Hughes School District
Hughes School District 27 was a public school district based in Hughes, Arkansas, United States until it closed in Summer 2015 due to declining enrollment. The school district encompassed of land in St. Francis County and Crittenden County. It included Hughes, Horseshoe Lake, and the St. Francis County section of Jennette. History Prior to desegregation circa 1970, white and black children attended separate schools. Sheryl Owens became superintendent in 2013. She was the final person to hold the position of superintendent and the first African American woman in the Hughes district to do so. Enrollment decline and closure According to Owens, circa 1996 enrollments declined gradually, and then around 2006 became severe. Owens stated that prospective teachers were wary of going to work for a district that could be forcefully consolidated in the future, and so the district had issues with recruitment. Under Arkansas law Act 60, the state can forcefully merge a school district which has fewer than 350 total students for a consecutive period of two years with another school district. The Hughes district had, in the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years, 348 students and 344 students, making it eligible to be merged. As the state determined that