Russellville, AR 2019 Community Profile

Dover School District
Dover Schools date back to the 1840’s when Dover was the
County Seat for Pope County. Our first school was held in the
Masonic Lodge #17 while a building was being built. During the
Civil War, the original school and courthouse were burned forcing
those who wanted to attend school to do so in the local Presbyterian
and Methodist churches. In 1868 a school was built on College
Hill, the present site of Dover Middle School. This building burned
in the early 1900s. After this fire, Dover School District # 17 was
formed. They made use of the old courthouse that was
left empty when the county seat was moved to Russellville.
In the spring of 1923 Dover had its first graduating
class of 6 students. The school was destroyed two
more times by fire, once in 1942 and again in 1955.
Since then, the school district has grown and prospered
into a place that today serves close to 1400 students,
employs 115 highly qualified educators, including 5
Nationally Board Certified educators, and 70 non-certified
personnel. Our staff to student ratio is 1 to 12.88. Dover is
ranked as the 25 th best school district in Arkansas out of the 241
ranked, based on academics, parent surveys, teachers, and facilities
according to Niche rankings.
Dover Elementary School houses Kindergarten-5 th grade with an
enrollment of approximately 598 students and is currently ranked
5 th in the state among high-poverty elementary schools based on
Benchmark Literacy Achievement, additionally ranking them 3 rd in
the northwest region of the state.
Dover Middle School houses 6 th -8 th grades with an enrollment
of approximately 333 students. A new construction project is
under way and is scheduled to open in the Fall of 2016. This new
Middle School facility will have 26 new classrooms, 10 renovated
classrooms, a PE facility, and a Safe Room. Our Middle School
offers an EAST (Environmental and Spatial Technology) program,
award winning Band, Choir, and Athletics at the Junior High level
for boys and girls.
Dover High School houses 9 th -12 th grades with an enrollment
of approximately 473 students and was recently awarded the Most
Improved in Science Award by the Office for Education Policy
at the University of Arkansas. Graduation rates are on the rise
with our most recent rate at 91.39% in 2014. Average ACT Score
for Dover High School is 21.3 vs the National Average Score of
21 and the Arkansas Average Score of 20.4. There are 23 Pre AP
(Advanced Placement) and 11 AP Courses offered to students district
wide. In the 2014-2015 School Year 29 students scored 3 or
higher on the AP End of Course Exams. At the High School level,
we offer many extra-curricular activities including: The DHS
Midnight Brigade Marching Band; The DHS Madrigals Choir;
EAST; Boys and Girls Cross Country, Track, Basketball, Baseball,
Softball, and Golf, Football, and coming soon, Volleyball.
We recently reintroduced our FFA Agriculture
Education Program in 2012. Since implementing this
program there has been an overwhelming amount
of interest from the students within the district and
support from our community. We currently have
148 students enrolled in the program. Students take
advantage of classes such as Survey of Agriculture,
Animal Science, Agriculture Business and Marketing,
Natural Resources, Leadership and Communication,
Vegetable Production, Nursery Landscaping and Veterinary
Science. A new barn was built last year and classrooms are in the
planning stage.
Dover Schools is supported by a great Community of parents
and community members. We are proud to be Pirates. It is always
a great day to be a Pirate! Please visit our website at www.doverschools.net
for information on any of our schools. Like us on
Facebook for the latest in news and information.
DOVER SCHOOL LOCATIONS –––––––––––––––––––––
Central Office
Middle School
9371 Market Street 2013 College Street
(479) 331-2916 (479) 331-4814
High School
Mailing Address
1101 Pirates Loop Dover Public Schools
(479) 331-2120 PO Box 325
Dover, AR 72837
Dover Pirate Website Special Programs
www.doverschools.net (479) 331-2672
www.RussellvilleChamber.com 15