Alice Whitaker, longtime director of historic Kentucky settlement school, dies
Alice Whitaker, who took over leadership of one of the last settlement schools in rural Eastern Kentucky and kept it going for decades, died Sunday at age 85.
Whitaker was the strong-willed director of the Cordia School in Knott County.
She had dedicated her life to providing opportunities for students, raising money for the school and fending off an effort several years ago to shut it down, friends said.
“For her to keep that school going, she was remarkable,” said Prestonsburg attorney Ned Pillersdorf, who had represented the school and talked often with Whitaker.
Whitaker had fallen about three weeks ago and had been in the hospital. Her health declined after a recent surgery, said Deanna Wicker, principal of the school.
Whitaker died at the hospital with family at her side, Wicker said.
Whitaker’s aunt, Alice Slone, started Cordia in 1933 as a settlement school at Lotts Creek, an area of the mountainous county that at the time was relatively isolated and generally economically poor.
It was one of a number of settlement schools founded by individuals and community members in Appalachia in the early 1900s to provide education in places where public schools were scarce or hard to reach.
Improved roads and the spread of public education reduced the need for such schools.
Some switched missions and continued going. Pine Mountain Settlement School in Harlan County and Hindman Settlement School in Knott County are two examples.
The Cordia school continued operating under an arrangement with the Knott County public school system.
The county system leases the facilities and pays for teachers and staff at the school, while a non-profit called Lotts Creek Community School Inc., owns Cordia and is responsible for upkeep.
The school has 193 students in grades preschool through 12.
Whitaker worked to get donations and grants so that Cordia could provide activities such as art and music instruction and an after-school program — which it couldn’t otherwise afford — and also provided college aid for every graduate, Wicker said.
Wicker said she knew Whitaker had used her own money at times to help Cordia graduates, asking only that they come back and talk to her sometimes.
“She wanted what was best for our students and our community,” Wicker said.
Greg Conn, superintendent of Knott County schools, said Whitaker took a strong, hands-on role in running Cordia and did a great deal for the community.
“She took the best interest of those kids at heart,” Conn said Monday.
The school faced a challenge in 2018 after state inspections found problems that included damage to the roof of the multi-purpose room that created a risk of collapse; fire-safety and electrical problems; inadequate water pressure; food-safety violations; and the failure of a heating unit.
Stephen L. Pruitt, then the state education commissioner, withdrew approval in early 2018 of the lease between the county school board and Lotts Creek, and the local board voted to remove students from Cordia.
The controversy raised a concern that the school would have to close after more than 80 years, but Whitaker backed a lawsuit by parents that was ultimately successful in saving the school.
Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip J. Shepherd ruled in late 2018 that a state law approved in the early 1990s required the Knott County school board to continue using the Cordia school.
Pillersdorf said former Sen. Benny Ray Bailey, a Democrat from Knott County, sponsored the measure, which said that if a local school board authorized classes at a historical settlement school as of Jan. 1, 1994, the board had to continue using the settlement school as long as it meet health and safety standards.
Whitaker said at the time of the lawsuit that Cordia was the only school in the state with such an arrangement.
She also said the issues cited in the inspections had been taken care of.
Pillersdorf said he helped settle a claim under which an insurance company paid Lotts Creek about $400,000 for repairs.
The Knott County school board argued at the time that Cordia did not meet the definition of a settlement school and that the law interfered with the authority of the state education commissioner and the local school board to control the school system.
However, Shepherd rejected the arguments, ruling that Cordia was a historical settlement school.
“She was brilliant in making sure that law passed,” Wicker said of Whitaker. “She was a spitfire.”
Wicker said the relationship with the Knott County school system is good and that Conn, the superintendent, is very responsive to the school’s needs.
Wicker said Whitaker arranged a few months ago for her son, retired pharmacist Ron Worley, to take over as director of Lotts Creek Community School.
Wicker said some students were concerned that Whitaker’s death would mean the end of the school, but she assured them at an assembly Monday morning that the school will continue.
“We’re gonna continue her fight,” Wicker said.
