Mission Statement & Vision

Just For Students

Parent's Page

Title I

The History of Our School

Centre Elementary School was built in 1929. It is a rural school in northeast Alabama. The school has a staff of 54 teachers and 22 support personnel. Through the years, many additions and renovations have been added to accommodate the influx of new student population. A school lunchroom was built in 1954 and was expanded in 1994. Because of growth, a new building with eight classrooms and bathrooms was added in 1964. An additional four classrooms, bathrooms, and a teacher's lounge were added to this building in 1967. The library was renovated around 1981, making the facilities more modern. Renovation to the main building took place in 1984. A new kindergarten wing was added to our school in 1988. We further expanded this wing in 1997 to include two regular classrooms, two small classrooms, a speech therapy room, a hearing impaired room, and a conference room. Our third grade building was built in 1995. It has seven classrooms with bathrooms and a teacher's lounge. In 1999, a new second grade building with six classrooms, restrooms, teacher's lounge and a snack store was added. The construction of this building did away with most of our portable classrooms.

Our technology has soared in the past few years. Centre Elementary School technology achievements include a Writing to Read lab for kindergarten and 1st grade started in the school year 1991-1992 and funded by the Mattel Foundation and a Writing to Read lab during 1993-1994 funded by The Riordan Foundation. Writing to Write labs were incorporated into our curriculum in 1994-1995. Each classroom received one computer in the school year 1997-1998. This was a total of 40 classroom computers for student use. The school's main computer lab was renovated in 1999 with new computer tables and 26 new computers with Internet access. We also added another computer to each classroom during the 1999-2000 school year, giving us a total of 86 classroom computers for student use. Further evidence of our growing technology was the creation of our school web site. The latest technological advancement (2003) was the purchase of an additional computer lab for grades 3-5 with 25 multi-media computers. Students grades K-2 were moved into the old computer lab. They will be taught basic computer skills instead of Writing to Read. A new technology curriculum was purchased to help meet the technology objectives.

Community and parental help and involvement has been tremendous through the years. The P.T.O. has been helpful in buying much-needed items, such as playground equipment, computers, teacher supplies, money for workbooks and other materials. Mr. W.A. Ellis and Mr. Tim Williams, a local Regions Bank president, organized the Citizens Endowment for better Schools (CES) Foundation Program. Through their efforts, they collected over $800,000 to improve and enhance our school. The improvements included installation of a new metal roof, cement drives, an access road around the school, a drive-through carport in front of the school for the loading and unloading of students, landscaping, sod, a fountain, a watering system, and benches for children to use while waiting for the bus. The CES Foundation Program donated $60,000 to pay for one additional room for the second grade building in 1999. The funding from this program has provided improvements to our school that could not have been achieved without their tireless efforts and support.

Reduction in classroom sizes has been one of our most important factors for our students. In the past, it was not uncommon for K-3 to have 26 to 30 students in each classroom and 4-5 to have 26 to 35. The pupil-teacher ratio was recently changed to 17 students per classroom in K-3 and 26 students per classroom in 4-5. The new pupil-teacher ratio created a need for more classrooms and teachers. A class occupies every classroom at this school. The largest number of students enrolled at our school has been 850 while the lowest enrollment stands at 733. Our approximate number of withdrawals is 50-60 students per year. We also have approximately 50-60 new students per year.