 In
August 1918, The Franklin County Board of
Education approved a petition from the residents
of the Village of Upper Arlington to recognize
Upper Arlington as a new school district.
At that time the village was bounded by
what is now Lane Avenue, Riverside Drive,
Fifth Avenue and North Star Road.
 A
school board was appointed by the county
superintendent of schools and John
W. Wuichet Sr. was named president.
One of the first actions for the new school
officials was to authorize the construction
of a four-room temporary school. It was
built at the corner of Arlington Avenue
and Tremont Road from parts of barracks
left behind from Camp Willis. Fifty-two
students enrolled in the school, which
taught first through ninth grades.
King
and Ben Thompson, the forward thinking
brothers behind the development of Upper
Arlington, were committed to education.
In 1917, Prior to the construction of
the frame schoolhouse, King Thompson's
basement at 1930 Cambridge Boulevard was
being used as a school for more than a
dozen children in first through third
grade. (Children in upper grades attended
Grandview Heights.)
It
was the Thompson brothers through their
company, the Upper Arlington Company,
who put up the funds necessary to build
the temporary school for all the children
in the village. The school was completed
and opened for class in October 1918.
The
Board of Education named its secretary-treasurer,
Evan L. Mahaffey, as the first
superintendent of the school district.
The
financial burden of running a school district
not fulfilled by local taxes during that
school year was assumed by the Upper Arlington
Company.
The
generosity of King and Ben Thompson continued.
The men were instrumental in establishing
the Waltham Road School, which
replaced the temporary school in 1919.
Upper
Arlington seemed to be doing very well.
However, the new district faced deferment.
Columbus threatened to take control over
the village, because without a permanent
school building, Upper Arlington was not
meeting the needs of the community.
The
Upper Arlington Company donated the use
of about nine acres of land located in
the heart of the village for the district's
first permanent school building. The Upper
Arlington Board of Education placed a
bond issue before its voters for the construction
of the school and to purchase the deed
to the Thompson land. It passed with 155
votes in favor and 33 votes against. The
tax rate for the bond issue was 2.49-mills,
which was 1.4-mills less than Columbus.
 The
new building, as seen right courtesy of
Norwester 1924, (now known as Jones Middle
School) opened in 1924. J.W. Jones
was hired as the building principal and
the first full-time superintendent of
the district.
In
1939, the Barrington Road School opened
as Upper Arlington Elementary School.
The
district built Tremont Elementary School
in 1952 to serve all the children north
of Lane Avenue. In 1955, Upper Arlington
took over Perry Township School, renaming
it Fishinger Elementary. Wickliffe Elementary
was built in 1957; Windermere in 1959;
and Greensview in 1965. Hastings Middle
School, then Hastings Junior High was
constructed in 1961.
Upper
Arlington High School was dedicated in
1956 with Joseph Dorff as principal.
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