New Gascony, Arkansas

Unincorporated community in Arkansas, United States

34°13′35″N 91°46′35″W / 34.22639°N 91.77639°W / 34.22639; -91.77639CountryUnited StatesState

ArkansasCountyJeffersonTownshipBogyFoundedNovember 29, 1832
(191 years ago) (1832-11-29)Founded byAntoine BarraquéNamed forGascony, FranceElevation

^[1]

194 ft (59 m)Time zoneUTC– 06:00 (CST) • Summer (DST)UTC– 05:00 (CDT)Area code (s)870FIPS code05-49280GNIS feature ID77813^[1]

New Gascony, also known as Barraqué Landing,^[2] is an unincorporated community in Jefferson county, Arkansas, 13 miles (21 km) west of Pine Bluff, the county seat. It was founded by Antoine Barraqué, a 19th-century landowner, on November 29, 1832,^[3]^[4] and named for the Gascony region of France.^[5]

Education

It is a part of the Pine Bluff School District.^[6] The schools serving New Gascony are Park/Greenville School for preschool, James Matthews Elementary School, Robert F. Morehead Middle School, and Dollarway High School.

New Gascony was previously in the Altheimer School District.^[7] The Altheimer-Sherrill district was created in 1979 when the Altheimer and Sherrill districts merged.^[8] In 1993,^[9] that merged into the Altheimer Unified School District (operator of Altheimer-Sherrill High School).^[10]^[11] That district merged into the Dollarway School District on July 10, 2006.^[12] Altheimer-Sherrill High closed in 2007, with students moved to Dollarway High.^[13] Altheimer Martin Elementary School closed in 2013.^[14]

In December 2020 the Arkansas State Board of Education ruled that the Dollarway School District should merge into the Pine Bluff School District as of July 1, 2021; the post-merger school district began operating all existing schools from both districts.^[15] Accordingly, the attendance boundary maps of the respective schools remained the same for the 2021–2022 school year, and all DSD territory became a part of the PBSD territory.^[16] The exception was with the pre-kindergarten levels, as all PBSD areas are now assigned to Forrest Park/Greenville School, including the territory from the former Dollarway district.^[17] In 2023 the district announced that Dollarway High would merge into Pine Bluff High School, and that Morehead Middle School would become the only middle school for all of the Pine Bluff School District.^[18]

References

^ ^a ^b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: New Gascony, Arkansas
^ Holweck, F. G. (October 1918). Souvay, Charles L. (ed.). "The Arkansas Mission Under Rosati". St. Louis Catholic Historical Review. Vol. 1, no. 1. St. Louis, Mo.: The Catholic Historical Society of St. Louis. p. 251. OCLC 1085338099 – via Internet Archive.
^ Teske, Steven (June 21, 2010). "Antoine Barraque (1773–1858)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Little Rock, Arkansas: CALS. 2962. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
^ United States. National Archives and Records Service. (1954). The Territorial papers of the United States. Vol. XXI: The Territory of Arkansas, 1829–1836, Continued. Compiled and edited by Clarence Edwin Carter. Washington: United States Government Printing Office. p. 483. Publication No. 56–10.
^ Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring Counties, Arkansas. Chicago, Nashville and St. Louis: Goodspeed Publishing Co. 1889. p. 128. LCCN 01001243. OL 24190554M – via Internet Archive.
^ "2020 CENSUS – SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: Jefferson County, AR" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved June 29, 2021. – The map shows Dollarway School District as not yet merged into Pine Bluff School District; the merger occurred on July 1, 2021.
^ "Arkansas Department of Education school district maps, 1952–1954 Jefferson County, 1952–1954". Arkansas Digital Archives. Arkansas State Archives. December 31, 1954. (Download)
^ Goatcher, Truett (January 1999). "School District Consolidation Will Save Millions of Dollars: Fact of Myth?" (PDF). Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators. p. 14 (PDF p. 17/27).
^ "Altheimer Unified School District No. 22 Jefferson County, Arkansas General Purpose Financial Statements and Other Reports June 30, 2001." Legislative Joint Auditing Committee, Arkansas Legislature. Retrieved on August 2, 2017. page 3 (PDF p. 5/22).
^ "General Highway Map Jefferson County, Arkansas" (PDF). Arkansas Department of Transportation. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 8, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2021. – See Sweden on the map.
^ "SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP (2010 CENSUS): Jefferson County, AR." U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on July 31, 2017. Compare with the highway map. Note that the map indicates a separate boundary for Altheimer Unified schools, but the district already consolidated with Dollarway in 2006.
^ "ConsolidationAnnex_from_1983.xls Archived September 12, 2015, at the Wayback Machine." Arkansas Department of Education. Retrieved on July 31, 2017.
^ Colvin, Eplunus (October 2, 2020). "Closing schools took life out of Altheimer, residents recall". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
^ Hardy, Benjamin (July 28, 2016). "School's out forever". Arkansas Times. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
^ Howell, Cynthia (December 11, 2020). "State votes to combine Dollarway, Pine Bluff schools". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
^ "Annexation/Transition FAQ". Pine Bluff School District. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
^ Murrel, I. C. (June 28, 2021). "Dollarway alumni honor district". Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Retrieved July 4, 2021.
^ Murrell, I. C. (March 1, 2023). "Pine Bluff School District will consolidate junior, senior highs this fall". Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Retrieved March 3, 2023.