The school houses were community meeting houses, useful alike for church, Sunday School, singing school, spelling bee, box supper, pie supper, political caucus and the neighborhood dance. It is small wonder that those buildings still in existence have sagging sills and much carved furniture. The shed-barn was often a necessary part of the school property, in sparsely settled communities. The tough pony might be saddleless or almost bridleless, but as a carrier of children he was a part of the school equipment.

Consolidated Schools

In 1915 a new type of rural school appeared with the consolidation of Districts 36 and 38 into the Lake Alice Consolidated school.

In 1915 Hope School District, together with District 21 made the second consolidated school in the county and in 1917, Districts 34, 37, 42 and 51 consolidated as the Sunflower School.

In July, 1920, Hope School evolved through various stages from its first dug-out school house into an excellent furnace-heated, twoteacher school with a commodious playground, a superior collection of play apparatus, a cottage used in turn for teachers' home or to house, during the school year, pupils living in a remote part of the district. The pupils were transported in a carry-all drawn by horses and hired at district expense.

Lake Alice school, with a five acre site, has a substantial school building, cottage for jitney driver, garage, gasoline tank and pump and a many roomed dormitory, modern in every respect. This dormitory will house the teachers, the jitneys and the departments for Manuel Training and Home Economics. The transportation of pupils is by means of large automobile busses, owned by the district. The school enrolled in 1919-20 one hundred and