District History

Listen to the beginning of the KCKPS Story here.

Audio Transcript

Long before the existence of what we know as USD-500- Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools, small one-room schoolhouses were part of the landscape as early as 1819. This was before Kansas became a state, the county seat of Wyandotte County, and a public school system was established in this area. Most schoolhouses were built to serve students living within four or five miles, which was considered close enough to walk. The school year was shorter, and attendance was often determined on when the children were needed to help their family harvest crops.

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced several easter tribes from their land in Ohio. Before beginning their exodus to this part of the region, they had a plan for building a school in the new territory. Money had been set aside from the scant payments provided by the government from land acquisitions. When they arrived in 184, the Wyandot Nation purchased large sections of land from the Delaware and Shawnee tribes in the area. They built homes, schools, and churches in the towns of Wyandotte and Quindaro, which today we know as Wyandotte County and Kansas City Kansas. 

John M. Armstrong built the first free public school using these funds at 4^th and Nebraska Ave. on Indian territory. The one-room log frame structure was often referred to as the council house. Mr. Armstrong had been a member of the Ohio bar since 1839, but he was not allowed to practice law on Native American Territory. So, he became the first teacher at the new school and taught in the school until 1845. The school was open to Indian and White students for free.

Tribal business kept Armstrong in Washington D.C. and Ohio for much of the time in the late 1840's. On one of his trips to collect money from the government he unexpectedly became ill and later passed away in Ohio. The building housed the school from 1844 to his death in 1952. When the Wyandot sold land to white settlers in 1856, no school existed publicly until after the Civil War.

Reference Materials

KCK Public Library - Quindaro Township 

Kansas Historical Society - Wyandotte Tribe

 

Barnett – Lowell  located at 11^th and Barnett. Closed in 1898 (Photo)

 

1856 Lincoln school located at 6^th and state (Photo)

 

1857 Stony Point South located at 150 S. 78^th Street (Photo)

These were turbulent years in the territory of Kansas. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 established the territorial boundaries of Kansas and Nebraska and opened the land to legal settlement. It allowed the residents of these territories to decide by popular vote whether their state would be free or slave state. Three distinct political groups occupied Kansas during this time; pro-slavery, Free-Staters, and abolitionists. Murder, mayhem, destruction and psychological warfare were the common methods of intimidation in Eastern Kansas and Western Missouri. In May 1856, John Brown and his sons killed five pro-slavery advocates at Pottawatomie.

Kansas and Wyandotte County

1859 – 1861

On July 5, 1859, the legislative delegation of the territory of Kansas gathered in Wyandotte, Kansas to write a constitution. The Wyandotte Constitution was the fourth and final proposed Kansas constitution following the failed attempts of the Topeka, Lecompton, and Leavenworth conventions to create a state constitution that would pass Congress and be signed as a bill by the president.

The U.S. Senate finally approved the Wyandotte Constitution on January 21, 1861. Eight days later, on January 29, the House passed the bill as amended and sent it to the president for his signature. President James Buchanan, a man despised by most free state settlers in Kansas, signed the bill officially approving the Wyandotte Constitution and admitting Kansas into the Union as the 34th state. This would bring an end to five years of bitter conflict over slavery in the Kansas Territory.

The first Kansas State Legislature convened on March 26, 1861.

The same territorial legislative delegation that approved the Wyandotte Constitution approved the organization of Wyandotte County to become a free and independent political entity on January 29, 1859. After Kansas became a state, the state legislature passed a law the same year allowing for the establishment of a free public school system.

Kansas City Public Library - The Wyandotte Constitution

Kansas Historical Society - the Act of Incorporation of Wyandotte City

Picture of the Wyandotte County Court House erected in 1882

Armstrong/Garrison was constructed in 1873 and was one of nine original schools when Wyandott, Kansas City, and Armourdale were separate cities. The school was located on South 8^th Street between Cornell Ave and Colorado Ave and was originally named after the Wyandot Chief Silas Armstrong. The name was later changed to Garrison in 1926 when African American students were reassigned to the old Armstrong School. The building was demolished in 1956 to make way for the Kansas Turnpike.  

MACCOCHAQUE SCHOOL

The name "Maccochaque" is a Native American name, which means "Place of Refreshment." The original one-room frame schoolhouse was built in 1876 on the East side of Hudson near 42nd Street on land that the government had given to the Shawnee Indians. The school was a country school known as "District 39" and "Malvern Hill." In 1911, Maccochaque School became a part of the City of Rosedale when the city limits were extended, and construction began on a new two-story eight-room building. It was later enlarged to 12 rooms and an auditorium. In June 1958, the building and property were sold to the K.U. Medical Center. Pupils from Maccochaque were transferred to the new Snow School and the Thomas A. Edison School. After the Maccochaque pupils were transferred, the school served as class room space for the K.U. Medical Center School of Practical Nursing. In the spring of 1968 the old land-mark was torn down and the property cleared for a parking lot for the K.U. Medical center. 

Riverview School

Riverview School, located at 7^th and Pacific, was one of the nine original schools when Wyandotte, Kansas City, and Armourdale were separate cities. The school was built in 1882 and used as an elementary school for one year before adding high school grade levels. The original bell and steeple were removed after a lightning strike around 1900. In 1908, Freemont Street was graded and paved, and the school grounds leveled, which left the school building high above street level. A retaining wall was then built around the entire property. In 1916 when Junior High schools were inaugurated in Kansas City, Riverview was changed from an eight grade to a six-grade school. Grades seven and eight were moved to Central Junior High School. The school closed in 1977 and the building was razed. The site was deeded to the city and is now the site of the Pala Vista homes. 

Columbian School

Columbian School operated beginning in 1886 and was located at 519 Seminary (current corner of South 7th St. and Southwest Blvd.). It and closed after the 1965-66 school year and the building was demolished in 1966.
 

Bruce/Lincoln School

The Bruce School was constructed in 1888. The school was located at the southwest corner at 24th and Strong Avenue. The two-room frame building served African American students in grades K-5. During the school's early years, high school pupils attended classes in two rooms upstairs until the completion of the new Argentine High school building in 1908. The name was changed to Lincoln, when the City of Argentine was annexed in 1910.This elementary school was the oldest building in the public school system when retired from service by the Board of Education in June 1961. It was replaced with the completion of the new Emerson school and the addition made to Stanley School.

 

1890 - Douglass Elementary School

 

 

Douglass Elementary School, located at 9th and Washington in Kansas City, Kansas, was constructed in 1890 and named for abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The Douglass school served African American students. The building was demolished in 1962 to make way for the new Douglass Elementary which opened in 1963.

For the year 1886-87

• Cost per pupil was $11.40
• The maximum yearly salary paid for teachers was $720
• The entire budget for the school year was  $41,533 
• The first graduation class consisted of eleven girls.

For the year 1886-87, the cost per pupil in the grades was $11.40; in 1910 (24 years later), it was $24.06.

Maximum yearly salary paid for grade teachers

• 1886 = $440
• 1910 = $720,
• 1932 = $1788

Maximum yearly salary paid for high school teachers

• 1886 = $720,
• 1910 = $1395
• 1932 = $2508

Total School Cost

• 1886 = $41,533
• 1910 = $576,042.70
• 1932 = $2,008,620.80

Average number of Students per Teacher, based on enrollment

• 1886 = 66
• 1910 = 38
• 1932 = 36.4

Teachers employed

• 1886 = 55
• 1910 = 366
• 1932 = 669 (including teachers, Principals, and supervisors)