Mead Schools
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Mead's first school was built just north of what is now the Mead Town Hall and fire station.. It was located on WCR 7, and was a two room wood-framed building. I have a couple pictures that show the school building in the far distance, but none close up. In the picture above, you can see the first school far off in the distance near the upper right. It was located about where the parking lot for the Mead Town Hall is now located.
When Paul Mead founded the town, as one of the Highlandlake school board members, a school in his new town was a must. He wanted to take the newest school room at the Highlandlake school, move it to Mead, and use it as a second room in his new schoolhouse. This started a fight that, while he eventually won, caused yet another rift between the older community of Highlandlake and the new town of Mead.
In 1917, the town had grown to a size where a new school was needed. To help finance and support the new school. outlying schools were encouraged to consolidate into the new school. This allowed for more opportunities for the students, including a larger variety of class offerings, sports, music, clubs, and theater. The building was finished sometime in 1917 with the first classes starting in the fall of 1918. That same year, the Highlandlake School consolidated into the Mead consolidated school district. an agreement was made to allow elementary age students to still attend the Highlandlake School. Once they graduated from 8th grade, they moved on to the Mead School. Over Christmas break of 1920/21, the Highlandlake school was permanently closed and when students returned to school after the break, they all attended the Mead school.
This image is the back page of a pamphlet that was sent out to parents in adjoining districts encouraging them to consolidate. Eventually, all of the schools shown consolidated into the Mead school district. Click or tap on the image to see a larger, readable image.
The Highlandlake school was demolished, plowed into a pit, and burned. Happily, the Brossman family saved the original one-room section built in 1878, and moved it up the street to their property. For decades it was used as a storage shed, but when the Senesac family purchased the property, they turned it into a preschool. The little structure has now come full circle.
The new Mead Consolidated School eventually absorbed all of the surrounding schools including, Highlandlake, Pearl Howlett, Liberty Hall, and Victor. Several of the school buildings were moved to the Mead school grounds and used as supplemental classrooms until about 1961, when the school merged into the St. Vrain Valley School District. The last Mead high school senior class graduated in May of that year, and after that, students in grades 10, 11, and 12 first attended Longmont High and then later Skyline High. Students from K-9th grade remained in Mead. The St. Vrain school district built a new junior high - now middle school, in 1971, then a few years later, tore down the old school building, retaining only the gym, that had been built in the 1930s by the WPA. A new elementary school was built around the gym. Finally, several years ago, the district built a new high school so Mead students once again could attend their local school.
In 2019, the district tore the "new" elementary school down and built yet another new one. This time the gym also fell under the bulldozer. While the new elementary school is up-to-date and beautiful, it also meant that the last remnants of the 1917 Mead school vanished. A new era in the history of the Mead schools has now begun.
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