Minford High School
The first attempt to build a new high school for students in Madison Township, Harrison Township, and Harrisonville began in 1915. A $30,000 bond issue was placed on the ballot to be voted upon on March 2, 1915. The bond issue failed.
The Portsmouth Weekly Times
February 6, 1915, page 4.
PLAN FOR UNION HIGH SCHOOL
The boards of education of Madison and Harrison Townships and Harrisonville, Monday afternoon decided to call an election to provide for a bond issue of $30,000 for a joing high school for the three districts. The plan received hearty support from the members of the boards and prominent citizens.
If the proposition carries, a $30,000 building, containing eight rooms, an assembly hadd with a seating capacity of one hundred, lavatories, and all modern conveniences will be erected near Harrisonville.
The boards have fixed March 2, 1915 as the date of the election, and the voters of all three districts will have a voice in the election. The pro rate cost is divided as follows: Madison $15,707.88; Harrison $12,118.94; and Harrisonville $2,173.18.
County Superintendent McCowen acted as chairman of the joint meeting.
The Portsmouth Valley Sentinal
February 24, 1915, p. 5
SUPERINTENDENT MCCOWAN WORKS FOR CENTRALIZED SCHOOLS
County Superintendent E. O. McCowan returned home Friday night from Harrisonville where he spent the greater part of the week moulding sentiment in favor of the bond issue to provide for a centralized high school in Harrisonville for Harrisonville and Harrison and Madison Townships. Mr. McCowan addressed a number of meetings, and succeeded in clearing up considerable misunderstanding which had developed among the voters.
He expects to visit Madison Township on a similar errand. Some opposition to the project is evident, but Mr. McCowan is hopeful that the bond issue wil pass. He stated Saturday that the carrying out of the plan would not mean the abandonment of the different elementary schools in the townships, as many of the voters believe.
The Portsmouth Daily Times
February 27, 1915, p. 13
SUPERINTENDENT MCCOWAN GIVES REASONS WHY BOND ISSUE SHOULD CARRY
The following are a few reasons why the bond issue for the Joint Township High School for Harrison and Madison Townships and Harrisonville should carry.
There is no high school within easy reach of the three districts combining for High School purposes. The boys and girls of Harrison and Madison Townships and Harrisonville school district should have as good an opportunity to get an education as those of any other part of the county or state.
Under the current school law, no person can take a teacher's examination who has not had one year of high school training. On and after January 1, 1920, no person can take a teacher's examination who has not had at least two years' training. If a high school should not be provided, boys and girls of these districts whose parents cannot afford to pay their board at other schools will not be able to get the high school training. All pupils who pass the eighth grade in the rural schools will be entitled to have their tuition paid by the township; because of the above requirement there will be no more pupils who will attend high schools than have done so heretofore. This will be an increased expense which will aid considerably in maintaining a school of their own. The policy of the state department of public instruction is to urge the establishment of first grade high schools, in all districts that are able to maintain them, and to suggest the Union of tax duplicates to maintain first grade high school for districts that are unable to maintain them alone where such union is practicable.
If Madison Township on her present duplicates should attempt to have a second grade high school, the cost to maintain it would demand a higher tax levy per year, than would be necessary if she would contribute her part toward the support of a joint township high school. These districts got more than $2,000 state aid for the support of their rural schools this year. We know of no reason why they cannot continue to get state aid for their rural schools as long as they need it. This means that their rural schools can continue to be maintained on the five mill levy. If the state is willing to contribute this much money towards the support of the rural schools in those districts, certainly those districts ought to be willing to do something for themselves toward the establishment of a school.
The time the bonds may be made to run can be fixed so that the tax levy necessary to build the building and pay the interest on the bonds and maintain the school from year to year, can always be kept within the three mill levy, which is thirty cents on the hundred or three dollars on the throusand, on the present Duplicates. With the rise in valuation which is sure to come the levy to produce the same amount of money will necessarily be less. The cost need not average thrity cents on the hundred or three dollars on the thousant during the entire time the bonds have to run.
The Portsmouth Weekly Sentinal
March 6, 1915, p. 5
BOND ISSUE BEATEN BY DECISIVE VOTE
Voters in two sections of Scioto County decisively defeated proposed bond issues Tuesday for better rural schools. The proposition to provide a $30,000 high school building for the use of pupils of Harrison and Madison Township and the Harrisonville school district was rejected by a majority of four to one. The voters of Madison and Harrison Township repudiated it overwhelmingly, while it carried by a fair majority on a light vote in Harrisonville.
The vote on the $30,000 bond issue and centralization of the elementary schools in Washington Township was more close, the former losing by a majority of 30 and the latter by a majority of 28 on a total vote of 240. The county school authorities had hoped to carry the Washington Township proposition, although they admitted Tuesday that the vote would be close.
Increased taxation was the rock upon which both propositions went down, the voters refusing to vote additional tax burdens upon themselves, even though better school accomodations were promised by the school authorities who fathered the measures.
About two-thirds of the vote was cast on the Harrison-Madison-Harrisonville proposition which resulted as follows:
| | For | Against |
| Madison | 33 | 161 |
| Harrison | 20 | 151 |
| Harrisonville | 29 | 10 |
| Total | 82 | 322 |
In Washington Township the vote was as follows:
| | For | Against |
| Bond Issue | 95 | 125 |
| Centralization | 97 | 118 |
A new district was formally organized on December 15, 1921 by the County Board of Education.
In the spring of 1922 a new bond issue was placed on the ballot for voters in the Minford area to purchase a site, build and furnish a new high school. The bond issue amount was $40,000. This time the issue passed.
The Portsmouth Daily Times, March 20, 1022, p. 2
Shall There Be a New High School for Minford?
The Board of Education, Dr. G. W. Fishbaugh, president; G. A. Shumway, clerk; Louis Poole, John Milam, John Dodge, Charles Helt and a number of other citizens of the new school district recently created at and around Minford, desire to call the attention of the voters to the bond issue election to be held Wednesday, March 22, at the two-room school house at Minford.
The bond issue in the amount of $40,000 is to purchase a site and build and furnish a new high school building. The architect has estimated this as the cost. Reports that are being circulated that the building is for centralization are not true. It is for a high school. The district could not be centralized except by a vote of the people and that question is not being voted upon and has not even been though of. The tax is to pay these bonds on the total valuation of the district will amount to only 2 mills on the dollar, or 20 cents on the $100, or only $2 a year on $1,000 of property for a period of 25 years or possibly less time than that, but not a longer time.
The children can be educated at home. In view of the fact that the new attendance law requires children to go to school until they are eighteen or until they have graduated from the four-year course of a first grade high school, means that boys and girls will have to be sent away from home to be educated if we do not build this high school, for they must attend school under the law.
Parents, do you want your boys and girls away from home at greater expense to you when you can have them at home?
We are now paying the same total rate of taxes this year that the people of Bloom Township, Otway and Rarden and other places are paying with no greater duplicates than ours, and in some places much less duplicates than ours and they have their high school building, while we have none. Some of their tax money is going to pay for their buildings and they are getting more money from the state to run their schools. We are paying more taxes to run our schools and getting less from the state. Why not pay some of our taxes to get a building for high school and get more money from the state, as they are doing, and have no greater total rate than they have which is now the same that we have anyhow?
The amount of money that we will have to pay for board transportation and high school tuition for our children who will have to go away to school, whether we want them to go or not, in the next five years, will pay for this building. At the end of five years, if you vote this bond issue down, you will have spent more than $40,000 on your children away from home, with your own good tax money, and you would still have what you have now, no high school building. But vote this bond issue, save the cost of board, transportation and tuition and you will have your children educated at home and the opportunity at home every year to keep on educating them and the building and its equipment also right here as your own property . Voters, let's get together with one good long, strong pull and carry the bond issue at Minford with such a tremendous vote for it Wednesday, that the people all over Scioto County will say that we too believe in good schools, that we too believe in giving our boys and girls a right chance for life and that we too are as progressive as the people of any other part of Scioto County.
Respectfully submitted,
The Board of Education: G. W. Fishbaugh, President
G. A. Shumway, Clerk
Louis B. Poole, John J. Dodge, John C. Milam, Charles Helt
Minford Ohio, March 20, 1922
The Portsmouth Daily Times
March 23, 1922, page 2
BOND ISSUE CARRIES DECISIVELY;
WILL ERECT NEW SCHOOL BUILDING
Relative to the bond issue voted on in Minford Wednesday, County Superintendent E. O. McCowen issued the following statement today: "Vox Populi, Vox Del." Roman Proverb
The bond issue election in the new school district recently created by the County Board of Education in and about Minford carried by a vote of 301 for and 139 against, the majority being greater than the number of votes that were cast against it. The people of that part of Scioto County are to be congratulated on this tremendous vote for good schools.
The carrying of the election means that there will be erected at Minford in the near future a modern high school building, fully equipped to do first grade high school work. No school in Scioto County will provide better opportunities than this new school will when established.
Manual training, home economics, a special course in agriculture and the regular academic high school subjects will be offered and the boys and girls of the northeastern part of Scioto County will have what they have never had before "equality of educational opportunity" with other boys and girls of Ohio, as guaranteed by the constitution of the state.
The building will be erected on the idea of making the school the Community Center, that is, like the schools of South Webster, Wheelersburg, and other places that have modern high schools. In the auditorium can be held farmer's meetings and all kinds of public meetings by and for the citizens of the surrounding community.
The County Board of Education consisting of John S. Violet, president; A. B. McBride, vice-president; Ord Thompson, William Brant and Al Turner, and E. O. McCowen, secretary on the wishes of the majority of the people because they said they wanted to establish a high school, created the new district by formal resolution December 15, 1921.
The minutes of the meeting of the county board were approved December 31, 1921 at which time Carl J. Herms succeeded A. B. McBride on the county board. Mr. McBride resigning on account of ill health after he had been a valued and progressive member of the board since its first organization in 1914.
The board of education appointed for the new district were Dr. G. W. Fishbaugh, John J. Dodge, John C. Milam, Louis B. Poole and Charles Helt. These men are well distributed over the new district and are men who have the respect and confidence of their fellow citizens. They deserve credt for their part in the bringing about the opporutnity for better school conditions. The welfare of the boys and girls will undoubtedly be safe in their hands. The result of this election thoroughly vindicates the action of the county board of education as well as of the county superintendent in doing what the majority of the people wanted in school improvement.
In the words of the immortal Lincoln, "with malice toward none and with charity for all," let all who have so strenuosly opposed this development now fall in with the voice of the people and become boosters for the good of the community.
The Portsmouth Daily Times
May 31, 1922, p. 2
Bonds Awarded to W. L. Slayton
At a meeting of the Minford Board of Education Tuesday night, the $40,000 high school conds were awarded to the W. L. Slayton Company of Toledo on their bid of $87 premium. The other bidder was the Portsmouth Banking Company offering $75 premium.
The money from the sale of bonds is to be used in the construction of a new fireproof high school building at Minford. County School Superintendent E. O. McCowen met with the Minford Board last night.
The Portsmouth Daily Times
August 5, 1922
Notice to Contractors to Build