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During the April Troup County School Board work session, Shannon Johnson, Executive Director of the Troup County Archives, presented their work in maintaining the school system and other local municipalities’ records along with a brief history of public schools..

“After having tried to implement a public school system in the state of Georgia for about 30 years, the Georgia General Assembly finally succeeded in October of 1870,” Johnson said. “They issued a statement that said that everyone would be provided a thorough system of general education to be forever free to all children of the state.”

To follow that mandate, public schools were established in Troup County in January 1871. LaGrange did not follow until 1903 because there were several private schools available, Johnson said.

The Archives holds school records going back to 1897, including enrolment records and even grade sheets.

In 1972, the Oakfuskee Historical Society was organized, which began the Troup County Historical Society and Archives in 1980, hiring its first full-time professional archivist. Two years later, she established contracts with the City of LaGrange, Troup County and the Troup County School System to maintain their records.

“Rather than establishing three separate storage facilities and three separate staffs, it’s all combined into one,” Johnson said, explaining that it keeps costs down for all three entities.

“Between the school system, Troup County government, City of LaGrange and the City of Hogansville, ultimately, the arrangement saves just the school system approximately $200,000 a year,” Johnson said.

Maintaining records is not just for historical preservation, it’s the law, Johnson said.

“We keep records for more reasons than just what the law [requires]. Records allow for regulation. It’s essential for a systematic approach to management. Records Management contributes to the smooth operation of a school program,” Johnson said. “It helps with consistency and equality. It protects the rights of the school system, its board, and its employees. It helps with the litigation.”

“Records are the evidence of the school system’s actions, so everything must be managed properly for the agency to function effectively and to comply with federal regulations,” Johnson said.

The Archives currently has 8001 linear feet of boxes of records belonging to the Troup County School System. The records vary from the first Board of Education minutes to transcripts of students since 1919.

“Depending on the school, we have personnel files, segregation records and Exceptional Ed records. We have a majorette uniform, photos of and portraits of all of our superintendents and board members,” Johnson said.

The Archives even has a set of china from Berta Weathersbee that was used to serve her teachers.

“The Archives are much more than just those boxes being on the shelf. We offer safe, climatized and monitored storage, and reference and research services,” Johnson said.

The Archives also has two scan technicians who spend their entire day, every day, scanning documents to try to catch up on digitizing documents. They do so to keep them safe in the event of a disaster and to make them easier to find and use.

Along with records keeping, the Archives provides workshops to educate TCSS on best records practices to comply with the law.

“School records are private, so the school record could only be issued to the student themselves or a legal guardian if the student was under 18; otherwise, the board minutes, just give us a call, we’ll pull them,” Johnson said.

Photographs and that type of information are also available online on the Archive’s website, Johnson said.

The Troup County Archives can be found at 136 Main Street in LaGrange and online at www.trouphistory.org.