As the country schools were being phased out in favor of students attending classes in the village, the need for a larger, more modern facility became apparent. In the November General Election of 1937 the citizens of the New Knoxville community school district passed a bond issue for the construction of a new school. The following article was published in the November 11, 1937 edition of the St. Marys Evening Leader and it points out all of the factors which were considered in the selection of a new site and the sites considered.

OLD BRICKYARD SITE IS RECOMMENDED AS SCHOOL LOCATION AT NEW KNOXVILLE

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CITIZENS CHOOSE LOTS JUST WEST OF STATE HIGHWAY 54 IN MASS MEETING
THOMAS D. McLAUGHLIN, LIMA ARCHITECT, EMPLOYED TO DRAW PLANS FOR BUILDING

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(Special To The Leader)

On Wednesday, the day following the last general election, when the electors of the New Knoxville village school district decidedly approved the bond issue for a new school, the local Board of Education set out to view certain sites. The haste is due to the fact that the Federal Government demands that the school must be under construction at the expiration of 12 weeks from September 27, 1937.

The Board viewed the following sites—the Mahn, Schroer, Kipp and Kuck places just south of the present school site; the Katterheinrich and Kuck just south of Botkins Ave.; the Auglaize Tile Company and Kuck, just north of Botkins Ave.; The Korspeter, Poppe and “Old Brickyard”, west of State route 54; The Old Sawmill in the N. E. portion of the village; The Conrad Wellman on State route 219 in the northwest part of the village.

These several places were viewed for: 1. Safety of children; 2. Central location as concerns the village school children who must walk to and from school; 3. Drainage; 4. The approaches; 5. Proximity to the artesian water strata; 6. Health conditions as regards adjoining or near business enterprises; 7. The possible presence of quicksand; 8. View after school is completed.

Upon completion of viewing the aforementioned sites, in the light of the eight main conditions, the Board of Education invited the Executive Committee of the Citizens Committee to likewise view the sites by applying in the main the same yardsticks and requested them to make report to them Friday evening which was done. At this joint meeting the several places were again discussed and a tentative agreement was reached on the Korspeter, Poppe old brickyard site. However, the Executive Committee desired, as promised during the recent campaign, to present the question to the tax payers of the district and consequently called a citizens mass meeting for Tuesday November 9th, inviting Mr. Thomas D. McLaughlin, architect, Lima, who has been employed by the Board of Education and again all the aforementioned potential sites, and including what has been termed the Opperman site at the eastern terminus of Bremen street were thoroughly gone over applying the same yardsticks. Mr. McLaughlin gave very pertinent information from an architectural standpoint.

Discussing these potential sites pro and con at length, the citizens mass meeting placed themselves on record to recommend to the Board of Education that the Old Brickyard site including the three properties lying in front of it abutting on State route 54 be purchased as the new school site. This action has been conveyed to the board.

NOTE: In 1939 the State Route number of Main Street was changed from Route 54 to Route 29.