Grade School Update
Thanks to Don Davis for the time and effort
to compile the following:
| I had a question about Hickory Grove and thought I would try to bring
everyone up to date on the grade schools. If you will go to our web site and then go to
the memory page, you will find an article about the Junior Highs. If you go to the current
SMNorth site, which is a link on our web site, you will find an outstanding history of
North. All of the schools that have not been replaced with new buildings have been remodeled (some several times) and all are now air conditioned. The installation of air conditioning in old buildings has, of course, caused several cases of mold problems. You will notice the growth in the area, first to the south, but now also to the west. Shawnee now reaches out to DeSoto, Bonner Springs and Lake Quivera. Everything south of I-435 (about 109th street) is either Blue Valley School District or Olathe School District. Unfortunately, Shawnee Mission School District is suffering with decreasing enrollment. Because the state takes tax money out of Johnson County and gives it to small school districts, the district has struggled for several years, having to close schools and cut programs. Our Junior Highs lost their basketball and football programs and that has cost the High Schools as far as competition is concerned. Olathe North (the original Olathe) has become the "big dog" in football. Also, our district keeps losing good coaches and teachers to the other two districts. (By the way, Wyandotte has a 41 game losing streak in football.) Grade Schools closed: Antioch Cherokee, at 87th and Antioch, was closed two years ago and was just recently sold to the Overland Park Seventh Day Adventists. Flint Greenwood Hickory Grove, Johnson Dr. and Lamar, was torn down about three years ago, after serving as the "Special Learning Center" They built a modern building on the site to serve as the new "Special Learning Center". (When my sons were growing up, the "Great American Basketball League" played some of their games in the HG gym. I spent a lot of hours there coaching. At one game, while I was talking to my team after the game, a parent walked up and stood behind the team and smiled every time I looked at him. I had no idea who he was but found out he was Gary Butner and his daughter was a cheerleader for the other team. As you remember, Gary was slim and had a great head of black hair. Needless to say he had changed has we all had.) Linwood, 99th and Mission, was used as the KU campus in Johnson County for years, until they built a new campus. Now, the Village Presbyterian Church owns it. Marsha Bagby, 95th Wenonga, was torn down and now has a Assisted Living Home on the property. Milhaven (?), 67th and Lamar, has had several different owners. Osage, 87th and Lamar, has been the Overland Park Activity Center for many years. Porter, Sommerset and Roe, was torn down and replaced by a city park Sequoyah, 83rd and Lamar, a church Skyline was used as the "Special Ed Center" until it was moved to Hickory Grove. When my three boys were in "Cub Scouts", we had a "Cub Scout Baseball League" which had been going strong for years.. We had about twenty schools and as many as fifty-five teams. We struggled to find enough fields to schedule games. Then the school district started closing schools. The league dropped from 55, to 27, to 17, to no league at all in four short years. Still open: Apache, 89th and Goddard, was closed last year while they cleaned up a mold problem and reopened this year. Arrowhead, 64th and Santa Fe, is still open thanks to the people fighting the school district two years ago. Belinder, 73rd and Belinder Bluejacket/Flint, Quivera and 49th terr., Flint was closed several years ago. Briarwood, 86th and Nall Broken Arrow, 59th and Alden Brookridge, 99th and Lowell Brookwood, 103rd and Wenonga Rd. Christa McAuliffe, 83rd and Renner Commanche, 82nd and Grant Corinth, 83rd and Mission Rd, the old building was torn down and replaced by a new one on the same property. Crestview, 61st and Craig Don Bonjour, 94th and Pflumm Dorothy Moody, 101st and England East Antioch, 74th and Lowell Highlands, 62nd and Roe John Diemer, 96th and Lamar Katherine Carpenter 96th and Knox Merriam, 61st and Mastin Mill Creek, 79th and Pflumm Nieman, 67th and Nieman Oak Park, 100th and Nieman Overland Park, Santa Fe and Lowell, as you may remember had a building on both sides of Santa Fe. They sold the building on the south side and tore the old building on the north side down and built a new building on the same grounds plus the block of houses to the north were torn down to accommodate the new building. Pawnee, 91st and England Prairie, 67th and Mission Rd, was destroyed by fire. What little was left was torn down and a fine new building was built in it's place. One of the entryways from the original school sits out on the corner and some of the Architecture was patterned after the old school. Ray Marsh, 57th and Rosehill Rhein Benninghoven, 67th and Caenan Rising Star, 86th and Candlelight Ln Roeland Park, 55th and Juniper Roesland, 49th and Parrish Rosehill, 98th and Rosehill Rushton, 52nd and Lamar Santa Fe Trail, 71st and Lamar Shawanoe, 75th and Nieman Somerset, Sommerset and Belinder South Park, 49th terr and Antioch Sunflower, 90th and Loiret Blvd. Tomahawk, 79th and Lamar Trailwood 95th and Juniper West Antioch, 71st and Switzer Westwood View, 50th and Rainbow Remember, we need copies of pictures for our web site. (posted 10/20/02) |