The First Schools

    Livingston’s long history of public education began in 1849 with the free academy opened by the Trinity Masonic Lodge No. 14, A.F. & A.M. The old Masonic Lodge was located on the southwest corner of Washington and Houston streets. The Livingston Graded School, built on Jackson Avenue, replaced it in 1888. It had an enrollment of 190 students in 1903 was expanded in 1906 to include high school grades so Livingston students could graduate. Principal J. F. Stevens and six other teachers ran the school. In 1908, the school awarded diplomas to its first graduates: Myra Green (née Lewis), Brown K. Meece, and Ralph Feagin.

Architect’s drawing of the “Alamo” schoolhouse constructed in 1910.
Photo courtesy of the Polk County Enterprise.

    On October 26, 1910, under the administration of county superintendent R. H. Jones and superintendent E. P. Gaines, a new two-story brick high school opened. It contained all of the grades in the school system and came at a cost of $25,000, to be paid off over 40 years. It was located at the corner of Jackson and Milam streets and, due to its “old mission style” architecture, was commonly referred to as the Alamo. Enrollment in December 1910 reached 292 students.

    The “Alamo” was torn down in 1981 to make way for newer campuses. The Polk County Enterprise reported that a time capsule had been placed within the cornerstone when the Alamo was built, containing “a Bible, bylaws of the [Masonic] lodge, lists of members and officials, a copy of the newspaper, a school catalog and a list of local businessmen,” but the capsule was lost. Another time capsule exists in Pine Ridge Elementary behind the cornerstone plaque, placed there in 1988 by Livingston’s Trinity Lodge No. 14.

Midcentury Changes

    The old school building was divided and part of it was hauled away to become the new African-American school until the opening of the Dunbar School in 1936. Two years later, the Dunbar schoolhouse suffered massive damage from a fire, and classes had to be held in churches for the remainder of the school year. The repaired building, complete with a new 200-seat auditorium and electric lights, reopened in 1939.

    The Dunbar Leopards took six state championships: (1A-PVIL) 1953, 1954, 1957, 1958, and runner-up in 1959 in football; (all schools in one division) 1939, and (1A-PVIL) runner-up in 1952 in basketball.

    Livingston schools began the process of desegregation in 1965 and were fully desegregated by 1969. LISD had an enrollment of 1,765 students in 1965, including Dunbar’s combined high school and elementary department enrollment of 606 students. Dunbar students or their parents were allowed to choose which school the student would attend, and school teachers and staff were strictly not permitted to influence or penalize this decision. In 1965, 30 students transferred from Dunbar, while most opted to remain there for the time being. The following year, 90 more students transferred.

    With the Dunbar campus set to be repurposed into a vocational and remedial education facility, the school board needed to find a way to accommodate the large influx of students in 1967. The answer was a new junior high school – the building that is now Timber Creek Elementary – constructed on 15 acres between Calhoun Street and Willis Street.

A Growing District

    As the elementary school neared full capacity in 1980, the school board considered consolidating Livingston and Goodrich school districts, but the notion was soundly crushed by voters in both districts. A new elementary school was constructed in 1984 at 223 North Willis; in 1988, it became the junior high school.

    In 1995, under Superintendent Ron Preston, voters rejected a $30 million bond for a new high school and elementary school, proposed as a solution to LISD’s overcrowding problem. By 2000, the problem was addressed with the addition of a new junior high, and renovation and expansion of the district’s two elementary schools. The elementary schools were renamed to Pine Ridge and Timber Creek when they reopened. The old junior high building was torn down in 2001 and the construction of a new, expanded intermediate school began on the same site.

    In fall of 2015 we started our Chromebook 1-to-1 initiative, putting a Chromebook into the hands of each student in 4th – 12th grades. The program was successfully implemented within five months and over 3,500 Chromebooks were assigned to students. High school and junior high students check out Chromebooks in the first week of school and return them at the end of the school year, while intermediate students leave their Chromebooks in the classroom and only take them home under special circumstances. High school students learned to repair Chromebooks and work on other technology projects through the new “Chrome Dome” class started in 2016, partnered with Hewlett-Packard in Houston and Livcom in Livingston. A second Chrome Dome was started at the junior high in the following spring.

    As of 2017, the school enrolled in a federal program that allows free breakfast and lunch at every campus for every student. Additional à la carte items are still available at the junior high and high school.

    Livingston Independent School District celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2008. It has an enrollment of 4,039 students