The Lydia School District, District 21, was established in 1857. There is unfortunately no record of where the first classes were held, how many students attended, or the identities of the first teachers. An official school building was finally built in 1889. It was initially a single room. The school was closed for most of 1900 because of outbreaks of scarlet fever, measles and mumps, but in 1901 a second room was added. The Lydia district was small, and one of several districts contained within Spring Lake Township. This was due to a early Minnesota policy that stated that “no student should have to walk more than two miles to school”
Lunch tray cup from Lydia School, 1960. From the SCHS Collections.
The school started with a single teacher, but once the second room was built, a second teacher was added. One room housed grades one through four, and the other grades five through eight. Until the 1940s it was understood that many children would not be attending school for the entire year. Some were “winter children”, who would be in school October through April, and some would attend summer school in April through June depending on farm work at home. Pupils from the early years recall that for many years the school did not have running water, and students would be sent to the farm across the street several times a day to fetch water for their class.
Lydia’s original school building was in service until 1950, when a new school was built. This building had two rooms, a gym, and a kitchen for hot lunches. Later, a third room was added. Lydia students attended classes in this building until 1960 when the Lydia district merged with Jordan. Afterwards, the building was used for the area’s Head Start program.
In 1968, several of the county’s school districts came together in an attempt to provide services for special education students. Previously, many of these students had been unable to attend public school, staying at home, or attending private day programs. Blind, deaf, and physically handicapped students also often fell into this category, and districts were unable to meet their needs.
New legislation was changing the requirements of what students districts were asked to provide services for, and many superintendents felt that it was their duty to make sure as many students as possible were able to receive an education. In spite of this several Scott County superintendents did not think their current schools would be adequately able to meet student needs.
As a result, the Lydia school building was refurbished to serve as a special education school, which opened in 1975. The school provided two psychological services personnel, a behavior coordinator, a speech services coordinator, and a director of special education services. The goal was to provide an education for learning disabled, hearing impaired, vision impaired and physically handicapped students. Known as the Lydia Education Center, the school closed in 2014.