German Valley Grade School on North Rock City Road in German Valley Illinois

The planning for German Valley Grade School began during the 1953-54 school year (as reported by the Freeport Journal Standard on December 4, 1953), when the Illinois department of education issued a new rule prohibiting one instructor from teaching all 8 grades. While consolidation of rural one-room schools was already underway, this rule wiped out the traditional one-room rural school model in Illinois. Leading up to the new grade school, German Valley country schools were already consolidated into one district. The German Valley school board elected to send first through sixth graders to two schoolhouses in German Valley, and 7th & 8th graders to Wessels School two miles north of town. All three of the elementary school locations were one-room schoolhouses.

Voters were to decide on December 19, 1953 if a $170,000 bond would be issued to construct a new grade school in German Valley, which would replace the one-room schools. The referendum to issue the bonds passed by a vote of 145 to 5. Also on the ballot, a referendum to issue authority to construct the school, passed by a vote of 144 to 5. The final vote on the ballot was to approve the location of the building site on the north edge of German Valley, known then as the Hayunga Farm. This was also overwhelmingly approved, 113 to 34. The days of one-room schools in the German Valley area were over. The new grade school was constructed in time for the 1955-56 school year.