In August 1918, The Franklin County Board of Education approved a petition from the residents of the Village of Upper Arlington to recognize Upper Arlington as a new school district. At that time the village was bounded by what is now Lane Avenue, Riverside Drive, Fifth Avenue and North Star Road.

A school board was appointed by the county superintendent of schools and John W. Wuichet Sr. was named president. One of the first actions for the new school officials was to authorize the construction of a four-room temporary school. It was built at the corner of Arlington Avenue and Tremont Road from parts of barracks left behind from Camp Willis. Fifty-two students enrolled in the school, which taught first through ninth grades.

King and Ben Thompson, the forward thinking brothers behind the development of Upper Arlington, were committed to education. In 1917, Prior to the construction of the frame schoolhouse, King Thompson's basement at 1930 Cambridge Boulevard was being used as a school for more than a dozen children in first through third grade. (Children in upper grades attended Grandview Heights.)

It was the Thompson brothers through their company, the Upper Arlington Company, who put up the funds necessary to build the temporary school for all the children in the village. The school was completed and opened for class in October 1918.

The Board of Education named its secretary-treasurer, Evan L. Mahaffey, as the first superintendent of the school district.

The financial burden of running a school district not fulfilled by local taxes during that school year was assumed by the Upper Arlington Company.

The generosity of King and Ben Thompson continued. The men were instrumental in establishing the Waltham Road School, which replaced the temporary school in 1919.

Upper Arlington seemed to be doing very well. However, the new district faced deferment. Columbus threatened to take control over the village, because without a permanent school building, Upper Arlington was not meeting the needs of the community.

The Upper Arlington Company donated the use of about nine acres of land located in the heart of the village for the district's first permanent school building. The Upper Arlington Board of Education placed a bond issue before its voters for the construction of the school and to purchase the deed to the Thompson land. It passed with 155 votes in favor and 33 votes against. The tax rate for the bond issue was 2.49-mills, which was 1.4-mills less than Columbus.

The new building, as seen right courtesy of Norwester 1924, (now known as Jones Middle School) opened in 1924. J.W. Jones was hired as the building principal and the first full-time superintendent of the district.

In 1939, the Barrington Road School opened as Upper Arlington Elementary School.

The district built Tremont Elementary School in 1952 to serve all the children north of Lane Avenue. In 1955, Upper Arlington took over Perry Township School, renaming it Fishinger Elementary. Wickliffe Elementary was built in 1957; Windermere in 1959; and Greensview in 1965. Hastings Middle School, then Hastings Junior High was constructed in 1961.

Upper Arlington High School was dedicated in 1956 with Joseph Dorff as principal.
  

BEFORE THERE WAS UPPER ARLINGTON:

Prior to the declaration of the Upper Arlington School District, the community was served by four country schools: Woody Bower on the southside of Henderson Road; Swamp College on the south side of McCoy Road, halfway between Kenny and Reed Roads on The Ohio State University Golf Course lands; Stony Point on Dublin Pike (now Riverside Drive) at Olentangy and Scioto River Free Pike (now Fishinger Road); and Fairview School on the northeast corner of Lane Avenue and Tremont Road.