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Summary from District 284 Profile:
(Update as of 7/2008) The first school in the Wayzata area was established in
approximately 1855. Records are spotty, but indications are that classes were
taught in homes until a one-room log school was built near what is now the
second green of the Wayzata Country Club. This school burned down
and a new school was constructed on what is now the main street of Wayzata.
In 1870, the taxpayers voted $900 in bonds to build a new school on Bald Hill --
the site of the former Widsten School and the current Wayzata City Hall. That
school was replaced in 1880 by a magnificent red brick structure that featured
folding doors between two rooms - a forerunner of the open school concept. By
1903, Wayzata had established a four-year high school and in 1906 graduated its
first class of three students. By 1910, the 30-year-old school that had been the
pride of the community was dismantled and a new structure built. Unfortunately,
a few years later this school also burned down. It was replaced in 1922 by a
building whose architecture resembled a Mexican hacienda. This building was
known as Widsten School and served students from construction until the building
was closed in October 1989. The students and staff from the school were
reassigned to the new Gleason Lake Elementary School.
The Beacon Heights/Medicine Lake area consolidated with Wayzata Public Schools
in 1946 and resulted in the acquisition of the district's second school - Beacon
Heights Elementary School. Beacon Heights continued to serve the district until
it was closed in 1982.
In 1951, the new Wayzata Junior/Senior High School opened on Barry Ave. in
Wayzata. This building housed
all students in grades seven through 12 until it became a junior high school
(now Wayzata West Middle School) with the opening of Wayzata Senior High School
(on Vicksburg Lane) in 1961.
In 1956 five one-room school districts in the northern part of the district
consolidated with Wayzata Public Schools. Those land acquisitions resulted in
the present configuration of the district approximately 38 square miles. New
elementary schools were opened in 1958 (Oakwood), 1963 (Sunset Hill), and 1965
(Greenwood). A second junior high school - Wayzata East - opened in 1968. East
became a middle school in 1997. The next construction occurred when Birchview
Elementary was built in 1970. Plymouth Creek Elementary opened in September
1989, and Gleason Lake Elementary opened six weeks later. The district completed
its most recent elementary school, Kimberly Lane, in the fall 1991. Wayzata High
School, serving students in grades 9 through 12, opened in the fall 1997. The
high school building that opened in 1961 was converted into Central Middle
School in 1997. |
