Last modified: Saturday, July 19, 2008 10:19 PM PDT While much of Ontario Middle School, includling the Enterprise building, was built in 1939, many of the district’s schools were situated nearby. The middle school’s Cub Gymnasium, which was built in 1927, was originally built for the former Conklin School. The evolution of a school district By JESSICA KELLER ARGUS OBSERVER ONTARIO — From the first one-room school building to the seven schools situated in Ontario at present time, through Ontario’s history, education appears to be one of the cornerstones on which the community was built, making school construction and the evolution of the district today a top news stories in Ontario’s 125 years of history. Today, construction of new schools is significant to community residents because it usually involves a bond of some sort. In recent years, school bond efforts have polarized the community, but having good schools has been a priority for Ontario residents. “Really, the people of Ontario have been very interested in education and having a good place for their children to go to school,” Chris Moore, former editor of the Argus Observer, said. “And I think for the most part, the people have been very well satisfied. “I think that the Ontario people have been very, very liberal with their money to build what’s necessary and to repair what they have, and they take great pride in their schools,” she continued. As Ontario resident and local historian Eunice Guerrant pointed out, schools have always been a cornerstone to the Ontario community because without the education provided, and without the desire of the early pioneers to have their children educated, where would Ontario be today. “Without education, how would the community have been shaped?” she said. It wasn’t long after Ontario was founded in 1883, the first schoolhouse was built. According to a submission to the Malheur County Review in 1980, written by Leora Blanton Davis, the first school building was a one-room school house, and the materials and labor to construct the building were donated by her grandfather, G.W. Blanton, her uncle, Dick Rutherford, J.A. Morton, A.H. McGregor and G.W. Brinnon. The school was run by subscriptions from parents, and it was only open for three months. According to an article in  “200 Years in the Making — Bicentennial edition,” the schoolhouse was taught by Ione Morfitt. The article went on to say, while only 13 people resided in what was then Ontario, 23 pupils, most from ranches surrounding the town, attended. That school later went on to become a residence, and a second, brick school, the first in the county, was built in 1894 and was two stories high with four classrooms. According to “200 Years in the Making,” in 1902 four more rooms were added onto the school, after the population jumped in Ontario from 445 to 700 in a two-year span. According to the book “Pioneer Days in Malheur County,” by Jacob Ray Gregg, that school was first known as Westside School because it was on the west side of town. It was later named Conklin School after Ontario’s first superintendent E.B. Conklin. In 1912, a high school was built across from the grade school, becoming the city and county’s first high school. As Ontario expanded, a second gradeschool was built on the eastside of town in 1913 in what was to become the Lindbergh  School, although it wasn’t called Lindbergh at the time. It was replaced in 1949, according to the Argus Observer Mid-Century edition. According to an Oct. 8, 1951, Argus Observer, the Ontario area had seven schools: the high school, middle school and five elementary schools — Conklin and Lindbergh in town, Valley View, Lincoln and Pioneer. Outside the front doors of Pioneer Elementary School is a sign stating the school was established in 1896, although according to “200 Years in the Making,” the oldest part of the actual school building today was built in 1904. According to “200 Years in the Making,” the middle school was built between October 1938 and 1939, and four buildings on the west side of the Conklin School were used by the middle school. The middle school’s Cub Gymnasium was originally built for use by the Conklin school in 1927. In 1964, the article goes on to say, the Conklin School was incorporated into the junior high school. After 1950, new school construction began again, with the present high school built in 1951 and 1952; Aiken was built in 1957; May Roberts in 1960; and Alameda in 1964. The first Cairo area school was originally known as Valley View, according to “200 Years in the Making,” and has its own history. The first Cairo school was built in 1901, and Lincoln, a third country school, was built in 1934. All the country schools were incorporated into the Ontario School District in the late 1040s after state legislation was passed requiring country schools to merge with city districts to provide for better education to rural students, according to the Argus Observer at the time. According to “200 years in the Making,” the Cairo school was abandoned in 1950, and in 1956, Valley View and Lincoln merged and a new Cairo Elementary School was built. Ontario Superintendent Dennis Carter said Ontario’s school construction has shaped the city of Ontario through the years, in his opinion. “Well I think that the schools have been important through the history of the community,” he said. Carter said, when people are moving into an area, schools and educational prospects are one of the components they look at when deciding. “The same thing happens when businesses move into a community,” he said. In addition, he said, schools affect a community as an economic driver because they provide a pretty big payroll and help keep a community going. Lastly, he said, schools are a cornerstone of any community because of the service they provide: education. “We are, of course, a part of the employment, but we also provide for education of the students now, who are the citizens in the community later,” he said. “It provides them their start for being able to be an educated society in the future.” While new construction of schools has happened in spurts, the school district and the schools have evolved through the years, never-the-less. Carter said, each of the schools has changed through added construction or renovations. “The May Roberts that is there today isn’t the same one that was first built,” he said. The adaptation of Ontario’s schools, and the needed additions or renovations through the years,  have provided problems to some extent because older infrastructure is difficult to modernize. “Additions are the school district adapting to the population of the community and programs they have to provide,” Carter said.