Page 37 - Considering College

Patton Springs ISD in Afton, Texas, had 96 students for the 2017-2018 school year. It is small. It is
old—established in 1910, the same year West Texas A&M University was opened. On October 9,

1933, a group of schools voted to consolidate to form the New Common School #22: Afton
(Chandler had already joined with Afton), Duncan Flat, Midway (which included the former

McCarty, Amity, and Liberty schools) and Croton (which included Highland). The 20 acres on
which it was established were squeezed out of the Matador Land and Cattle Company, and in 1935-

1936 the school had 419 students and 15 teachers. The people of Patton Springs.

There were no standardized tests and no requirements from the state, and no child was left
behind. How could a child be left behind? The school, its staff, its students and the families from

which they sprang would not allow anyone to be left behind. They were neighbors. Family. People.
The school was owned and operated by the community for the community, according to the Patton

Springs Rangers website.
It was not politics that drove the relationship. It was a shotgun marriage; a
means to do what was right and to serve the area. It was not power, but

politics determined by a committee of the whole and local sovereignty at work

through people who lived and had needs there. It was not a grand plan from the
distant capitol of a state or nation configured by someone who had never
dipped a toe in Patton Springs.

The school is poor in material accouterments. Its nice wood floors that are meticulously kept were
probably installed at the direction of S. B. Haynes, the architect from Lubbock employed to design

the building. It is theirs; it came from a voluntary, locally driven consolidation which was intended
to serve the people of the region. It was not politics that drove the relationship. It was a shotgun
marriage; a means to do what was right and to serve the area. It was not power, but politics

determined by a committee of the whole and local sovereignty at work through people who lived
and had needs there. It was not a grand plan from the distant capitol of a state or nation

configured by someone who had never dipped a toe in Patton Springs.

Small districts with a local determination of input and outcomes are powerfully built on the backs
of people.

There are commonly recognized positive effects related to small schools and the reduced class

sizes associated with them. Attendance, dropout rates and behavioral issues usually improve in
smaller school settings. Many of the small school settings such as Patton Springs, covering larger,

widely dispersed geographic areas lead to longer bus rides, unlike neighborhood schools in more
densely populated areas. The idea that all small schools are similar is misplaced. Varied school

cultures exist where the entire district, pre-k through high school, totals less than 200 or even 100
students. No two are the same, and they struggle mightily to make ends meet in service to student,

family and community. People.