Book Description

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, educational reformers championed the closing of one-room schools and transporting children from those schools to a larger modern school. This movement, often referred to as consolidation, also meant the merger of a number of school districts into one administrative body. In 1908, Cache County commissioners abolished the twenty-five school districts throughout Cache County, Utah to form one consolidated school district, following the national trend toward consolidation. While the commission passed consolidation by a unanimous vote, many Cache County residents opposed the measure. On April 1, 1908, the opponents of consolidation formed the Anti-Consolidation Society. They petitioned the Cache County Commission and filed a lawsuit against the county.... In Cache County, an underlying tension between progressive changes and traditional community values, rather than any religious or political difference, was at the heart of opposition to consolidation.