On Oct. 11, 1915, the first school board meeting of Hennepin County Independent School District 85 was held in the Little Red Schoolhouse, which sat at the corner of Lynwood and Commerce Boulevards in downtown Mound. For a more complete picture of how the Westonka district came to be, you need to go back 150 years to the start of school boards in the state.

When Minnesota became a state in 1858, the legislature directed each township to set aside one acre for a schoolhouse to be built. Each country school was an independent school district, with its own number. Neighbors in each township met to elect school board members, who then chose the location for the schoolhouse, levied the community’s residents, built a school building and hired a teacher. Two dozen one- and two-room schoolhouses surrounding Mound became school districts in the 1850s, ‘60s and ‘70s, as homesteaders settled, communities grew and children were born.

Students in the early schools attended grades 1-8. Eighth-graders took a state test, and, if they passed, received a diploma. A few students, interested in continuing their education, took the train to Wayzata or Minneapolis for a high school education.

By 1915, school boards in several elementary school districts, including Mound, decided to hold a public vote on whether to consolidate and form a high school. A consolidated district was formed through the merger of districts 83 (Jackson), 84 (Lee), 85 (Mound), 116 (Spring Park), 139 (Ekstrom) and parts of 87 (southeast Minnetrista).

The district had a prudent and forward-thinking school board from the very beginning. School board minutes show that the five-member board decided to make a tour of new school buildings in the area "in order to find out what was best needed for our Mound School and to have a more intelligent idea of the cost of the new building suitable for our present and future needs." Tours were planned to Wayzata, Excelsior, St. Louis Park, St. Francis, Farmington and Norwood.