SCIOTO VALLEY TO LOSE OLDEST BUILING JULY 14
Taken from the Chillicothe Gazette June 23, 1972 Friday
Scioto Valley School District (Southeastern) will lose its oldest school building July 14, when the Board of Education open bids and names the purchaser of the Liberty Fractional School.
The board decided about three weeks ago to sell the school, which has been used only for storage the last three years.
Both the original Liberty Fractional School, built in the late 1800’s and presently used as a garage, and the newer building, completed in 1925, will be sold. Bidders can bid on either building separately or submit a combined bid for both. The original building is on a one-acre tract of ground and the later building is on a 2.2 acre tract.
Liberty Fractional’s demise was brought about, at least in part, by the same factor which had made the school possible in the first place: the railroad.
Both buildings are located on part of a Virginia Military Land grant, supposedly laid out originally by George Washington.
According to a history of the district prepared by Supt. W. Max O’Dell, Liberty Fractional school district was formed in 1898, when the original Liberty Township District was divided into East Liberty (Londonderry) and West Liberty (Liberty Fractional) districts.
The original Liberty Township had a township section of 640 acres allotted to it for supporting the school, as provided for in the 1787 law which provided for laying out the Northwest Territory.
When the district was divided, Londonderry district was given a new 320-acre school farm in Vinton County, and Liberty Fractional was given 320 acres in Green Township.
Scioto Valley District holds title to the 320 acre farm today, one of the few schools in the state to still hold part of its school farm.
The farm, located on Dry Run Road, is rented by the school on a cash rent basis. The Vinton County tract was sold many years ago.
After the Liberty Township district was divided, construction of a one-room brick school was undertaken. The building was used for all classes through grade eight until the larger building, started in 1923, was completed in1925.
O’Dell said there is no record of where the money came from to build the new building. No bond issue was passed, he said, and the district either built the structure from operating money, or received it as a gift from the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, which was then laying track through the area.
The completed building housed 1-4 in one room and 5-8 in the other. Students in grades 9-12 were sent to Chillicothe High School on a tuition basis until 1960, when the district consolidated with Southeastern to form the Scioto Valley district.
The consolidation was necessary since the small district could not meet state standards without a high school, but residents were initially reluctant to consolidate. They were able to operate the Liberty Fractional district on extremely low tax millage, because the railroad and the good farmland in the district provided about $2 million in property valuation, to support a school with few than 100 students.
After the consolidation, the newer of the Liberty Fractional buildings became an elementary school, and the old building was used as a garage.
The building was last used for school in the1968-69 school year.
Parents in the district became concerned after a second train derailment occurred near the school, and asked the board to close the building to children as a safety hazard. The building has been used only for storage since that time.