In 1940, the Great Depression still gripped Ellis, Franklin Roosevelt accepted an unprecedented third presidential term, Bugs Bunny made his movie debut, and the Selective Service Act of 1940, the first peacetime draft in America, went into effect. The world changed and Ellis schools rode those waves.
In January 1940, weak local finances caused the Ellis School Board to vote to lease the local parochial school’s building and equipment and operate it as part of the public school system. The nuns agreed to continue teaching without compensation from February through May. Once the board agreed to this action, they renamed St. Mary’s School to Lincoln Elementary, operating Lincoln School until House Bill 190 made this arrangement illegal in 1945.
While some may find this information contradictory in theory, it solved a community issue. The public school did not have to build a new facility. Nuns continued serving families who desired parochial education. While many forgot this bit of Ellis' history, it reveals how the community worked effectively to meet their children’s educational needs and community values.
World War II began before Ellis fully recovered from the Great Depression. The first half of the '40s saw little development of new programs or building projects in the district. By 1945, the budget had increased to $52,000, a considerable improvement over Depression-era funding even while the district funded an additional grade school.
Once the war ended, community expansion began in earnest. At the Dec. 13, 1946 meeting, board members voted to build a new gymnasium at the high school. Though they approved construction at that time, completion took until spring 1951. In the meantime, the district remodeled the home economics department and updated typewriters in the business department in September 1949.
The '50s introduced more change. Railroad and agricultural businesses thrived while oil and gas industries expanded. Adding further prosperity, the Bureau of Reclamation Project at Cedar Bluff necessitated the building of additional homes to house their employees. More people moved into Ellis, and good fortune reigned.
District 2 in Ellis reflected the successful economic times with a proposed budget of $115,910 in 1951. They celebrated completing the gymnasium and music room, and the first mention of a driver’s education car appeared in the Sept. 13, 1951, board minutes. In addition, rural Districts 26 and 52 were combined with Ellis District 2, requiring District 2 to dispose of those respective properties.
Marking another district first, the board hired a teacher to establish a grade school physical education program. In another innovative action, October minutes record that the district employed a special education teacher to work with 18 to 21 students with developmental delays and/or speech defects.
Teacher salaries also improved. The base salary for “Degree teachers” moved from $2,600 to $2,700 a year. Educators also received the annual increase and a cost-of-living bonus of $100 paid out over their nine-month contract.
Over these 12 years, Ellis mirrored events occurring across the U.S. The Depression was a memory. America had won WW II and returning soldiers experienced a booming economy. Riding these waves of optimism, Ellis residents added programs and improved infrastructure to support their children’s educations. For many, these were western Kansas' golden years.
Madorin: History of Ellis Schools Part 13: 1935-1939
Madorin: History of Ellis Schools Part 12: 1927-1933
Madorin: History of Ellis Schools, part 11
Madorin: History of Ellis Schools, part 10
Madorin: History of Ellis Schools, part 9
Madorin: History of Ellis Schools, part 8
Madorin: History of Ellis Schools, part 7
Madorin: History of Ellis Schools, part 6
Madorin: History of Ellis Schools, part 5
Madorin: History of Ellis Schools, part 3