January 1, 2004

The School system in 1858 did exist; however, the roads and streets (if you may call them streets), were crude and most people had to travel across other people’s property. The school operated for three months a year. It was housed in a log house with a dirt floor. The first teacher was George Key, who was a Methodist preacher and doctor that came with this family and several brothers to the Onega settlement from Weston (in Collin County).

The first circuit riding preacher assigned to the Methodist group assisted in the church organization and his immediate plans were to disband the group and do away with the endeavor. However, these were not the wishes of Dr. Key and other leaders who helped to establish the school-church operation.

The three months of education the students had was much better than nothing at all. The students were required to work at home to help the family meet its needs. This was a pressing time, and the Civil War was about to begin. During the Civil War, there was no schooling held at all, not until 1867, at which time Denton County had only three free schools. The Onega School was one of these free schools.

School was held in the log cabin until the mid 1880's, at which time the church decided to build a building for the church inside the town limits. The town had been laid out with better streets.

A new school building was built with a $3,000 bond on the land that is now the location for the newly built high school, on Springhill Road. The 1880 wooden 30 ft. by 60 ft. building had a wing extending that was 16 ft. by 24 ft. with a 12 ft. hall connecting the two wooden frame buildings.

This wooden building was used until 1907 when a larger two-story brick building was built. This building housed all grades until 1918, when it was damaged by a tornado. The building was severely damaged during the storm, it was repaired and used, but in 1920 it was declared unsafe and was removed.

On the same foundation, a new one story brick building was built. It served as the school building until the mid 1960's. It was during the 1960's that the school had only 165 students. The 11^th and 12^th grades were bused to Pilot Point for more than fifteen years.

Some time around 1965, the school had to decide whether to disband and consolidate with Pilot Point, or to build a better facility and remain in Aubrey.

A concerted effort was made by local businesses and citizens, and a decision was made to keep the school system in Aubrey and build a new school building. The new school building was located on Tisdell Lane. This building has seen many additional improvements. A new elementary school has been built on Chestnut.

Simply said we have gone from dirt floor school to turf fields in less than a couple of life times.

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