| Description |
Newport News (Va.) School Board Records, 1896-1973 (bulk 1950-1970), document management and expansion of school buildings and grounds, 1935-1973; administration of the Nursery School Project, a federally subsidized daycare program, 1943-1951; school integration, 1958-1968; the development of a kindergarten program, 1963-1973; financial audits, 1959-1971, and appointments to and resignations from the Board of School Trustees, 1896-1921, and the School Board, 1921-1958. Schools, buildings, and grounds records, 1935-1973, contain correspondence, memoranda, deeds, plats, building plans, excerpts of city council minutes pertaining to school buildings and grounds issues, and financial records. The records include three general files and individual files on 37 elementary schools and high schools and a technical college. Correspondence includes letters between the Superintendent of Schools and the City Manager. Nursery School Project records, 1943-1951, document administration of a federally funded daycare program. Records include memos and correspondence with the Federal Works Agency pertaining to the grant application and the rationale for the program, the hiring of staff and rental of property and purchase of supplies; correspondence with the City Manager pertaining to the city appropriation for the program; a letter of support for the program from the War Department, Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation, and reports on the number of mothers with children in various civil defense zones who were working and needed childcare or who had children and wanted to work and needed childcare. The records also document discussion of efforts to continue the program after federal funds were withdrawn in 1946. Integration records, 1958-1968, contain correspondence, memoranda, excerpts from city council minutes, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and broadsides pertaining to school desegregation. They include memos about public safety and police presence, policies for the assignment and transfer of students, copies of legislation and court opinions, and correspondence and memos pertaining to implementation of a pupil placement plan approved by the Federal district court in 1960. Also included are memos about a lawsuit challenging the plan, dismissed in 1962; and a letter, 1968, from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office for Civil Rights about threatened enforcement procedures. These files also contain letters from the Executive Board of the Newport News chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. about inequities in the schools, a letter from the Peninsula Christian Ministers Association celebrating the peaceful transition to integrated schools, newspaper clippings of editorials about integration, Southern Regional Council literature, and examples of racist propaganda from the period. Kindergarten Program records, 1963-1973, document development of a kindergarten program that was implemented in the fall of 1972. They contain correspondence, including letters from citizens advocating for a kindergarten, newspaper clippings, excerpts of city council minutes, and directories of nursery schools and kindergartens in Newport News. Audits, 1959-1971, contain financial audit reports of the School Board and related correspondence. School Board appointments and resignations, 1896-1959, contain correspondence and city council minutes pertaining to appointments, resignations, recognition, and dismissal of appointees to the Board of School Trustees and the School Board. |
