In August 1921, Nodaway County had a Lafayette High School near Guilford. It was billed as the only rural school district in Missouri to do this without state (most one-room schools sent their students to towns for high school). The school forced the media to refer to the school near Guilford as “Lafayette Rural High School,” while the bigger one in St. Joseph, Missouri, always had to have the St. Joseph name attached to it. The school was too small to offer basketball or football teams, but it did have a little track.
The Maryville Daily Forum August 21, 1921
LAFAYETTE WILL DEDICATE SCHOOL New $4,000 Building to Open for Fall Term, Monday, September 5, With Special Ceremony. PATRONS GIVE BASKET DINNER Miss Forine Allen of Stanberry Is Principal With Artie Cotter of Guilford as Assistant.
The new independent high school of the Lafayette school district is now completed. And it is the plan to dedicate the building with a basket dinner and special program on Monday, September 5, which will mark the opening of this school. together with the other rural schools of the county.
A part of the dedication program will be an agricultural movie screening hosted by the county agent. The building was erected by the patrons of the district at a cost of $4,000 and consists of two rooms and a 30-by-30-foot basement, which is fitted up with equipment for the domestic science and vitalized agriculture courses. There will be fifteen or twenty students in the two-year high school course, with Miss Florine Allen of Stanberry as principal and Artie Cotter of Guilford as assistant. ant.
About thirty will enroll in the grades. The members of the Board of Education of the Lafayette district are: John A. Martin. president; John A. Roberts, clerk; Walter T. Giffin. According to A. H. Caaper, county superintendent, so far as is known, Lafayette is the only rural district in the state of Missouri that will maintain an independent high school this year without financial help from outside sources.
- “We don’t have school choice — we have an identity crisis: two Lafayette High Schools within 30 miles. Just pick a mascot and a personality!”
- “Our biggest rivalry isn’t on the field — it’s the GPS. ‘Make a U-turn’ means ‘go find the other Lafayette.’”
- “When someone says they graduated from Lafayette, we ask, ‘Which one? The original or the sequel?’”
- “College applications get weird: ‘High School: Lafayette (No, the other Lafayette).’”
- “Our mail carrier deserves a medal — and a map that says ‘You did it. Drop the trophy here.’”
- “We settle disputes the old-fashioned way: rock-paper-scissors or consult Google Maps.”
- “We tried to set up a twin-school exchange program. It turned into a neighborhood reunion.”
- “When prom photos get posted online, mothers comment: ‘Cute! Which Lafayette was this again?’”
- “People say small towns are cozy — that’s because everyone at both Lafayettes knows everyone at the other Lafayette.”
- “College recruiters love us: two Lafayettes for the price of one recruiting trip.”
- “Our town motto: ‘If you can’t find Lafayette, drive 20 minutes — it’s probably the other one.’”