About
History of Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School
Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School was built in 1968, opened for students in 1969, and was dedicated in April 1969. History was made by the Louisville Public Schools, because this was the first time:
Teachers from across the district were invited to join the faculty of the school.
That numbers of white teachers were supervised by an African-American principal.
To have such a balanced, integrated faculty.
To train together as a faculty and in teams before opening the school year.
To use the open-school architectural concept.
Erected on the site of a former streetcar loop, the original building was a circle of 62,000 square feet, 154 feet in diameter. The large, carpeted, and air-conditioned “areas of instruction” replaced traditional square or rectangular individual classrooms. Until the building was ready for occupancy in January 1969, the students and teachers were placed at Shawnee Elementary, several churches, and the Nicholas Finzer Elementary School on East Broadway.
In a strong effort to match the instructional program with the new faculty, an intensive, yearlong, federally funded in-service training project, called BEACON (Better Education A Conditioner of Neighborhoods) was initiated. The school district, University of Louisville (UofL), community representatives, and King faculty and staff trained, planned, and worked together in the areas of human relations and team teaching. The specific goals of the project were to reduce the number of middle class families from leaving the neighborhood, improve parent participation, and develop an innovative program aimed at the improvement of attendance, achievement, and attitude. The project enjoyed obvious success, and Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School prospered within the community and was highly regarded as a top learning institution in Kentucky. From 1968 to 1975, the student population ranged between 900 and 1,000 in kindergarten through grade six.
In 1975, Louisville and Jefferson County Public Schools were merged and reorganized under court-ordered desegregation. The desegregation plan involved the transportation of vast numbers of students. King, with more than 90 percent African-American students, became the hub of a cluster of four other schools with a predominance of white students. Students were bused between King and other schools to achieve appropriate integration.
In 1989, King Elementary became a learning choice school for visual and performing arts and initiated a Gifted and Talented Program to meet the goals of project renaissance. It is implementing the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA).
Throughout its history, King’s instructional activities have been strongly supported. The staff has also been vigorous in its commitment to the education of exceptional and at-risk students.
Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School Principals
Roger Conwell: 1968–75
Bill Horan: 1975–86
Darrell Jarrett: 1986–89
Mae Kennerly: 1989–2002
Julia Lewis: 2002–14
Dr. Stephanie White: 2014–2020
Marlon Miller 2020–2023
Rhonda Hedges 2023-Present
We are proud of our school heritage and our legacy of family attendance. Each year, we meet students who have parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents who also attended Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary. We are proud to be part of Dr. King’s legacy, and our hope is for all students to create a path forward to academic excellence, leadership, and social responsibility.