CORNETT HILL GRADE SCHOOL

Photo provided by Edith Ratliff McPherson CORNETT GRADE SCHOOL

Cornett Hill School was located on top of a hill on old Hwy 15 between Glomawr bridge and Lothair.
The school taught grades 1 thru 8.

The Children that attended this school would have lived along old Hwy 15 from around Boone Ledge to Christopher. There was no transportation provided, so all children had to walk to school. The school is still there but hasn't been used for a school for years.

The school was a wooden four-room school. There was no running water when I attended the school (1948-1956). Around 1952 they installed city water from Hazard and put in a drinking fountain. Until then, all drinking water came from a well. The boys from each room drew the water from the well and carried it into the classroom. The water was placed in each classroom with a dipper provided. Each child had to furnish his or her own cup for drinking.

There was no lunch room or lunches of any kind provided. Children had to either bring their lunch, walk home if they lived close, or there was a small restaurant close to the school.

There were two outdoor toilets, one for girls and one for boys. There was "NO" means provided to wash ones hands after using the toilet.

Each room was heated by a coal burning pot-bellied stove. The boys from each room carried in the coal that was used from a storage shed. There was also no janitor service. Students cleaned their classrooms. The girls would sweep the floor and the boys would use a mop to oil the wooden floors.

There were four teachers on site at the school. A teacher who just taught first grade only, one that taught both second and third grade, one that taught fourth and fifth grades, and one (usually the principal) who taught sixth, seventh, and eighth grades.

Doors that folded back to make one large room separated the fourth and fifth grades from the sixth-eight. There was a stage in the sixth-eight room, so by folding the doors back one large room could be used for plays and Christmas program, etc.

Submitted by Doug Epperson in 2004
(Doug attended Cornett Hill Grade School for 8 years.)