School Board trying to preserve heritage

In the later part of the 1880s, the State of Louisiana started advocating education through public schools. St. Martin Parish appointed Superintendent E. R. Knight in 1886 to provide the leadership required to achieve this goal. There was no official school board but there was a St. Martin Parish High School Association, which in 1889 contracted with Husville Fournet for property to begin the process of building a high school in the city of St. Martinville.

Prior to public education, some of the children were schooled at home, usually in both French and English. Some of the wealthier parents educated their children in private community schools. The famous Civil War general Louis Hebert was employed as a teacher at the Huron Plantation. Many other plantation owners hired tutors for their children. St. Martin Parish residents were predominately of the Catholic faith so the church promoted the education of the youth through catechism classes.

Schools were usually built next to major highways or near bayous and rivers. Early schools were segregated. Negro schools were introduced somewhat later than schools for white children.

The first known rural community school in the parish was at Coteau Rodaire built in 1893 on property acquired from Civil War veteran Alexandre Babineaux. Not surprisingly the school was built to resemble a small community church, complete with steeple-like entrance, stained-glass windows above the door and a cross on the window frame.

Another community school in the northern part of the parish was a school built in 1925 in Portage on property donated by Robert Martin. The first school built there was replaced in 1935 through Roosevelt’s New Deal program. Both the Portage and Coteau Rodaire schools were moved to Huron in 1950 to serve as a Negro school. Both structures are still there today as a Head Start school.

St. Martin Parish is very fortunate that its first rural community school has survived and plans should be made by the board to make sure it is preserved, possibly as a school museum.

There were early schools at the Marks (between Arnaudville and Cecelia) and Kidder communities (between Arnaudville and Grand Coteau). In the early 1930s the Kidder school was destroyed in a storm and replaced by the Dan P. Martin Elementary School in Arnaudville. As a result the Marks school was closed and the students were transferred to the new Arnaudville School. The Kidder school property was returned to John Kidder in 1936 and the Marks property was returned to George Coles in 1941. After the Arnaudville School closed, the building was moved to Poche Bridge and is currently operated as a Girl Scout camp.

There was an early school at Magenta at the intersection of Declouet and Lawless Tauzin streets which was moved to Poche Bridge in 1921. Another school in the Poche Bridge area was at Union Bayou on Anse Broussard Highway. Cecelia, Beauregard, Cypemort, Patin, and New Henderson also had community schools. A school was built at Grand Anse on Grand Pointe Highway next to Four Corners around 1903, but by 1937 the school was too small for the community so another one was built at a different location on property acquired from Eddie Ray — again built with funds of Roosevelt’s WPA program, and the original one at Grand Pointe was closed.

In addition to Parks, other area schools were opened at LaPointe, Savoy, Leblanc, and Thibodeaux. The Leblanc and Thibodeaux schools were later merged. Schools in the southern part of the parish included Anse Judice, Catahoula Cove, Banker, Levert, Coteau Holmes, Cypress Island, and Isle Labbe.

Transportation for school children along the Atchafalaya River was difficult and was usually done by walking, or by boat. Very few students were afforded the opportunity to ride horse-pulled, and later motorized, buses. Schools along the river included one in Atchafalaya, a small community where the Visitor Center is now located at the Butte La Rose I-10 exit. There was a school at Butte La Rose across the river from the current boat landing. Other schools along the Atchafalaya River were located at Bayou Chene, Bayou Benoit, Catahoula Lake, and Bayou LaRompe. Lower St. Martin Parish schools were at Four Mile Bayou, Stephensville, and Belle River.

The St. Martin Parish School Board is currently revising its Web page. It will include much more information about each of the early schools including pictures, stories, and principals and teachers of each school. Anyone with pictures and additional information about the early parish schools is urged to contact Floyd Knott at yknott123@aol.com or phone 754-9980.

Floyd Knott is a former educator and a member of the St. Martin School Board.