Gould School District

The Gould School District was a school district that operated public schools in Gould, Arkansas. Its territory is now a part of the Dumas School District.

The Gould School District stated that in September 1964 Gould became the first previously-segregated school district in the United States to completely racially integrate. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas stated that the district integrated in September 1967. In 1968, when the Gould School District started a night program at the Cummins Unit, an Arkansas Department of Correction prison.

Prior to 1991 the Gould School District, which by then had an almost completely black student body, had a transfer policy which allowed area residents to attend other schools. About 100 White children in the district boundaries used the policy to attend other schools. In 1991 the school board unanimously voted to end the program and ruled that students must attend Gould schools beginning in the fall of 1991. Many White parents protested the decision; some threatened to take legal action and some said that they would never send their children to Gould schools. Some area parents feared that the decision would lead to White families moving out of the school district and crippling the district's tax base. Alan Minor, the president of the Gould school board, said that it had no choice because the Arkansas State Board of Education withheld $200,000 ($351673.59 when adjusted for inflation) in bond revenues since the state believed that the Gould district was promoting segregation. Sharon Streett, the Arkansas Department of Education's chief legal counsel, said that the state does not want to be perceived to be promoting racial segregation. Minor said that he did not expect for very many additional White students to be enrolled in the fall of 1991, because he heard some parents state that they would move.

In 2004 the Arkansas Legislature approved a law that forced school districts with fewer than 350 students apiece to consolidate with other districts. A March 1, 2004 board meeting, board member Norvell Dixon advanced a resolution for consolidating with the Grady School District under the Provisions of Act 60. Another board member, Lee Dale, seconded the motion, which was carried. Another motion, advanced by Dale, stated that the new school board should be named the Lincoln County Special School District and that it should have five board members. Dixon seconded the notion, which carried. In May 2004 the state board of education rejected the voluntary proposal to consolidate the Grady district with the Gould district, because both school districts were majority African American and the merger would have violated federal desegregation laws.

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