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History of Paton Schools From the Paton Centennial Book with new information added.
By 1906, the principal’s salary for 9 months amounted to $630 with teachers averaging about $350 for the same period of time. The teachers took turns keeping the fires going, and were paid $5 a month. They also took turns cleaning the school house for about $2 a month.
As early as 1876, they paid $52.46 into the county school fund, with improvements and supplies purchased as rapidly as the budget would allow. The rural one room school districts of Paton Township consolidated in 1920 and brought their students to Paton. In 1943 Dawson Township also consolidated with Paton. The original 1877 bell was used on a new brick school house built in 1911 replacing the wood school on the same site. The bell is now in the central court yard of the Paton-Churdan High School.
Some of the honors won by the Paton students were winning the state basketball consolation game in 1931; the school orchestra under the direction of John Miller went to the state contest in Iowa City in 1930; the school band, also under the direction of John Miller, went to Madison Wisconsin in 1935 to participate in the national music contest. Due to declining enrollment, in the fall of 1962 the high school students attended classes in either Churdan, Jefferson, Boxholm, or Grand Junction. In 1963 the Paton and Churdan School districts merged and the Paton facility became a grade school only.
The Paton Alumni Association was organized May 24, 1924 by Earl Stephenson who was then Superintendent. The first class to graduate from Paton High School was in the year 1880 and consisted of four members, two boys and two girls. The last class of seventeen members graduated in 1962 before consolidating with the Churdan school system. During this time there were five years with no graduating classes. They were 1891, 1893, 1894, 1898, and 1906. In 1907 the 12th grade was added, before this there were eleven grades. The smallest class was one member in 1885, who was Agnes Shaw Jester. The largest class graduated 36 young men and women in 1936. A total of nine hundred four young people received their diplomas from “Good Ole Paton High”. Many outstanding people received their high school diploma from the Paton High School. How true is the statement from the 1963 minutes, “We have had a great number of graduates who have left their mark on the world”.
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Another very important part of the community is
the school, and it too had an early start in the history of Paton.
Between the years of 1874 and 1876, school was held for short terms,
wherever a place could be found to accommodate the small number of
children. “School houses” ranged from a box car, to the back of a store,
to the upstairs room of a house (actually the attic), an upstairs room
or one of the businesses on main street, and the back room of a
residence. By 1876 there were 35 pupils, and the fathers of the town decided it was
time to build a school house, instead of renting rooms and having to
move so many times. A two room schoolhouse was built in 1877. Earliest
school records show salaries of $30.00 a month were paid in June of 1876
to Abbie Curtis and Amanda Sides, with A.E. Curtis as the principal
receiving $90. 
The teacher turnover was very high in those
days, with few of them staying more than one or two terms. School was
held throughout the year, with weather and roads determining when it
could be held.
In 1922 an additional High School building was
dedicated and the 1911 building became the grade school. In 1954
vocational agriculture music class rooms were built between the two
existing buildings joining them.
The 1911 building was no longer used and was
raised in the early 1980's. The 1922 building followed in August 2000 after all
students were moved to Churdan in 1999.
