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HISTORY OF KIEL SCHOOL DISTRICT
Suot. R. S. Way
  . the*Kiel school district was
organized as Schleswig district
No. 4 about the year 1858. There
are no written records of its
formation except those on file
in the   county  offices. The
Schleswig assessment roll of
1859 shows that the original
Schleswig district No. 4 which
included the settlement of Kiel,
was composed of all -of the
southern  half of. Schleswig.
When Schleswig No. 5 and No.
7 were organized about 1862,
Schleswig No. 4 was then made
up of sections 19, 20, 29, 30, 31,
32. That was its areal extent
until '1930 when most of the
joint district No. 4.
farming community around Kiel withdrew and organized the present Schleswig
    The present Kiel Jt. No. 1 school district was at first Schleswig No.
4. Shortly
after its organization, it became Scheswig joint No. 4, joint with New Holstein
town-
ship in Calumet county. In 1892, Kiel became a village and this school district
became
Kiel school district Jt. 1, joint with Schleswig, Calumet county, and Sheboygan
county.
In 1920, Kiel, became a city and the school district boundaries remained
as they had
been. After the 1930 withdrawal the Kiel school district remained Kiel Joint
No. 1,
joint only with Schleswig and with Calumet county.
    Col. Henry F. Belitz, a pioneer settler, donated the land for the first
public school
at what is now the northeast corner of Paine and First Streets. The one room
frame
school building erected on it was about 30 x 60 feet with windows on all
sides. It
was built on a stone foundation which placed the building just above the
ground
level. Carl J. Meiselwitz, one of the pupils who attended that school in
the 1870's,
states that the school had a large entrance door which opened into a combination
entry and cloakroom, The classroom had long wooden benches and desks of several
sizes to accomodate the small, middle-sized, and the mature children attending.
A
high platform across one end of .the roo, was used by the teacher to look
out over
the heads of the pupils. The room was heated by a stove while the matter
of ventila-
tion was cared for by opening the windows. Later on when it became a two
depart-
ment school it was divided into two rooms. This building was sold to Julius
Drews
who moved it across the street and remodeled it into a home.
    A second school was built in 1879. It was a one story brick-veneered
structure
with one school room on each side of the hallway running north and south.
The
school was about 32 x 40 feet with a basement and cost $751 according to
the town
clerk's report to the county superintendent. Mr. Meiselwitz states that it
is now the
south one-half of the Adolph Meiselwitz factory at First and Paine streets.
In 1884,
a second story addition was voted to the brick building erected in 1879.
This addition
followed the pattern of the original building and cost $667. The Kiel school
by this
time was offering a three year high school course and all of the four rooms
were used
for grades or high school classes.
    Kiel was growing rapidly at that time so the building erected in 1879
and enlarged
in 1884 was again inadequate by 1898. Accordingly, the voters in 1898 authorized
the
construction of a two-story, four room additon to the old building. This
is the present
north half of the Meiselwitz factory. The building operations lasted for
several years
as new rooms were completed and put into use. The village clerk's report
to the sup-
erintendent show that the sum of $6,000 was spent in 1898-99, another $3,000
in 1902-
03, and another $2,800 in 1904 to 1906.
    Within ten years after the erection of the addition, the city of Kiel
was faced
with the problem of providing a modern grade and high school building to
meet the
school needs of this and surrounding communities. The voters in 1909, authorized
a
new high school building to be erectedh a few feet south of the old brick
school. This
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