Board to seek help to repair ‘Little Blue Schoolhouse’

The “Little Blue Schoolhouse” is in need of repairs.

The former one-room school building currently occupies a site next to the Tongue River Learning Center – the old Tongue River Elementary School in Ranchester.

Pete Kilbride, who’s superintendent of Sheridan County School District 1, said there’s some damage to the back wall of the building.

Trustees discussed the building at a work session earlier this week.

Kilbride said the big issue was the repair, and trustees have decided to reach out to the Ranchester-Dayton Rotary Club to see if that organization would be willing to take on the repairs, which would involve replacing a couple of boards that have rotted out on the south side of the building. Kilbride estimated the cost of repairs would be around $200, if no other problems were found.

Kilbride said the next step will be a larger discussion about what the district wants to do with the building long-term.

The Little Blue Schoolhouse, also known as the Owens School and the “old Blue” school, was built in 1902 off Barker Road outside Parkman to serve children in that area.

According to newspaper accounts of the time, the school was in use until 1949. The structure then sat apparently vacant for a number of years, until in July 1988, the building was moved to its present site in Ranchester.