For one year Highlands County’s Black secondary school was named for Sebring and Avon Park together

Florida’s Superintendent of Public Instruction printed, in each biennial report, a table of the funds disbursed from the John F. Slater Fund. The Fund provided philanthropic subventions for Black secondary education in the South, designated for a single central facility in each participating county:

“The Slater Fund, an endowment left by John F. Slater… helps to pay the teachers’ salaries in one Negro school in a county which is known as the County Training School. The curriculum, length of term, and quality of instruction in this one school are planned and executed for the purpose of training teachers for the other Negro schools in the county.”[dpi-1926-1928]

From 1926 through 1930, Highlands County received no Slater Fund disbursements.[dpi-1926-1928][dpi-1928-1930] In the 1930–1932 biennium, the county qualified for aid, and for a single school year Avon Park’s name was coupled with Sebring’s in the official state disbursement tables:

“DISBURSED FROM SLATER FUND, 1930-31 … Highlands — Sebring — 500”

“DISBURSED FROM SLATER FUND, 1931-32 … Highlands — Sebring-Avon Park — 325”[dpi-1930-1932]

Administration of County Training Schools

The Slater Fund operated under a strict statutory policy of aiding only one central training school per county. Paired town names in the disbursement schedules — such as “Polk — Bartow-Lakeland” and “Highlands — Sebring-Avon Park” — reflected joint county-wide administrative catchment areas rather than two independent facilities. Highlands County’s centralized Black secondary facility was situated in Sebring (later developed as E. O. Douglas High School), while serving older pupils drawn from across the county, including Avon Park.

In subsequent biennial reports, the listing reverted to “Sebring Negro School” ($200 in 1932–33; $100 in 1933–34), before Slater aid was phased out statewide as county school boards assumed full salary obligations.[dpi-1932-1934][dpi-1934-1936]

Secondary School Structure and Local Terminology

In April 1941, the Atlanta Daily World printed an obituary notice referencing James Ellerbe as “principal of the high school at Avon Park.”[adw-1941-04-05]

State educational directories published in the 1934–1936 Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction listed twenty-eight accredited and non-accredited Negro high schools across Florida, containing no listing for Highlands County.[dpi-1934-1936] In rural Florida communities under de jure segregation, local Black elementary facilities that offered seventh- and eighth-grade classes (such as Hopewell School) were frequently styled as “high schools” in vernacular usage and community notices, while students seeking a complete four-year secondary diploma commuted to the consolidated county facility at Sebring or attended out-of-county boarding institutions.

Vocational Funding Allocations

Federal vocational home economics allocations in the 1934–1936 state report document the distribution of secondary instructional resources within Highlands County:

“Highlands — Avon Park … GR $400.00 … 28 [pupils] … GE $250.00 … 37”

“Highlands — Sebring ‘C’ … SH $200.00 … 23 … SH $200.00 … 32”[dpi-1934-1936]

The "C" suffix designated the colored school. Federal vocational funds assigned to Avon Park were allocated exclusively to the white school, while Black secondary vocational coursework for the entire county was centered at Sebring. Black children in Avon Park attended the elementary grades at Hopewell School (built in 1926) and traveled south to Sebring for subsequent vocational and high school instruction.

References

• dpi-1926-1928 — Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction. Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1926-1928: The County Training Schools and the Slater Fund. 31 December 1928. florida-superintendent-biennial-reports.md
• dpi-1928-1930 — Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction. Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1928-1930: County Training School tables, 1928-29 and 1929-30. 31 December 1930. florida-superintendent-biennial-reports.md
• dpi-1930-1932 — Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction. Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1930-1932: Table XV, Disbursed from Slater Fund. 31 December 1932. florida-superintendent-biennial-reports.md
• dpi-1932-1934 — Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction. Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1932-1934: Table XVI, Disbursement of Aid from the Slater Fund. 31 December 1934. florida-superintendent-biennial-reports.md
• dpi-1934-1936 — Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction. Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1934-1936: the Slater Fund, and the Negro high-school directories. 31 December 1936. florida-superintendent-biennial-reports.md
• adw-1941-04-05 — Atlanta Daily World (Atlanta, Ga.). Obituary notice naming James Ellerbe, principal of the high school at Avon Park, Atlanta Daily World, 5 April 1941, page 3. 5 April 1941. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82015425/1941-04-05/ed-1/?sp=3

Related

• Entity: Hopewell School, Avon Park
• Finding: African American secondary schooling, labor migration, and demographic shifts (1930–1940)
• Finding: Black schooling in Highlands County measured, 1950
• Report: the schools of Avon Park
• Reference: the biennial reports of Florida’s Superintendent of Public Instruction
• Finding: Hopewell School was not a Rosenwald school
• Finding: James Ellerbe and the Ellerbe Family of Florida Educators (1941)

Where this comes from

Evidence

corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.

Review

unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.

Rights

society

Sources

1. Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction, Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1926-1928: The County Training Schools and the Slater Fund (1928)
2. Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction, Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1928-1930: County Training School tables, 1928-29 and 1929-30 (1930)
3. Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction, Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1930-1932: Table XV, Disbursed from Slater Fund (1932)
4. Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction, Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1932-1934: Table XVI, Disbursement of Aid from the Slater Fund (1934)
5. Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction, Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1934-1936: the Slater Fund, and the Negro high-school directories (1936)
6. Atlanta Daily World (Atlanta, Ga.), Obituary notice naming James Ellerbe, principal of the high school at Avon Park, Atlanta Daily World, 5 April 1941, page 3 (1941)

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