Southside Elementary School

The 1950’s brought years of overcrowding without a solution in sight because of increased enrollment from county students wanting to attend city schools. There were also talks on desegregation and consolidating the city and county school systems. In 1957, a new school called, “Southside” was built off 7th Street, where a small number of black children attended classes with white students.

Southside was the pilot school in the state in 1990 when the Kentucky Education Reform Act implemented upgraded primary schools. Later, it merged seven- and eight-year-old children in the same classrooms with the same teacher over a three-year period to experience continuous progress.

The school closed in 2004 when Clear Creek Elementary School was built. However, immediate overcrowding at the new school prompted the renovation of Southside, so that it could reopen in 2006, becoming the sixth elementary school in the county. As our community continued to grow, larger facilities were still needed, and the old building was torn down. The new Southside building opened at the start of the 2014-2015 school year.