Fruitvale Divided Over Schoolhouse Relocation
A community split by a 53-40 vote leaves the future of their local schoolhouse in limbo.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A school election was held at Fruitvale Saturday evening to determine what should be done about moving the schoolhouse. It would seem that the result of the election left the matter as much up in the air as it was before. The result of the count was: 53 in favor of building a new schoolhouse on a new site, and 7 against; 40 in favor of removing the old schoolhouse to a new site, and 21 against. There seem to be two factions in this part of the school district which cannot agree as to what should be done for the best interests of the majority, and a good deal of ill feeling has resulted.
“There seems to be two factions in this part of the school district which cannot agree as to what should be done for the best interests of the majority, and a good deal of ill feeling has resulted.”
Local school board debates often serve as the first point of entry for community-wide political polarization. This 1916 dispute over school placement reflects the same hyper-local civic friction that still defines school district bond measures and facility planning in the Tri-Cities today.
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