that the cannery at Aycock School had used $3,500 and needed $1,500 more to finish.

Subject: Aycock School

The county board elects Glenn T. Proffit superintendent and keeps R. H. Claytor as his assistant

Meeting on May 5, 1947, the Board of Education elected G. T. Proffit superintendent and R. H. Claytor his assistant, offering $2,400 a year part time or $3,000 full time; Claytor chose full time. The board passed a resolution of appreciation for his thirty years with the county schools.

Glenn T. Proffit succeeds R. H. Claytor as Orange County school superintendent

Glenn Theodor Proffit, a Wilkes County native who had led high schools in Clinton, Harnett County and Dunn, took over the county schools in July 1947 and served until 1951.

People: R. H. Claytor

The county board hires supervisors of instruction for its Black and white schools

The board decided to hire supervisors of instruction and chose Norma Snipes for the Black schools and later Cora Paul Bomar for the white schools. In 1955 the state ended Snipes's position under a rule of one supervisor per hundred teachers, and she went to teach at Efland-Cheeks.

People: Cora Paul Bomar · M. Norma Snipes

The county board sells the former Wardsville and Cool Spring school sites

On January 5, 1948 the county board confirmed the sale of the Wardsville school site to D. D. Jones of Durham for $100, and on March 1 it confirmed the sale of the unused two-room Cool Springs school to C. C. McClees of Durham for $400. Both had been schools for Black children in the Murphy district.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Cora Paul Bomar serves as instructional supervisor of the Orange County schools

Librarian and teacher Cora Paul Bomar was the county schools' instructional supervisor from 1949 to 1951, with building school libraries as her main charge. She left in 1951 to become school library consultant for the State Department of Public Instruction.

People: Cora Paul Bomar

Efland Elementary School sets up the county schools' first centralized library

Under supervisor Cora Paul Bomar, Efland Elementary turned two empty classrooms into one library: local men took out the partition, painted and built shelves, Bomar classified the books, and Mrs. Turner Forrest, one of the teachers, ran it as teacher-librarian. When Irene Pender took over in 1951 it was still the only centralized library in the county schools.

People: Cora Paul Bomar

Subject: Efland schools

Superintendent Proffit's $1 million school bond pays for a new Efland school for Black children and county lunchrooms

The $1,000,000 school bond passed under Superintendent Glenn T. Proffit paid for grounds and a building for the Efland school for Black children, an addition to Hillsboro High School, and lunchrooms at Aycock, Efland, West Hillsborough and White Cross. It also bought a cannery and gymnasium at Aycock and a remodeling and auditorium at Caldwell.

People: Glenn T. Proffit

Subject: Efland schools · Aycock School · Hillsborough High School

Norma Snipes is appointed supervisor of the county schools for Black children

In July 1949 the county named Norma Snipes, formerly a Jeans teacher who trained teachers, as supervisor of its schools for Black children.

People: M. Norma Snipes

Irene Oliver Pender becomes instructional supervisor of the Orange County schools

After Cora Paul Bomar resigned in 1951, the county chose Aycock School teacher Irene Oliver Pender as supervisor. She led the drive for a centralized library in every elementary school and ran the federal NDEA and ESEA materials programs until she retired in June 1970.

People: Cora Paul Bomar

Orange County closes thirteen small schools for Black children and consolidates their pupils

At the start of the 1951-52 school year the county shut thirteen one- and two-teacher schools for Black children, put eleven new buses on the roads and consolidated every Black school except three near Efland. New buildings opened that year at the Cedar Grove school.

Subject: Cedar Grove schools

The county board elects G. Paul Carr superintendent of the Orange County schools

Gabriel Paul Carr, principal of Angier High School, became the county's tenth school superintendent in 1951, succeeding Glenn T. Proffit, who left for the Harnett County superintendency. Carr served eighteen years, through the consolidation of schools and the desegregation of the system, and resigned effective June 30, 1969.

People: G. Paul Carr · Glenn T. Proffit

The county board buys the Morrow land for Efland-Cheeks, a new school for Black children

The board decided to buy the Morrow land for a new school for Black children in the Efland district, named Efland-Cheeks.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Efland schools

The county builds the classroom building and cafeteria later used by A. L. Stanback School

A classroom building and a cafeteria on the Hillsborough campus that became A. L. Stanback School, the grades 6-7 school by 1983, date from 1952 under Superintendent G. Paul Carr.

People: G. Paul Carr

The last three schools for Black children near Efland are consolidated at Efland-Cheeks

In the 1952-53 school year the three remaining small schools for Black children in the Efland area were merged into Efland-Cheeks School, completing the consolidation of the county's Black schools begun the year before.

Subject: Efland schools

The county board sells off its remaining small schoolhouses

In March 1952 the board sold the last small school buildings, among them the Fairfield school for Black children, Sartin, Poplar Grove, Morris Grove and Hickory Grove, for prices from $300 to $2,010. Around the same time Carr School went to Jim Wade for $800.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

The county board buys the Cameron Park property in Hillsborough for a new elementary school

The board paid Rebecca Wall $18,000 for the Cameron Park property and named the school to be built there Cameron Park.

Subject: Cameron Park School

The county board ends the supervisor post for its Black schools under a new state staffing rule

In 1955 the state began allotting a county one supervisor per hundred teachers. The schools Norma Snipes supervised had fewer teachers than that, so the board ended her post and made her a primary teacher at Efland-Cheeks School.

People: M. Norma Snipes

The county board deeds the old Gravelly Hill School ground to Mrs. George McAdams

While disposing of closed schools in September 1955, the county board deeded the old Gravelly Hill School ground to Mrs. George McAdams. Gravelly Hill had taught Black children until the Efland-area schools were merged into Efland-Cheeks in 1952-53.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Cameron Park School opens in Hillsborough with the lower grades from Hillsboro High

The new Cameron Park School took all of grades one through four from the Hillsboro High School building, leaving grades five through twelve there, with Fred Rogers, formerly of Efland, as principal. Transfer requests from other districts poured in and drew pupils away from West Hillsborough School.

Subject: Cameron Park School · Hillsborough High School

Carrboro voters approve merging their school district with the Chapel Hill unit

On August 5, 1958 the Carrboro school district voted 713 to 303 to merge with the Chapel Hill city school unit and levy a 15-cent school tax, after a spring vote had failed. The county board sold the old Carrboro School to R. B. Todd for $30,000 in September 1959.

Subject: Carrboro Elementary School · Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

Cameron Park School in Hillsborough gets its first addition

Three years after it opened, the county enlarged Cameron Park School with a second section of building, raised under Superintendent G. Paul Carr to plans by the architect Archie Royal Davis.

People: Archie Royal Davis · G. Paul Carr

Subject: Cameron Park School

Carrboro's schools join the Chapel Hill city unit

The merger Carrboro voters approved in August 1958 took effect with the 1959-60 school year, taking 462 pupils out of the Orange County system; in 1958-59 Carrboro Elementary had stayed under the county board while high school pupils and Black elementary pupils could attend Chapel Hill schools free.

Subject: Carrboro Elementary School · Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

The county board buys 100 acres from S. T. Latta for a new consolidated high school

The board bought 100 acres from S. T. Latta in August 1960 for a new county high school, set aside $100,000 toward the building in July 1961 and accepted construction bids in May 1962. The school opened as Orange High School in 1963.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Orange High School

Clara Jones is appointed a supervisor of the Orange County schools

Clara Jones, a Person County principal for twenty-seven years, joined the county staff as supervisor in 1961, assigned to the Cedar Grove, Efland-Cheeks and A. L. Stanback schools for Black children. After integration she ran special education testing and placement, and she retired in 1974.

Two federally funded kindergartens operate at the Efland schools

A federal research grant was paying for two public kindergartens in the county, one at Efland Elementary and one at Efland-Cheeks, the Black school. The board limited them to five-year-olds living in the Efland district.

Subject: Efland schools

Aycock and Hillsborough High schools are consolidated into Orange High School

On February 4, 1963 the county board of education resolved to consolidate the high schools at Hillsborough and Aycock into the new Orange High School, which opened in 1963 with Charles Yelverton as its first principal. The new Orange Junior High School was housed in the old Hillsborough High School building, and Aycock continued as an elementary school.

Subject: Orange High School · Hillsborough High School · Aycock School

Orange Junior High School opens in the old Hillsborough High School building

When the county consolidated its white high schools into Orange High in 1963, it organized Orange Junior High School for grades six through nine in the old Hillsborough High School building, with Ted Shoaf as principal.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: Hillsborough High School · Orange High School

The General Assembly makes the Orange County Board of Education an elected five-member board

A 1963 local act (H.B. 1329) set the county school board at five members chosen by voters in partisan elections from 1964 on, with six-year staggered terms and no more than two members from any one township.

Orange High and Orange Junior High win accreditation from the state and the Southern Association

Between about 1964 and 1969 Orange High School and Orange Junior High were accredited by the state and by the Southern Association, so every county pupil in grades 7 through 12 attended a regionally accredited school. A push to accredit the elementary schools was put off by integration.

Subject: Orange High School

A state act limits Orange County school board elections to voters outside the Chapel Hill school unit

A 1965 act (H.S. 695) provided that only county voters living outside the enlarged Chapel Hill school administrative unit could vote in elections for the Orange County Board of Education.

Fire destroys the home economics building at Aycock School

The home economics building at Aycock School in Cedar Grove burned, with the loss put at $15,000 to $20,000 and fully insured through the state. The county board had approved the building in 1948.

Subject: Aycock School

Orange County schools start the federal Title I program

Frank Giles, named first assistant to the superintendent and office manager, took charge of the federal Title I program, whose $166,801.40 budget came on top of the county school budget.

The county board asks the commissioners to back a desegregation plan and Black members on school boards

Facing federal compliance rules, the board met the county commissioners and asked for two Black members on the Board of Education, integration of schools, buses and staff, Black members on district committees and signature of the federal compliance form.

The board names the first principals of Stanford Junior High and Central Elementary

Paul Raspberry was chosen to lead the new Stanford Junior High, and Tarleton Davis was picked to open Central Elementary as its first principal.

Subject: Central High and Central Elementary, Hillsborough

The county board adopts a school desegregation plan

After most of a year spent trying to reach a plan acceptable under federal rules, the Orange County Board of Education adopted a desegregation plan on September 7, 1965.

Orange County voters approve $3 million in school bonds for the county and Chapel Hill units

In 1967 voters approved a $3,000,000 school building bond, with $1,000,000 for the Orange County schools and $2,000,000 for the Chapel Hill schools. It was the third school bond passed during Superintendent Carr's tenure.

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

Stanford Junior High School is built near Hillsborough with two classroom buildings and a gymnasium

Under Superintendent G. Paul Carr the county finished Stanford Junior High, a main classroom building for about 800 pupils, a second for about 225 and a gymnasium, on the 100-acre tract it shares with Orange High.

People: G. Paul Carr

Subject: Orange High School

Belton Edwards, a Black member, joins the county Board of Education

When A. B. Coleman resigned from the board in May 1968, Belton Edwards, whom Pender identifies as Black, took his place. The board had asked the county commissioners in 1965 for two Black members.

George F. Williams becomes superintendent of the Orange County schools

After G. Paul Carr resigned, the board called George F. Williams, superintendent of the Brunswick County schools, to lead the Orange County system in 1969. He served eight years as the county's eleventh superintendent.

People: George F. Williams · G. Paul Carr

Orange County Schools open kindergarten classes and extend them to every five-year-old

Kindergarten began in the county schools with the 1969-70 reorganization, housed at Central Elementary and Efland-Cheeks. By the end of Superintendent Williams's term in 1977 it had grown from a partial program to one serving all five-year-olds.

People: George F. Williams

Subject: Central High and Central Elementary, Hillsborough · Efland schools

Orange County Schools regroup pupils by grade across the Hillsborough schools to complete integration

For 1969-70 the county put all its pupils outside the Efland area into Hillsborough schools, each serving set grades: kindergarten at Central Elementary, grades 1-2 at Cameron Park, 3-4 at Central, 5-6 at the old Orange Junior High, 7-9 at a new Orange Junior High and 10-12 at Orange High. Efland-Cheeks took kindergarten through third grade and Efland Elementary grades 4-6, and Aycock, Cedar Grove and West Hillsborough dropped out as separate schools.

People: G. Paul Carr

Subject: Orange High School · Central High and Central Elementary, Hillsborough · Efland schools · Cameron Park School · Cedar Grove schools · Aycock School

Orange High School is enlarged with new buildings

Six years after it opened as the county's consolidated high school, Orange High near Hillsborough added buildings in 1969 under the new superintendent George F. Williams.

People: George F. Williams

Subject: Orange High School

Superintendent Carr's final report recommends studying a merger of the county and Chapel Hill school units

In his closing report to the State Superintendent in 1969, G. Paul Carr asked the board to have outside educators study combining the county and Chapel Hill units. He also urged a supplementary school tax, written board policies, kindergartens for all children, a return to six-grade elementary schools and special education at the high school.

People: G. Paul Carr

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

Orange and Alamance agree on Orange children attending Alamance schools

Worried that growing numbers of western Orange children rode Alamance buses to Mebane schools, the board released to Alamance all children living within a mile of the county line and let those farther out stay if they chose. It also allowed out-of-county attendance if families paid tuition and provided transportation.

Student Donnie Riddle is stabbed to death at Orange High School

Donnie Riddle was killed in the Orange High bus parking lot while trying to shield the assistant principal from three former students who had dropped out. The school stayed closed until February 7, when enough officers were on hand to keep out anyone without business there.

Subject: Orange High School

The county school board sells the closed Caldwell School property

After the school board asked its attorney in November 1971 to move toward a sale, it accepted $5,143.52 from the sale of the Caldwell School property. Pender later wrote that the building was demolished and the land went back to its owner.

Subject: Caldwell School

The county board buys land on Orange Grove Road for the new Grady Brown School

The board decided to buy up to twenty acres on Orange Grove Road for a new elementary school, the Grady Brown School. Its 1974 budget request put $1,900,270 toward the building.

The county board names Orange High's new football stadium for coach Glenn Auman

The board named the new football stadium for Glenn Auman, who had coached for many years and taught high school classes.

Subject: Orange High School

Orange County builds Grady A. Brown Elementary School

The county put up Grady A. Brown Elementary, a centrally heated and air-conditioned K-5 building of about 67,800 square feet on a 20-acre site near Hillsborough, designed by Croft Inc. under Superintendent George F. Williams.

People: George F. Williams

Central Elementary School in Hillsborough gets a large addition

Ten years after the first building went up, the county added about 18,700 square feet to Central Elementary under Superintendent George F. Williams, bringing the school to roughly 44,600 square feet.

People: Archie Royal Davis · George F. Williams

Subject: Central High and Central Elementary, Hillsborough

Orange County Schools reorganize into K-5 elementary schools with a middle school and junior high

In 1975-76 the county dropped the two-grade elementary centers of 1969, returning to elementary schools of kindergarten through fifth grade, with grades 6-7 in a middle school and 8-9 in a junior high.

People: George F. Williams

Michael Simmons becomes superintendent of the Orange County schools

Dr. Michael Simmons, superintendent in Dillon, South Carolina, since 1974, took charge of the Orange County schools in 1977. He resigned in 1983 to lead the Johnson City, Tennessee, schools.

People: Michael Simmons

Stanford Junior High School gets a small addition

A 4,300-square-foot addition was made to Stanford Junior High in 1977 under Superintendent George F. Williams.

People: George F. Williams

Cameron Park School is enlarged again under Superintendent Michael Simmons

A further addition to Cameron Park Elementary in Hillsborough went up in 1978, the third stage of the building, which by the early 1980s housed kindergarten through fifth grade.

People: Michael Simmons

Subject: Cameron Park School

Orange High School's Cultural Arts Building is fitted with a heat pump system

A note to the Orange High plant table records a heat pump system in 1979 for the school's Cultural Arts Building, work that falls in Michael Simmons's term as superintendent.

People: Michael Simmons

Subject: Orange High School

Dannie G. Lunsford becomes superintendent of the Orange County schools

Dr. Dannie G. Lunsford, who had come to the county in 1971 as principal at Efland and risen through the instruction office to associate superintendent, succeeded Michael Simmons as superintendent in July 1983.

People: Michael Simmons