Notable People: Rosa Stonestreet

Rosa Phillips Stonestreet served as the third superintendent of the pre-merger Jefferson County Public School District from 1898-1910.  This made her the first woman to serve as Superintendent of Jefferson County Public Schools. She was the only woman to serve in that capacity until Dr. Freda Merriweather did so in 2011. During her tenure, Ms. Stonestreet oversaw significant changes in the management of Kentucky’s largest school district.

Rosa Stonestreet was born on February 18, 1859 to Murray and America Shreder Phillips. She graduated from Nazareth Academy in Nazareth, Kentucky, in 1877. She began her career with Jefferson County Public Schools as a teacher in 1889. She taught at the Columbian School on Eighteenth Street Road and a county school on Reservoir Avenue. In 1897, she was elected superintendent by popular vote. Notably, this was before women were able to vote in School District elections. Upon becoming superintendent the following year, Ms. Stonestreet advocated for the overhaul of school district management. She found the county’s districts in significant debt and sought to clear that debt as quickly as possible. At that time, the district was managed by three trustees, whom Ms. Stonestreet found to be incompetent and sought to remove. The School Law of 1908 replaced this three-trustee system with a County Board of Education and subdistricts, which were overseen by one trustee each. Ms. Stonestreet ran the first meeting of the newly created Jefferson County Board of Education on September 5, 1908. Her last meeting as superintendent was on January 8, 1910.

Stonestreet Elementary School had originally been named after the road on which it is located, which was named for the Stonestreet family. On October 24, 1994, the JCPS Board of Education approved renaming the school the Rosa Phillips Stonestreet Elementary School in honor of the former superintendent. The renamed school was dedicated on March 29, 1996. In 1999, Rosa Stonestreet was one of the first nine inductees into the Hall of Fame of the Jefferson County’s Office for Women. In 2006, Kentucky Highway Historical Marker #2196 was erected in Ms. Stonestreet’s honor at 10007 Stonestreet Road in Louisville.

Rosa married Charles Thomas Stonestreet in 1882 and raised two children, Robert Ira and Charles Chester. Rosa Stonestreet passed away on April 7, 1936.