Skidmore, Missouri was preparing to celebrate the state bicentennial, but it also observed its own birthday in the July 28, 1921 edition of the Skidmore News. Here’s a profile of the public schools that appeared in that issue:
The Public Schools.
Just as a person who contemplates locating in a new town almost invariably asks about the churches, so does he seek to know what kind of educational advantages the town or community offers. The two institutions are usually included in the same question — “How about your schools and churches?”
The early settlers throughout all of our great country had in mind education and religion, for the church and the school were the centers around which settlements grew up. The church and the school house were almost the first building erected in many settlements.We have been unable to learn anything of the early-days schools in Skidmore, but there is no doubt that some sort of schools were maintained here from the time the town was first built up. At the present time we may boast of an approved high school of the first class, with the lower grades of equal rank. The citizens of Skidmore have, for a good many years, over-stepped the law by voting a higher levy than is allowed, in order that the schools might be maintained. But the limit was reached and the school board was instructed that this practice would no longer be permitted. There remained but one way to keep the schools on the approved list, and that was to increase the size of the district. Accordingly, a proposition was submitted to the voters of this and ten surrounding districts to form a consolidation. It carried on the 10th day of May, 1921, and it will be possible now for Skidmore and Monroe township to maintain an approved school.
Prof. J. W. Pierce has been superintendent of the Skidmore schools for three years, and will be superintendent of the Skidmore Consolidated District the coming year.
