Lake School was a public elementary school in the Near North Side neighborhood of Omaha , Nebraska , United States. The school was one of Omaha's " black schools ", and served grade one through grade eight . It closed in the 1970s.
25-481: Built in 1888, Lake started in an 1879 two-room frame schoolhouse opened in 1879, making it one of the oldest schools in the Omaha School District . It was a two-and-a-half story brick building with a peaked roofline and decorative elements at the peaks. There was a bell tower protruding from the top of one part of the east side of the building. The school's first principal was Emma Whitmore, who locked
50-443: A "learning community" that consists of all of the school districts in the county where the city is located and any county that shares a border with the city. The learning community will be composed of voting representatives from each school district and will also include the superintendents of the districts as non-voting members. A learning community will be charged with helping to distribute property tax revenue more evenly throughout
75-711: A lawsuit challenging the law. In a unanimous decision of the Michigan Supreme Court in 1874 written by the prominent Justice Thomas M. Cooley , the law was upheld. This decision led to a dramatic increase in the number of high schools operating both in Michigan and other states, which led to an increase in the number of superintendents. Early superintendents tended to focus on instruction, with "overall fiscal affairs, school building construction, and maintenance" remaining under school district control, becoming normal responsibilities of superintendents only in
100-468: A nascent African American population. In 1919, rioting after the lynching of Will Brown focused on the neighborhood containing Lake School. The US Army intervened and established the city's first official redlining , and ensuing white flight over the next several years resulted in Lake School's student population and surrounding neighborhood becoming more predominantly African American. By 1976,
125-547: A number of school districts, and that the schools would become less efficient in one large school district. Discussions among the school districts have been unproductive; the issue figured prominently in the 2006 session of the Nebraska state legislature . The Nebraska legislature passed a bill (LB 1024) on April 13, 2006, that addresses the "One City, One School District" issues. The governor of Nebraska signed it later that day. It requires each metropolitan class city to have
150-533: A private school in 1984. After operating for approximately 15 years, it was closed. Today, the third Lake School serves as an apartment complex called Fullwood Square. Omaha Public Schools Omaha Public Schools ( OPS ) is the largest school district in the state of Nebraska , United States. This public school district serves a diverse community of about 52,000 students at over 80 elementary and secondary schools in Omaha . Its district offices are located in
175-467: A variety of other labels have been used. In 1986, about 95 percent of school board members were elected, with the rest appointed by town boards, mayors, or others. In early America, school board members handled the day-to-day administration of schools without the need for a superintendent. By the 1830s, however, the increasing numbers of students, as well as the consolidation of one-room schoolhouses into larger districts, led districts to begin appointing
200-458: Is known as the "One City, One School District" plan. This issue is highly controversial in Omaha. Supporters of the plan claim that a single school district is necessary to promote a cohesive Omaha community, ensure academic equity in all Omaha schools and prevent OPS from becoming locked into a declining property tax base. Opponents contend that Omaha-area residents should be able to choose from
225-597: Is often expected to result in black students concentrated in a North Omaha district, white students in West Omaha district, and non-English speaking students in a South Omaha district. However, the law does not mandate such a result. Within its requirements, new districts may be drawn in several different ways. LB 641, approved on May 7, 2007, repealed the requirement that the Omaha Public Schools district be broken up into three districts. Afterward,
250-477: The University of Wisconsin . In 1911, the idea of the superintendent as a separate professional emerged. The emergence of the superintendency was linked to the adoption of a business organizational model in education. Beginning in 1914, Columbia and other universities began to teach courses on educational administration, including school finance, business methods, budgeting, and organization. Cubberley wrote
275-631: The history of education in the United States was the "Kalamazoo school case" ( Stuart v. School District No. 1 of the Village of Kalamazoo ). In 1858, Kalamazoo, Michigan established its first high school, and the following year, the Michigan Legislature enacted legislature authorizing the election of school districts and the establishment of high schools funded by local taxes. In January 1873, three Kalamazoo property owners filed
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#1732798048820300-460: The current Omaha public school district has approximately 45,000 students classified as 46 percent white, 31 percent black, 20 percent Hispanic, and 3 percent Asian or American Indian. News reports indicate that division of the city of Omaha into three new school districts, as ordered in April, 2006, by the Nebraska legislature and including current Elkhorn , Millard and Ralston public schools,
325-684: The district implemented a plan to bus students citywide in order to integrate schools. After that order was rescinded by SCOTUS in 1999, the district re-segregated. On June 13, 2005, the Omaha Public Schools Board and Superintendent John Mackiel announced their intention to annex 25 schools within Omaha city limits to OPS. They are currently part of the Elkhorn Public Schools , Millard Public Schools and Ralston Public Schools districts. This announcement, based on three Nebraska statutes enacted in 1891 and 1947,
350-645: The early twentieth century. By the early twentieth century, superintendents emphasized business affairs. Important leaders in American education at the time were George D. Strayer, Ellwood P. Cubberley , and Edward C. Elliott , who all wrote doctoral dissertations on education finance at Columbia University in the first decade of the 20th century. Cubberley served as superintendent in San Diego and later taught at Stanford University , Strayer taught at Teachers College, Columbia University , and Elliott taught at
375-419: The first superintendents. Buffalo, New York , became the first location to appoint a superintendent, on June 9, 1837, with Louisville, Kentucky , following on July 31 of the same year. Large cities, which had the greatest administrative needs, were the first to appoint superintendents, but as schools consolidated into districts, the practice of appointing a superintendent became more popular. A major event in
400-487: The former Tech High at 30th and Cuming Streets. Within Douglas County the district includes much of Omaha. The district extends into parts of Sarpy County , where it includes portions of Bellevue . Omaha Public Schools has a long tradition of segregation extending the entire history of the city from its first public school in the 1860s. In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Omaha end school segregation and
425-494: The governor suspended and repealed the law. Superintendent (education) In the American education system , a superintendent or superintendent of schools is an administrator or manager in charge of a number of public schools or a school district , a local government body overseeing public schools. All school principals in a respective school district report to the superintendent. The role and powers of
450-411: The length of the school year." The persons responsible were frequently selectmen who had additional government responsibilities. Boston established America's first permanent school committee in 1721; this became America's first school board. Massachusetts and some other regions retain the term school committee , but school board and board of education are the more common terms nationwide, and
475-548: The most favorable to them of the bills proposed. The OPS leadership vehemently opposed the plan. AM3142 was approved on the day it was introduced by a counted vote of 33 to 6 with 10 senators not voting. Five days later a motion to reconsider AM3142 failed in a roll-call vote of 9 to 31 with 9 senators not voting. The roll call showed legislators from Omaha split six in favor of the three-district plan (Sens. Brashear, Brown, Chambers, Jensen, Pahls and Redfield) and five opposed (Sens. Bourne, Friend, Howard, Kruse and Synowiecki). It
500-432: The names of the first graduates in a metal box, and had them buried beneath a new tree at the school. The key was then attached by ribbon to a pigeon released to an unknown destination. The second building was replaced in 1910. When it was built, the surrounding neighborhood was a predominantly white community with several European immigrant populations, including Russian Jews, Scandinavians, Italians and others, as well as
525-478: The school districts in its area. In general, a learning community leaves the boundaries of school districts untouched. However, LB 1024 also calls for OPS to be broken into three separate school districts. The exact boundaries for three new Omaha school districts are to be chosen by the Omaha learning community. Their choices are limited by requirements of LB 1024 that each new district consist of contiguous high school attendance areas and include either two or three of
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#1732798048820550-591: The school population was almost entirely African American. That year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in United States of America v. The School District of Omaha that Omaha Public Schools routinely segregated schools, including Lake School. In 1978 the school was closed, and the building became a special services school for developmentally disabled students. The building was closed and sold to the Seventh-day Adventist church in 1984 and operated as
575-417: The seven existing high schools. That allows about 20 ways to group the seven schools, depending on which adjacent high school attendance areas are grouped with the geographically most central area. The three-district plan for OPS was proposed in amendment AM3142, introduced on the day the legislature first took up LB 1024. The suburban school districts reluctantly supported the three-district plan, seeing it as
600-477: The superintendent vary among areas According to Sharp and Walter, a popularly held opinion is that "the most important role of the board of education is to hire its superintendent." The first education laws in the United States were enacted in the colonial era , when various New England colonies passed ordinances directing towns "to choose men to manage the important affairs of learning, such as deciding local taxes, hiring teachers, setting wages, and determining
625-768: Was suspected that OPS may file a suit challenging the new law, but they did not. Instead, on May 16, 2006 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed a suit against the governor and other Nebraska state officials charging that LB 1024, originally proposed by state senator Ernie Chambers , "intentionally furthers racial segregation ." The NAACP lawsuit argues that because Omaha has racially segregated residential patterns, subdivided school districts will also be racially segregated, contrary to United States law . According to April 2006, information published by Associated Press ,
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