History

In 1863, the pioneers living south of Brush Creek and adjacent to Westport organized a school district that became known as the Border Star District and the first school was built. It was closed for a while near the end of the Civil War but reopened in 1865. In 1873, a new building was built at the site of the present Border Star School. There were neither skilled mechanics nor any machinery to put up the little building. It was constructed by the community and probably boys and girls who were to attend the school assisted in the work. At the end of the room was a platform for the teacher's desk. A pot-bellied wood stove in the corner was fired with wood cut by the teacher and the older pupils.

East of this little one room building, about where the tennis courts are now located, was a ravine or brook (hence, "Brookside") and between that and the school house was a large spring which supplied water for the children. The children usually came to school on horseback and hitching-posts were provided in the school yard, one side for the girls and one side for the boys. The children ate their lunches in their school room around the pot-bellied stove in the winter and around the spring or upon the grass in the school yard during mild weather. It was open country. Fences were rare. There were few roads. No 63rd St. existed. Wornall Road was a muddy country road.

In 1911, Border Star District was absorbed into the Kansas City district and the little old school became a part of the school system. For a few years, during World War I, the school was closed and the windows boarded up. It was reopened in 1919 with an enrollment of nineteen. A couple of years later, an additional frame building was constructed adjacent to the original building, and in the early 1920s, there were eight rooms and only four grades at Border Star. In 1924, the cornerstone was laid for a new modern building, and the northeast wing was completed. About 1928, the present building of 22 classrooms was opened. The original little Border Star school house was incorporated into the caretaker’s quarters at the northeast corner of the present building.

The “bull’s eye” window was removed from the old building in 1926 and placed in the new. Architect’s drawings specify that the star is to be placed upside down. It can be wondered if that was the original way it was placed! The early glass of that window was blue.