Rural School Consolidation: School District Names Often Contain a Hint to the Past

by James McNary, Articles Editor
The Pennsboro School, now a community center, was constructed in the mid-1930s by the Pennsboro C-3 School District, which formed in 1917 through the consolidation of four one-room, common school districts. For whatever reason, the district continued operating the one-room schools until this four-room building was constructed. Grades first through eighth were taught by four teachers (two grades per teacher) in this building until the Pennsboro district was reorganized with Greenfield R-IV circa 1951, after which the Greenfield district continued to use the building as a rural elementary school for a few more years. (Photo by James McNary)
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Among the most obvious, but often overlooked, reminders of the process of school consolidation in Missouri is often the name of the school district.

The majority of school districts in the state today are designated by an “R” followed by a Roman numeral, the “R” standing for “Reorganized.” This was not always the case, however, and remnants of earlier school district designations and the history of Missouri’s school system can still be found today in the enumeration of districts, some bearing a “C” (for “Consolidated”) followed by a regular numeral, and a few still having a numerical designation alone continuing to exist. A rarefied few only have names and no designated numerical title.

While the school districts in Dade, Lawrence and surrounding counties primarily have the modern “R” prefix, one doesn’t have to travel far to find a district with an older designation: Westview C-6 in Newton County, Shell Knob No. 78 in Barry and Stone Counties, and Roscoe C-1 and Osceola in St. Clair County. Ironically, it is often districts in the state’s larger cities that have retained the oldest designations, e.g. Kansas City 33, St. Louis City, Columbia 93. Springfield Public Schools (originally District No. 73, Greene County) received a formal district designation of “R-XII,” still used in certain contexts, as it was reorganized with several common (rural) districts in that era.

The pattern of Missouri school district names originated in 1874-75, when all of the common school districts in the state received a numerical designation based on their township, with a particular style required by law. City and town districts did not always receive a number, as they were organized under a different section of the statute.

By the early 1900s, this system of naming had become unwieldy. There were by then well over 10,000 school districts in the state, and many within the same county had the same number — occasionally even the same name. In Barton County alone there were three schools named Fairview (Lamar Township No. 5, Ozark Township No. 6 and South West Township No. 5) and three schools named Victory (Barton City Township No. 5 and two in Lamar Township, District Nos. 6 and 10), as well as two schools named Glendale (Lamar Township No. 7 and South West Township No. 6) and two schools named Pleasant Hill (Lamar Township No. 9 and Nashville Township No. 8).

In 1911, Dade County alone had 85 school districts, Lawrence had 104, Barton had 98, Greene had 124, Cedar had 88, Jasper had 122, and Polk had 112. The vast majority were rural, one-room districts with one teacher for all eight grades.

The previous year, 1910, the General Assembly had passed a statute requiring that districts be renumbered by county, e.g. “School District No. 25 of Lawrence County, Phelps,” or more informally, “Phelps, No. 25.” Some town districts escaped receiving numbers at this time as well, with others receiving numbers only rarely used, even in official documents.

Most counties renumbered their districts soon after the law was passed; however, in Barton County, where township government remains strong to this day, district numbering by township lingered into the mid-1930s.

Later, the term “consolidated school district” emerged from statutes passed by the General Assembly to encourage small districts to combine. Several measures were enacted from 1895 until passage of the School District Reorganization Act of 1947, the most influential of them being the Buford-Colley School Consolidation Act of 1913, which provided financial incentives to districts for consolidating as well as for instituting student transportation.

Consolidated district names were similar to the common district names: “Consolidated School District No. 3 of Dade County, of Pennsboro,” or “Pennsboro C-3” for short.

A final naming convention was adopted after the General Assembly passed the School District Reorganization Act of 1947. The number of the reorganized district, most often written as a Roman numeral, could refer to the order in which district was formed, the designation of the proposed plan of reorganization (e.g. seventh plan, 10th plan) under which the district was formed, or retention of the district’s earlier common or consolidated district number. Thus, Greenfield C-4 became “Greenfield R-IV,” or more formally, “Dade County Reorganized School District No. IV of Greenfield,” though later revisions to naming policies in the ‘60s and ‘70s made “Greenfield Reorganized School District No. IV” acceptable as well.

Today, with fewer than 600 school districts remaining statewide, local boards of education can choose almost any name for a district they want, provided their vote is unanimous and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education approves. Most have chosen to retain a traditional designation, however.