Lake
was established as a township in 1844. School records date back to
1849, when the trustees established two school districts. School organizations
at that time in rural areas of Ohio consisted of district one-room
schools organized as the increasing population made them necessary.
By 1908, there were ten such schools in the township employing 13
teachers.
The first high
school in the township was completed in 1909, a two-room frame building
located in the geographical center of the township, where the Toledo
Metcalf Airport is presently located. The first class of six people
graduated from this Lake Township school in 1911. It was a two year
high school.
In 1915, the high
school received state recognition as a first-grade high school and
added a fourth year to its course of study. The first class of six
people graduated from the four-year high school in 1917. During the
next five years, the high school was enlarged to five rooms heated
by a furnace. It provided facilities for education of all pupils in
Lake Township from the seventh to twelfth grades.
Centralization
of the Lake Township School District had been defeated by the voters
in 1916, but on March 22, 1921, voters passed the question of centralization,
"marking a new era in the educational history of the community."
In 1923, Lake High
School students began attending what is now the junior high school
building located across from where the original high school building
had been. There were 386 students in the school system at that time.
In 1928, the student
body had increased so that it was necessary to construct a portable
building to take care of the overflow. Three years later another portable
building had to be erected.
In May 1934, the
Millbury Village School District became a part of the Lake Township
School District. With increased attendance the voters realized the
need for a new building and approved a bond issue on November 6, 1945,
for $385,000. Since this was the end of World War II and prices were
climbing, it was necessary' to pass a second bond issue of $340,000
on November 5, 1950.
The present high
school was occupied for the first time on September 8, 1953. On May
11, 1953, the Walbridge School District was accepted into the Lake
School System and thus all of Lake Township became a part of one school
district.
Lake High School
was "Dedicated to the Youth of Our Community" on January 19, 1954
The program of that service has been a valuable source of information
on the history of the school system.
Additions to the
high school building were made in 1954, 1960, 1968, and the cafeteria
and music areas were enlarged in 1973. The student enrollment has
grown from 1,263 in 1953, to 2,214 in 1981. The Class of 1981 is joining
many students who through the last 70 years have become alumni of
Lake Local Schools.
The Aura staff
wishes to thank Miss Edna Keller, who graduated from Lake in 1922,
and was a teacher in Lake Local Schools from 1924 to 1967, for much
of the above information. She has saved pamphlets and yearbooks dating
back to 1935 from which statistics were taken.)
