William G. Stewart Elementary School is a defunct elementary school

Elementary school

An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

, which formerly served the western portion of the small city

City

A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...

 of Minden

Minden, Louisiana

Minden is a city in the American state of Louisiana. It serves as the parish seat of Webster Parish and is located twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish. The population, which has been stable since 1960, was 13,027 at the 2000 census...

, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

, with public school pre-kindergarten

Kindergarten

A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...

 through fifth grade. The institution was located at 215 North Middle Landing Road, a block north of common U.S. Highway 79 and U.S. Highway 80, known in Minden as the "Shreveport

Shreveport, Louisiana

Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....

 Road". It was one of four, since reduced to three, public elementary schools in Minden. Demolition of Stewart was undertaken in August 2011.

Under an economic realignment plan, the Webster Parish School Board marked Stewart Elementatry for closure with the fall semester of 2011. The school had opened in the 1949-1950 academic year and was named for Minden businessman William G. Stewart (October 5, 1882 - August 1970), a former president of the Webster Parish School Board. As did many of the early city leaders, Stewart graduated from the former Minden Male Academy on Sullivan Street, a predecessor to Minden High School

Minden High School (Minden, Louisiana)

Minden High School is the public secondary educational institution in Minden, a small city of 13,000 and the seat of Webster Parish located twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport in northwestern Louisiana...

, which opened in 1901.

The companion school to Stewart on the eastern side of Minden is E.S. Richardson Elementary School

E.S. Richardson Elementary School

E.S. Richardson Elementary School is a pre-kindergarten through fifth grade campus which serves parts of the eastern section of the small city of Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana. The school opened in the 1949-1950 academic year, with Wayne Wynn Williams, Sr. , as the...

, named for educator and former Louisiana Tech University

Louisiana Tech University

Louisiana Tech University, often referred to as Louisiana Tech, LA Tech, or Tech, is a coeducational public research university located in Ruston, Louisiana. Louisiana Tech is designated as a Tier 1 school in the national universities category by the 2012 U.S. News & World Report college rankings...

 president E.S. Richardson

E.S. Richardson

Edwin Sanders Richardson, Sr., principally known as E. S. Richardson , was an educator who served from August 14, 1936, until 1941 as the president of Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, the seat of Lincoln Parish. Previously, Richardson was the superintendent of schools in his native Webster...

. Prior to Stewart and Richardson, elementary pupils had attended classes in the high school complex on College Street. Both schools were constructed through a bond issue approved after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Prior to desegregation

Desegregation

Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...

, the historically black Jerry A. Moore elementary school (since closed and demolished) was operating in the same neighborhood. Both schools served the western part of Minden. In its last years, Stewart was predominantly African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 in enrollment. Stewart had some 350 students in the 2007-2008 year. Most were eligible for federally-funded school lunches.

During the early 1960s, the Stewart principal was Cecil C. Ross (1912–1994), who left to become parish elementary school supervisor. From 1967-1994, Lonnie Milton Simpson (born March 26, 1937) served as principal. A native of Cotton Valley

Cotton Valley, Louisiana

Cotton Valley is a town in central Webster Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,189 at the 2000 census. It is located some twenty miles northwest of the parish seat of Minden.-Overview:-Municipal matters:...

 north of Minden and a graduate of Northwestern State University

Northwestern State University

Northwestern State University, known as NSU, is a four-year public university primarily situated in Natchitoches, Louisiana, with a nursing campus in Shreveport and general campuses in Leesville/Fort Polk and Alexandria. It is a part of the University of Louisiana System.NSU was founded in 1884 as...

 in Natchitoches

Natchitoches, Louisiana

Natchitoches is a city in and the parish seat of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. Established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis as part of French Louisiana, the community was named after the Natchitoches Indian tribe. The City of Natchitoches was first incorporated on February...

, he arrived at the school in 1960 as a sixth grade teacher. Having since retired from the school system, he remains an active Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 layman.

Notable faculty

• Katherine M. "Kate" Crownover (1907–1995), a native of Ringgold
  Ringgold, Louisiana
  Ringgold is a town in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,660 at the 2000 census. Ringgold is named for United States Army Major Samuel Ringgold, the hero of the battle of Palo Alto near Brownsville, Texas, in the Mexican-American War. Ringgold, the son of a U.S...
  
   in Bienville Parish, taught fourth grade for some two decades at Stewart Elementary.
• Gloria Smith Johnson (born 1940), a native of Gibsland
  Gibsland, Louisiana
  Gibsland is a town in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, United States. Conveniently near Interstate 20 and less than an hour from both Shreveport and Monroe, Louisiana, Gibsland offers small town living with access to urban amenities...
  
   in Bienville Parish, taught first grade for twenty-seven years at Stewart Elementary prior to her retirement in 2004.
• Gay Lewis Jones (1908–1996)
• Martha Risdon "Mattie" Levins (1902–1998), a native of Mount Lebanon
  Mount Lebanon, Louisiana
  Mount Lebanon is a town in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 73 at the 2000 census.-History:Mount Lebanon was probably the first permanent settlement in what is now Bienville Parish. Its pioneers were Baptists from South Carolina who quickly established a church and...
  
   in Bienville Parish, taught elementary school for forty-five years, much of it the second grade at Stewart Elementary. She was named "Educator of the Year" in 1963.
• Willie Joyce Roberts McCausland (1916–2004), a native of Clarks
  Clarks, Louisiana
  Clarks is a rural village in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,071 at the 2000 census. Clarks is the largest community in Caldwell Parish....
  
   in Caldwell Parish, taught third grade at Stewart during the 1950s and 1960s.