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A Bit Of Prairie History

The Iowa State Legislature passed a series of laws beginning in 1947 mandating the reorganization of the Iowa educational system. At that time there were individual Township school districts throughout the State. In the geographic area that later became the College Community School District there were three townships: Fairfax, College, and Putnam. In the early 1950’s the Cedar Rapids School District sent a notification to the school boards of those townships indicating they would no longer accept tuition students from their districts. 

In 1953, an election was held to decide the issue of merging the three township districts with the Cedar Rapids District or to create a new district. The voters elected to create a new district. In 1954, the board of education purchased 40 acres of farmland and built a high school where today’s high school stands.

In 1955, the school board announced a contest to name the new high school building. The winning entry was “Prairie High School” based on an essay written by an eighth grade student, Kathleen Booth. Prairie High School’s classrooms opened to its first students 8th, 9th and 10th graders, as the second semester of the 1956-57 school year began. On May 28, 1959 the first commencement exercises for Prairie High School was held with 61 students graduating.