Education/Schools - Historical Notes

The following acts constitute part of the administrative and political heritage of the educational structure of Cocke County but are no longer operative since they have either been superseded, repealed, or failed to receive local approval.

1. Acts of 1806, Chapter 8, established the Anderson Academy as the county academy in Cocke County, naming Issac Leonard, Abraham McCoy, Peter Fine, Daniel McPherson and William Lillard as the trustees.
2. Acts of 1807, Chapter 56, named Alexander Smith, Russell B. Carlogue and Henry Stephen as additional trustees of the Anderson Academy.
3. Acts of 1813, Chapter 35, appointed William Garrett, Francis Jackson Carter, Charles T. Porter, John Shields, Thomas Fowler, Henry Stephen and William Sillard as trustees of a lottery for the benefit of Anderson Academy in Cocke County.
4. Acts of 1909, Chapter 163, was the first compulsory education law for Cocke County, requiring that all children between the ages of eight and sixteen attend school for sixteen weeks or eighty days of at least four hours each year.  Exemptions from this law were allowed for children who had attained a proficiency in the subjects taught in the primary grades, children who were receiving private instruction, and children who had either a medical disability or whose extreme poverty required their services at home.
5. Private Acts of 1911, Chapter 340, was the next compulsory education law for Cocke County.  Its provisions were very similar to those of the earlier law, except that this act provided that the commissioner of the poor could furnish clothing and books to extremely poor children in order that they might attend school; and this act also allowed occasional absences of not more than four days in four consecutive weeks.
6. Private Acts of 1921, Chapter 808, created the Parrotsville Special School District and authorized the board of trustees to levy an annual tax of $.25 per $100 assessed valuation for the support of that school district.  The development of the public school system in Tennessee is characterized by the creation of a number of special school districts, some of which remain operative to this day.  There was a movement in the 1925 legislative session to establish more uniform school laws for the counties of Tennessee, by the enactment of a comprehensive law regulating a state system of education with provisions for the establishment of countywide school boards.  This was done by Public Acts of 1925, Chapter 13, Section 33, abolished all special school districts which were not taxing districts, and further provided that the voters of any taxing district could elect to place its school under the management of the county board of education after all the district's financial obligations had been met.  Since the Parrotsville Special School District is no longer operating, it appears that the voters in this district did elect to join the countywide system, even though this act has never been repealed.
7. Private Acts of 1927, Chapter 292, authorized the Cocke County Board of Education to pay any teacher who taught in its public schools during the 1925-26 school year, even though the teacher might not hold a teaching certificate as required by T.C.A. 49-711 et seq.
8. Private Acts of 1933, Chapter 842, set the salary of the superintendent of education in Cocke County at $1,800 per year.
9. Private Acts of 1935, Chapter 641, detached the Rankin voting precinct, which was formerly the “Old 16th Civil District” of Cocke County from the third school district to the sixth school district.
10. Private Acts of 1935 (Ex. Sess.), Chapter 151, amended Private Acts of 1935, Chapter 641, by detaching the Rankin voting precinct from the sixth school district to the fourth.