The Waits School opened sometime around 1860. The school closed in 1919 when it consolidated into the Irish Grove District, which in turn consolidated into the Fairfax R-III District.

By Matthew Barnes

Since I started the “School Days Gone By” series in November of last year, I have enjoyed the many hours of research, listening to area residents’ stories from their youth, and most of all sharing these articles with you all. So in this last installment of the “School Days Gone By” series, I will be sharing some additional school history that didn’t meet the cut for the articles.

But first things first! I stated in the Westboro article that the 1967-68 Tarkio Lady Indians’ basketball team went undefeated. It has been brought to my attention that they did indeed lose one game that season to West Nodaway. Several former Lady Wildcats were on the West Nodaway roster that year.

Consolidation 100 years ago was just as controversial of a topic as it is today. Many of the initial consolidations either didn’t make it to the voters, or failed by overwhelming margins. The prospect of consolidation arose in Fairfax in 1922. The Fairfax district was struggling with an inadequate school building and a lack of equipment. The state threatened to demote the district to a second-class high school. This would have made Fairfax graduates less appealing to colleges and employers.

To remedy this problem, it was proposed to consolidate Pleasant Ridge, Oak Grove, Long Branch, and Prairie Flower with Fairfax. The backlash from the rural areas was fierce. Despite the promise of free high school tuition and that rural schools would remain open, a lively meeting of the rural folks was held at the Fairfax school. The opposition in the country schools was fierce. A thorough canvas of the rural schools revealed a measly seven votes between them in favor of consolidation. The promise of legal action and the inability to gain enough petitioners in the rural districts spelled the end of the consolidation talks.

Two years later, seeing no other options available, the voters of Fairfax turned out in droves to vote for $51,000 in bonds for the erection of a new modern school by a margin of 363 to 37 – an increased tax levy of 40 cents per $100 valuation (nearly $7 today).

A subscription high school was established in the York neighborhood, a small community east of Tarkio between 1908 and 1911. The early high school was held in the York Presbyterian church. By 1921 the subscription high school was becoming unsustainable. It was proposed to form a consolidated district centered in York, however, the election failed overwhelmingly with 18 voting for consolidation and 85 voting against it. Another consolidation proposal around that time including the Union, Star, Highland, and Sunny Slope districts could not even obtain enough signatures to get on the ballot.

The resistance to consolidation was grounded in the fear of the rural one-room schools closing. The one-room schools served as the focal point of the community, and many residents had a personal attachment to the districts. However, by the late 1940s, most county residents saw the writing on the wall. With many schools struggling to find teachers, and enrollment in some rural schools falling to five students or less, the need for change was evident. Within three years Atchison County went from 70 school districts to nine, ushering in the age of reorganized districts.

In writing these articles I discovered just how important it is to record this history as one day it will be gone. The recollections of Laura Johnson, a 1919 graduate of Westboro High School, would have been long gone if not for the efforts of Jerri Wilcox in 1984. Raymond Mitchell’s time at Nishnabotna would have been long forgotten if his son Mark hadn’t listened to his stories. The “School Days Gone By” series also included the final interview from long-time Atchison County resident George Laur before his death at the age of 101. So for me, the most powerful message of the “School Days Gone By” series isn’t the schools themselves but the people who went there. The struggles, the accomplishments, the life lessons, the fun, and admittingly some boredom are all things worth recording before those memories are gone.

Once again I would like to reiterate my gratitude to the Atchison County Mail for publishing these articles, as well as the many former teachers and students who contributed information for these articles. While I do plan on writing additional articles in the future pertaining to Atchison County history, I am pleased to conclude the “School Days Gone By” series.