Back to School, 1964 Edition

Back to school time in 1964 was just like most other school years. Parents were back to school shopping. Teachers were working on lesson plans and preparing their classrooms. Students of all ages wished summer would last longer or were excited about school and seeing their friends. They all were preparing to say goodbye to summer vacation and hello to the school year routine.

There was a lot of excitement for many high school students and perhaps a little bit of nervousness as they would be the first students to attend the all-new Airline High School. Bossier City's second high school, built to accommodate the growing community's needs. It reduced the overcrowding that was starting to be felt at Bossier High and allowed room for future growth.

Arial view of the Airline High School campus.
Bossier Chamber of Commerce Collection: 1998.047.180.001.002

The following article appeared in the "Bossier Tribune" with back-to-school news on Aug. 12, 1964:

"Bossier Parish school officials were working at a feverish pace this week in preparation for an expected record enrollment when schools open their doors for the 1964-65 school term on Aug. 31.

"School Superintendent Emmett Cope said the parish enrollment is expected to reach 16,000 during the term – an increase of some 700 students as compared with last year's enrollment of 15,300.

"The big news in Bossier City is the opening for the first time of the municipality's second high school – Airline High School just north of Greenacres Subdivision.

"Airline High will be ready for students when its doors open with the exception of the auditorium, which was expected to run behind completion of other portions of the sprawling school plant.

"The Bossier School Board accepted bids at its meeting Thursday for auditorium seats, blinds, stage equipment and laundry equipment for the new school.

"Board members are expected to accept the new $2,256,496 high school during a special meeting later this month. Work on the project got underway in the summer of 1963.

"Students residing north of the Illinois Central Railway tracks east from Red River to a junction with U.S. Highway 80 and then east along the highway to the city limits will attend Airline, according to a re-districting plan adopted earlier this year by the board. Pupils living at Barksdale Air Force Base and Bossier Base will also attend the new school. Those students located south of the line will continue to enroll at Bossier High.

"All students at Bossier High may continue there until graduation provided they furnish their own transportation, according to a ruling by the board in early February. The board at that time gave students wishing to remain at Bossier High until Feb. 17 to indicate their desire.

"Airline, which has a capacity of 1,500, is expected to have an enrollment of 1,100 students within two years. Bossier High, which ended the 1963-64 term with 1,545, is expected to spiral to a 1,500-student capacity by the 1966-67 term.

"Members of the Bossier board have offered to let the state use the new high school as the temporary site of a proposed two-year junior college in the Shreveport-Bossier City area."

To clarify, Airline was not the second high school in Bossier City; it was the third. The other high school in Bossier City that the writer failed to mention was Charlotte A. Mitchell High School. The failure to mention Charlotte A. Mitchell High School is an example of segregation in the news during that period in our history.

Charlotte A. Mitchell High School, originally Bossier City Colored High School, was opened in 1941 for elementary through high school students. In 1950, a new school was built on Cox Street for the high school students leaving the younger classes at the original building. The 1969 graduating class was the last class to graduate before the school closed due to desegregation.

By: Amy Robertson