Compiled and written by Mary Emma Gibson and Gloria Knipp

The exact date that the first public school classes of were held in Tipton is not known, but it was in the very early days of the town's existence. According to Mina Schricker's "Early History of Tipton", the first classes were held in a log building on East Morgan Street. The west half of the building burned, many years ago, leaving only the east half, which is still standing today--the second house west of Ferguson Ave. on the south side of the street. It had previously been used as a union church building and as a private school.

The first schoolhouse built as such was a long brick structure with two classrooms located on West Morgan Street between Moreau and Pacific Avenues. The school children were divided into three groups in 1876-1877. The primary children were the first four grades. Annie Martin was the teacher of that group of 82 pupils and she received $20 per month salary. The subjects that she taught to her grades were: reading, arithmetic, oral drill, and blackboard writing.

The 56 pupils in the intermediate grades, fifth through eighth, were taught by Willie Woodson. He received $40 per month. The subjects taught in the intermediate grades were arithmetic, reading, history, grammar and geography.

The 48 high school pupils were taught by the principal, P.A. Frederick. They studied geography, algebra, arithmetic, rhetoric, natural philosophy, physiology, elocution, penmanship, and orthography (spelling).

The Tipton Times published a very detailed summary of school business at the end of each school year and for the 1876-1877 school year, the district spent a total of $4079.32 for salaries of three teachers, janitor, fuel, equipment, and interest on bonds. There were 186 pupils enrolled for that term. When this summary of the school year was published in the paper, they also published the grade card for each pupil in school, which gave their subject matter, grades, days present, times tardy, and deportment in each class.

In 1877 the school building was sold to C.C. Maclay and made into a residence. The Gleim family presented to the district a tract of land on East Morgan for school purposes and set out a grove of trees on the grounds. This tract of land was located on the north side of the street approximately across from the present-day Conn Funeral Rome.

The building erected there was so crowded by 1889 that a new facility was built on the same site. The old school building had been in too poor a condition to add to. Before the building was started a $12,000 bond was voted. $10,000 was to be used to build the new public school and $2,000 was to be used to construct a school building for the Negro children.

The new school building was T-shaped with a frontage of 60 feet. It was a two-story brick structure with a tower in the middle of the front side. The school had a basement, a library, a principal's office, and a committee room. Some of the second floor classrooms were divided with folding doors. These could be opened up to make an auditorium of 29 feet by 56 feet. The school rooms were fitted with noiseless self-folding seats, alabastine blackboards, and each room had a cloak closet. The schoolhouse was heated by three furnaces located in the basement.

The last year that school was held in this building was 1934. Mr. Bud Repp was the superintendent and L.W. Billingsley was on the faculty. During the 1935 school year, classes were held in rented space downtown while the old school was being torn down and a new school built. The bricks from the old school house were salvaged and cleaned. Some of these were used for the interior walls of the new building. The rest of the bricks were used to build a Boy Scout cabin on the Roy Finley farm east of Fortuna. This cabin is now part of the Farmers and Sportsmen Club building.

In 1936 the grade school and high school classes all moved into the new building on Cooper Street. The community was very proud of the new building with a gymnasium. Basketball became an even more popular sport. Other superintendents who served in this building besides Mr. Repp were G.L. Donahue, Ira Grubb, and Wayne Huddleston. The school grew rapidly during this period. During Mr. Grubb's tenure, vocational agriculture and vocational home economics buildings were built.

The building became so crowded that in 1956 the present high school was built directly south of the old building. The high school students moved into the new building and the grade school occupied all of the older building. An addition containing a new vocational home economics department and an additional classroom was built onto the high school in 1966-67 under Supt. O.W. Fox. Kindergarten moved into the old home economics building. At present, the buildings are again crowded. Three mobile homes have been moved onto the school grounds to serve as classrooms for remedial reading, building and trades and special education classes.

Fortuna and Syracuse elementary schools became part of the Tipton District in 1949 when their high school closed. The present enrollment is: 457 in the Tipton, Fortuna and Syracuse elementary schools; and 315 in the high school. There are 29 elementary faculty members altogether and 23 high school teachers. There are two principals in addition to superintendent Herbert Bracht. The total expenditure for the 1975-76 school year is estimated to be $858,381.00.