  n
August 1918, The Franklin County Board of Education
approved a petition from the residents of the
Village of Upper Arlington to recognize Upper
Arlington as a new school district. At that time
the village was bounded by what is now Lane Avenue,
Riverside Drive, Fifth Avenue and North Star Road.
 A
school board was appointed by the county superintendent
of schools and John W. Wuichet Sr. was
named president. One of the first actions for
the new school officials was to authorize the
construction of a four-room temporary school.
It was built at the corner of Arlington Avenue
and Tremont Road from parts of barracks left
behind from Camp Willis. Fifty-two students
enrolled in the school, which taught first through
ninth grades.
King
and Ben Thompson, the forward thinking brothers
behind the development of Upper Arlington, were
committed to education. In 1917, Prior to the
construction of the frame schoolhouse, King
Thompson's basement at 1930 Cambridge Boulevard
was being used as a school for more than a dozen
children in first through third grade. (Children
in upper grades attended Grandview Heights.)
It
was the Thompson brothers through their company,
the Upper Arlington Company, who put up the
funds necessary to build the temporary school
for all the children in the village. The school
was completed and opened for class in October
1918.
The
Board of Education named its secretary-treasurer,
Evan L. Mahaffey, as the first superintendent
of the school district.
The
financial burden of running a school district
not fulfilled by local taxes during that school
year was assumed by the Upper Arlington Company.
The
generosity of King and Ben Thompson continued.
The men were instrumental in establishing the
Waltham Road School, which replaced the
temporary school in 1919.
Upper
Arlington seemed to be doing very well. However,
the new district faced deferment. Columbus threatened
to take control over the village, because without
a permanent school building, Upper Arlington
was not meeting the needs of the community.
The
Upper Arlington Company donated the use of about
nine acres of land located in the heart of the
village for the district's first permanent school
building. The Upper Arlington Board of Education
placed a bond issue before its voters for the
construction of the school and to purchase the
deed to the Thompson land. It passed with 155
votes in favor and 33 votes against. The tax
rate for the bond issue was 2.49-mills, which
was 1.4-mills less than Columbus.
 The
new building, as seen right courtesy of Norwester
1924, (now known as Jones Middle School) opened
in 1924. J.W. Jones was hired as the
building principal and the first full-time superintendent
of the district.
In
1939, the Barrington Road School opened
as Upper Arlington Elementary School.
The
district built Tremont Elementary School in
1952 to serve all the children north of Lane
Avenue. In 1955, Upper Arlington took over Perry
Township School, renaming it Fishinger Elementary.
Wickliffe Elementary was built in 1957; Windermere
in 1959; and Greensview in 1965. Hastings Middle
School, then Hastings Junior High was constructed
in 1961.
Upper
Arlington High School was dedicated in 1956
with Joseph Dorff as principal.
|
