T.R. Sanders Elementary School serves about 340 students in grades PreK (age four) to sixth. Our students come from Hollandale, Arcola, Darlove, Estell, and several other small communities in Washington County. We are the only public elementary school serving those communities.
In 2010, due to falling enrollment, the district closed Chambers Middle School, which is located in Arcola, MS. The sixth grade students then started attending Sanders, while the seventh and eighth grade students now attend Simmons Jr/Sr High School.
We share a campus with Simmons, including a cafeteria and several computer labs. Most of our classrooms are housed in two buildings, Hall A for PreK through second grade and Hall B for third through sixth grade, but we also have a separate library, office building, and multipurpose building that is used for physical education classes and large events. In 2019 we started a community garden on campus, in collaboration with Delta Health Alliance, Delta Eats, and Food Corps.
The school was named after Mr. Theodore Roosevelt Sanders, who served as the principal of the combined school and superintendent of the district. His son, Howard Sanders, also served as superintendent of the district.
The Hollandale School District serves about 600 students in grades PreK (age four) to twelfth grade. The District has two schools, Sanders Elementary and Simmons Jr/Sr High School, which share the same campus. Simmons was the original school for African American students until the district was integrated in the 1960s. It was during this time that the high school for white children in Hollandale burned down.
The schools and district office are located in Hollandale, MS, a small town of about 2,700 people. The district is one of four in Washington County, and it serves Hollandale, Arcola, Darlove, Estell, and several other small communities in the southeastern part of the county.
Hollandale is a close-knit community with much to be proud of, including its sports teams, which have won state championships in football, basketball, and baseball. Most recently, the football team won state championships in the 1A classification in 2016, 2017, and 2018, winning over 40 games in a row.
Hollandale is a traditional Delta community in that it was organized around a small farming community and developed around several plants which supported those farms. One of these was a catfish processing plant that developed due to its proximity to Belzoni, MS, which was once the catfish capital of the world. These plants have since closed, leaving the community improverished and without major industry. The school district is now the largest employer in the town, followed by Monsanto, a seed and chemical company owned by Bayer.
In 2017, Hollandale and its neighboring district to the north, the Leland School District, were awarded a five-year grant from the Promise Neighborhoods Initiative, creating the Deer Creek Promise Community. The grant is administered by the Delta Health Alliance, and is the second such grant in Mississippi (the first was located in nearby Sunflower County). Promise Neighborhoods attempt to surround children with all of the necessary supports to be successful, with school just being one of those. The Deer Creek Promise Community provides academic tutors, a community garden, mentors, health case managers, family counselors, and many other supports for students and their families.