By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Time is winding down for the historic, educational institution of E.A. Harrold to be in operation.
The longtime structure located at 4943 West Union Road has seen many changes from the physical to the make-up of the student body to the grades offered.
One of the original members of Millington Municipal Schools will close it doors soon. E.A. Harrold Elementary Principal Tricia Speight will step into a new role starting next school year as the principal of Millington Intermediate. But before Millington Municipal Schools becomes a three school system (Millington Intermediate, Millington Primary and Millington Central Middle-High), she invited graduating members of the Class of 2021 who attended Harrold for the final Senior Walk on May 10.
She gladly welcomed a few former teachers and the previous two Harrold principals Tanya Mabry and Dr. Mandy Compton to the ceremony.
“In this moment I am feeling pride,” Speight said. “This is what teachers work toward their entire career to witness kids grow up and reach this huge milestone. The kids are going to go in different directions from this point forward. If they go into a career field, whether they go off to college, TCAT, wherever they may go, this is a huge pride moment for teachers.”
After pointing the student fully dressed in cap and gown to their old cafeteria, Speight got a glance of former Harrold educators dressed in the school colors of green and white hugging graduates from Millington Central and Munford high schools.
“Once a Hornet, always a Hornet,” she said. “We’re just a small school so it’s very easy for us to become a family and make those connections with one another. These kids have grown up with each other. Even with us changing over to three schools, it’s just going to be bigger. The kids will always be together. They got to start their career here together.”
Compton, who served in various roles at the school for 20 years, celebrated her marriage, degrees and raising daughter Lara with her Harrold family.
“A lot of memories, not only did we get close to the kids but we got close to their parents,” she noted. “This Hornet family means a lot.
“The people who moved on or passed away, there are a lot of people who touched our lives and they are not here,” Compton added. “We remember them today. E.A. Harrold will always be a part of me.”
After starting as a teacher, Compton was the assistant principal for 10 years to Mabry. Then she took over the job as the leader of the school from 2013 to 2018 without an assistant principal of her own.
Compton guided the school through the transition from Shelby County Schools to Millington Municipal Schools back in 2014.
“The school make up has changed over the years from being a high school to a K-8 school,” Mabry recalled. “The school’s structure had changed over the years to even being just a middle school to today just being an elementary school. All of those people when I was here would come by and share their stories. They would tell who lived where and who was their teacher. They just loved being a part of the community.”
Mabry was a part of the Harrold community as principal from 1998 to 2013. She was proud to add to the rich history of E.A. Harrold.
Back in 1924 Millington Junior High School was constructed and opened for classes. The building located at the corner of Wilkinsville and West Union classes’ ranged from elementary to junior high with senior classes held at Woodstock High School. History recalls some of the principals were Lucky Sharp, C.D. Haley, Mr. Sloan and C.L. Wells.
It was under the leadership of Wells that Millington Junior High School became E.A. Harrold High School in 1952. The first graduates of E.A. Harrold High School reached that achievement the following year.
The last graduating class from the institution as high school students was in 1957. The school continued to operate going up to the ninth grade for a while and eventually became an elementary school going up to the sixth grade until 1999.
“E.A. Harrold means special things to all ages of people,” Mabry said. “Because for us it is working here and teaching these children when they start in kindergarten and leave in the fifth grade, You watch them grow up. You teach them how to read and watch their faces light up when they learn something.”
Mabry serving as one of the longest tenure principals is still strongly linked and identified with the school.
“That is so humbling,” she said. “That is the time that brings tears to your eyes and makes you feel so emotional. It’s also very humbling to know you had a small part along with their parents in helping them develop into the wonderful successful adults they are today.
“There is a teacher here today in this school Heather Hinshaw Chalker who I taught in the first grade,” Mabry continued. “She came here to teach for me and her daughter came here and her son for school. The running story with her is when she was in first grade I pulled her tooth and her daughter came and I pulled her tooth too. There are a lot of sweet stories here.”
With the school’s run coming to an end, Mabry said for everybody who worked or learned at the corner of Wilkinsville and West Union this is bittersweet.
“Change is hard but through it all you remember who you are and where you came from and the people who made a difference in your life,” she said. “E.A. Harrold will always be a part of Millington’s fabric.”
Speight said one consistent things about E.A. Harrold since 1924 to 2021 has been the bond between children, educators and the community.
“These people here are these kids second family,” she said. “We’re with them five days a week most of the time. Unfortunately didn’t do that this year for a lot of the kids. We’re their second family and these kids matter to everybody, the teachers, the administration, the cafeteria staff just everybody. They are with us 180 days a year and they definitely matter to us.”
Compton said the buildings don’t make up the real E.A. Harrold.
“We have a lasting effect on the community because we were really a part of the community,” she noted. “Everybody who worked here or went through here were really mashed with the community. Everybody was a part of it and the community was really a part of our school.”
Mabry, decorated in her green and white carrying a stuffed hornet said the legacy of E.A. Harrold can be summed up in one world.
“Community,” she concluded. “It’s like the kids say, ‘Once you are a Hornet, you are always a Hornet.’”
