The land for the first Mill Creek School was given by the Shively brothers early in the 19th century; however, the earliest school record on file at the Jefferson County Board of Education is dated June 30, 1876.  According to this record the school house was a one-room wooden building.  One teacher was employed for the five month school term at the salary of $120.00.  This was paid in two installments:  40% in January and the remaining 60% in April.  The school census at that time was 80.  George W. Crum was the trustee and Lizzie Downing was teacher.

The record for 1879 shows that there were three trustees instead of one.  They were:  George Crum, William Shively, and Perry Farnsley; all familiar surnames to the present citizens of Shively and the Mill Creek area.  The school term at this time still remained a five month term, but the teacher’s salary had been increased to $192.50.  At this time the recorded value of Mill Creek School was $600.00, the furniture $20.00, and the per capita cost per child was $1.25.

The 25th record of the school, dated 1901, showed Miss Nettie Brinkworth to be the teacher with a salary of $275.52 for the five month term, and that the trustees were August Bachman, J.J. Shively and John Sanders.

Mill Creek remained for many years a one room school.  Finally, on August 24, 1912, the Jefferson County Board of Education authorized the building of a partition in the school house for District 54, and two teachers were appointed for the coming term.  This building was used until the “Middle Twenties” when a new five-room brick building was built to replace it.  At that time there were five teachers, including the teacher-principal.  A few years later Mrs. Leona Gutermuth came from Greenwood School as principal of Mill Creek School.  In 1942 the community outgrew this five-room building and moved a quarter of a mile south from its original site to 4205 Dixie Highway on the east side of the highway.  This school was consolidated the Schardein and Maplewood schools and in 1951 had an enrollment of 38 children.  In 1951 some of the children were transported by three privately owned school buses and five Louisville Railway buses paid by the Jefferson County Board of Education.

This Mill Creek School served the community needs quite adequately for a while, but once again it outgrew the three-story building and expanded into portables and then into the Shively Baptist Church which was next door.  At the close of the 1969-1970 school year Mill Creek had an enrollment of 1150 students with 34 classroom teachers, 6 special area teachers, a remedial reading teacher, a librarian, two itinerant teachers, a full-time counselor and “Mrs. Leona” as principal.

In the fall of 1970, Mill Creek moved into a beautiful new building with a faculty of 31 and 743 students.
In 1975-1976 The Louisville Board of Education and the Jefferson County Board of Education were merged and a desegregated system was formed.  Mill Creek Elementary was racially balanced and exempt from busing.  During that year the organization of the school changed from the Stoddard Plan to self-contained classrooms.  Special classes were implemented to meet the needs of students.  The special classes were EMH, LD, Speech and Hearing, BD, Chapter I tutoring in reading and math.

The PTA continues to be one of the most active in the district.  The PTA implements the hearing and vision testing Programs.  The PTA coordinates the fund raisers, secures parent volunteers, room mothers and assists in the purchasing of materials and equipment for the school. 

Mill Creek has had four principals since approximately 1930; Mrs. Leona Gutermuth until 1972, Mr. Bert Haller from 1972 until 1984, Mrs. Faye D. Owens from 1984 until 1999, and from 1999 – currently Mrs. Michelle Pennix.

In 1993 Mill Creek received a Family Resource Center.  It was housed in a six-room brick house on the Mill Creek campus.  The resource center remained at that location until 2007 when it was moved into a room in the school.

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