Dupuy Elementary School

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Dupuy Elementary School
Dupuy Elementary School.jpg
Active 19562004
School type Public
District Birmingham City Schools
Grades 1-8
Colors
Mascot
Location 4500 14th Avenue North, (map)
Birmingham

Anna Stuart Dupuy School (originally North Woodlawn Elementary School, later Dupuy Elementary School, Dupuy Alternative School and Dupuy Administrative Building) is a former Birmingham City Schools elementary school at 4500 14th Avenue North in Birmingham's Kingston neighborhood.

The 12-room school serving 400 students in grades 1-6 was constructed in 1956 with $176,568 from the 1953 Birmingham bond issue. Superintendent of schools L. Frazier Banks chose to dedicate the new school in honor of Anna Dupuy, recently-retired president of the Birmingham Board of Education. An 8,800 square foot expansion, completed in 1957 by F. R. Hoar & Son to designs by architect Evan Terry, added five classrooms, a gymnasium, and an enclosed playground to the western end of the school. The cost of the addition was $89,012.

New sidewalks and bikeways were built in front of the school from 45th Street to 46th Street in 1979. In the late 1980s the Little Garden Club raised funds for a nature trail and outdoor classroom at Dupuy, similar to one they had already provided at Mountain Brook Elementary School.

In December 1995 Dupuy's principal Samuetta Drew was honored by a resolution entered into the Congressional Record by Earl Hilliard, recognizing the school's implementation of the "ABC's of Etiquette Training Program".

The school was repurposed as an alternative School with enrollment, in grades K-8, dropping into the 50s. The school's test scores placed it in the "priority" status before it was closed in 2004, and converted into a satellite administrative office for Birmingham City Schools. The building was used mainly for file storage.

The vacant offices of the former Dupuy School were used by Michael Wooten, a former Birmingham Police officer and school security guard, in 2010 to take suggestive photographs of children. Wooten was arrested on federal charges of receiving child pornography.

In 2014 the Board voted to relocate the Kennedy Alternative School and Special Programming for Achievement Network (SPAN) programs to the former Dupuy School building. The resolution allowed $200,000 for repairs and renovations.

Principals

References