OUR HISTORY

Prairie Grove School is believed to have been built in the late 1860s, a one-room frame building on a fieldstone cement foundation. Ultimately that building was phased out via building additions in 1957 (four classrooms) and 1966 (eleven classrooms) and finally razed in 1971.

An old photograph of a school building

During this era, in 1968, Burtons Bridge School District consolidated with Prairie Grove School District. These consolidated districts created Prairie Grove Consolidated School District #46. The school district was comprised of three separate buildings: Prairie Grove School, Burtons Bridge South School, and Burtons Bridge North School, both located east of the Prairie Grove School on opposite sides of Route 176.

An old photo of a school building

In 1975, the three buildings were incorporated into one school campus via a major classroom and gymnasium addition to Prairie Grove School. Due to increasing enrollment, six new classrooms were added to the building in 1984 and an additional major facility expansion occurred in 1989. This final expansion, to what is now known as Prairie Grove Elementary School, added the "multi-purpose room", kitchen, fine-arts areas, library, classrooms and district offices. Prairie Grove Elementary School is currently 76,375 sq.ft..

A photo of the front of Prairie Grove Elementary School

Prairie Grove Junior High School was built in 1999, adjacent to the Elementary school, to accommodate increased enrollment. This building includes three grade-level classroom "pods", specialized science classrooms, competition gymnasium, cafeteria, administrative offices and conference rooms. Prairie Grove Junior High School is currently 43,000 sq.ft.

A photo of the front of Prairie Grove Junior High School

During the summer of 2019, the District completed substantial upgrades to many outdated areas of the campus. Highlights included the construction of a District Learning Center, dedicated student Commons areas, STEM classrooms, MakerSpace, video production studio, and multiple small group studios. The Administrative offices were reconfigured. Visitor entry was streamlined to a single point of entry. After many decades all Elementary classrooms were outfitted with air conditioning.

A photo of a room inside the school building with tables and chairs around them

From a one-room schoolhouse to cutting edge technology labs, Prairie Grove District 46 continues to evolve with the needs of our next generation of learners.