History Kenesaw Public Schools

The first term of Kenesaw School District No. 3 began on December 15, 1873, with Wm. V. Miller, a settler and landowner, as a teacher. A two-story frame building with three rooms was completed a year later at a cost of $1075.00.

In 1876, the teachers were Miss M.A. Adams and Mrs. Amanda Stinchcomb who taught alternating terms for wages of $30.00 per month. Twenty-five students attended the school and took courses in spelling, reading, arithmetic, writing, geography, grammar, history, algebra, philosophy, and physiology.

In 1882 the school census (which counted all residents between the ages of 5 and 21) was 90, with 68 in attendance; five years later in 1887, the population was 172 with 157 in attendance at school. In 1884, the school was “graded” where instruction was divided into grades for one school year. In 1887, a two-story addition was built on the north side of the building, making a total of six rooms. The first high school was organized in the building in 1890.

In 1911, after three disastrous fires in the area, citizens approved a bond to build a new two-story brick building, and the original school building, on the current site of the Haven Home, was demolished. In 1912, the new school building opened with a hard red brick exterior, a fireproof interior, and a large tube for fire escape. The building included an assembly room that held 300 people, a gymnasium with a seating capacity of 150, showers, modern toilet rooms, drinking fountains, steam heat, and special areas for manual training and domestic science. Total enrollment in 1913 was 202, including 64 high school students and seven teachers.

By the 1960s the brick building was too small to accommodate the growing population and voters approved a $405,000 bond issue to build the current school building on the east edge of town.

Today, Kenesaw is the largest village in Adams County and is the only one to still maintain its own school district.