North Scott Community School District - History

History

The North Scott School District became a legal entity on July 1, 1956, and resulted from a special election in December 1955. Thirteen independent school districts - each serving individual townships or towns - merged to form the new district; another district joined in January 1958.

Because of its central location in the new district, Eldridge was selected as the site for a new junior-senior high school building. The selected site was the southwest corner of LeClaire Road and South First Street, at the time the east edge of town. Construction began in 1957, and was completed in time for the 1958-1959 school year.

North Scott's first superintendent was Charles Hahn; the first high school principal was Melvin Heiler. Heiler would succeed Hahn in 1964 and guided the district through a period of great growth during the late 1960s and 1970s. He retired in 1980, a year after a successful push for the construction of a 900-seat fine arts auditorium at the high school.

Elementary students in kindergarten through sixth grades continued to attending either rural one-room schoolhouses in various parts of the county (or if they lived in town, an older school building). Students assigned to a particular building depending their grade level and where they lived in the district. By 1961, district leaders began the first of several attempts to pass a bond issue to replace these older school buildings with modern elementary schools. After several failed attempts, voters finally approved a measure in July 1965 to build four elementary buildings: one each in Eldridge, Donahue, Long Grove and Princeton.

The elementary buildings were completed by 1967, with each of them named after astronauts (in paying homage to the space program). The older school buildings were either converted for private uses or abandoned.

North Scott's enrollment continued to surge in the early 1970s, with several district buildings receiving additions to accommodate this growth. A new junior high building was erected in Eldridge in 1975 (and opened in January 1976), while another elementary school building - in the fast-growing Park View - opening in 1976.

Several major additions have been completed to the high school through the years, most notably an auxiliary gymnasium in 1971, a fine arts auditorium in 1981, additional administrative offices in 1983, an expanded media center and computer labs in 1987 and a new science and fine arts wing in 1999. Each of the elementary schools and the junior high also received numerous additions in the late 1990s.

Dr. Tim Dose led the district as its superintendent from 2001 until his unexpected death on July 1, 2008. During his seven-year tenure as the district's top administrator, he was credited for leading the district through tough financial times, punctuated with the layoff of several teachers to offset declining revenue. He had most recently been a driving force in advocating the renewal of the district's physical plant and equipment levy and 1-cent local option sales tax, special funding mechanisms which provide the district with extra revenue for building, technology and infrastructure projects. Dr. Dennis Rucker, who had served school districts in Illinois and Iowa during the past 30 years, was named interim superintendent a month later.

In March 2009, the school board named Jeff Schwiebert as its new superintendent. Schwiebert had served as superintendent of the Mount Vernon Community School District.

Other superintendents during North Scott's history were Robert "Bear" Stevens (1980–1984), Douglas Otto (1984–1987) and Pascal V. "Pat" DeLuca (1987–2001).