Here are the three school buildings used 

 by the newly reorganixed district No. 3 

 oi Moultrie county. First in the panel is 



the Two-Mile school housing the first and 

 second grodes. Third, fourth, and fiith 

 grade pupils attend the Bolin school in 



the center picture. At the extreme right 

 is the Puryis school attended by sixth, 

 seventh and eighth grade pupils. 



Is This The NEW DAY FOR RURAL SCHOOLS? 



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TEN- YEAR-OLD Peggy goes to the 

 Bolin school, one of the three schools 



of the newly reorganized district No. 

 3 in Msultrie county and she "likes it 

 fine." She rides to school in a limousine 

 converted to a school bus and she doesn't 

 have to trudge down snowy or muddy 

 roads; she has a hot lunch in the school- 

 house at noon, and throughout the day 

 she enjoys competing with children of her 

 own age in the classroom and on the 

 playground. 



Peggy Freese is typical of the children 

 who attend the three one-room schools of 

 the district No. 3. This district serves the 

 same area formerly served by fi^e sepa- 

 rate one-room school districts. The Bolin 

 school houses 20 pupils of the middle 

 grades — the third, fourth and fifth. 

 Twenty pupils of the sixth, seventh and 

 eighth grades attend the Purvis school. 



By CRESTON FOSTER 



and 23 first and second-graders go to the 

 Two Mile school. 



Before district No. 3 was organized in 

 the fall of 1942, some of the five one- 

 room schools, each housing eight grades, 

 had been experiencing rapidly decreasing 

 enrollments. In the 1940-41 school year, 

 the Julian district had an average daily 

 attendance of 8.71, Miller, 7.20, and 

 Purvis, 9.98. In 1939-40, the Miller 

 school didn't operate and pupils were 

 sent to other nearby schools. "The other 

 two of the five districts had good at- 

 tendance in 1940-41 with Bolin having 

 an average of 17.30, and Two Mile, 

 18.03. 



That was the picture confronting the 

 directors of the Purvis district as they 

 met during the summer vacation period 

 of 1941. They came to the conclusion 

 that one approach to the problem would 

 be to merge some of the districts. This 



idea was suggested to the directors of the 

 Julian and Miller districts. They thought 

 the plan had merit, but since the time 

 was short, the five districts started the 

 1941-42 school year as separate units. In 

 the fall of 1941, however, the boards of 

 the five districts and the directors of a 

 sixth district. Business Knoll, located in 

 the north section of the area, got to- 

 gether to talk over the problem. It was 

 decided to hold public meetings in each 

 of the six districts to present the merger 

 plan to the people. A favorable response 

 was received in each of the districts and 

 as a result petitions were circulated call- 

 ing for an election on the proposition 

 in the spring of 1942 ahead of the gen- 

 eral school election. Election results 

 showed the people to be in favor of re- 

 organizing the six districts into one. 



The way then seemed dear to reor- 

 ganizing the schools of the new district, 



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I. A. A. RECORD 



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