Dorchester Times: McCool Junction Sets Standard For Smaller Schools

Friday, November 16, 2012

McCool Junction Sets Standard For Smaller Schools

"We are one big family."

That's the secret behind a thriving Class D school in McCool Junction, according to a new report by 10/11 News.

The story offers key insight to how the rural school in York County is beating the odds. In a time of shrinking student bodies in Nebraska's rural towns, the McCool Mustangs are growing in enrollment and school spirit.

This story could have very well been shot in Dorchester, another school that is thriving due in large part to our new facilities approved by the district voters five years ago.

But we would ask the students, teachers and administrators to watch the 10/11 story and emulate the philosphy used in McCool: "We are family."

When going to school, representing your school, teaching students and ensuring the success of your school becomes more than just a job -- more than just routine -- that's when you know you're on track for long-term success.

You can view the 10/11 News story by clicking here.

3 comments:

AnonymousNovember 17, 2012 at 2:31 AM
Nice story by 1011 news. It's positive and uplifting. But they forget to mention that the school is near interstate 80. Throughout Nebraska the schools and towns currently thriving are those near the interstate. This is why merging athletics with Milford was definitely the right thing to do. i hope all Dorchester's teachers, Especially those in elementary school, read the story. We as taxpayers should be ensuring that our instructors and administrators truly believe that we are family.
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AnonymousNovember 17, 2012 at 4:59 PM
Why did you let the first reader take a shot at Dorchester teachers
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AnonymousNovember 18, 2012 at 10:29 PM
The story is interesting because just a few years ago McCool Was on the downward spiral. Congrats to them for turning things around
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."