Marion–Florence USD 408 is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

unified school district A unified school district (in the states of Arizona, California, Kansas and Oregon) or unit school district (in Illinois), in the United States of America, is a school district that generally includes and operates both primary schools (kindergarte ...

headquartered in

Marion, Kansas Marion is a city in and the county seat of Marion County, Kansas, Marion County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,922. The city was named in honor of Francis Marion, a b ...

, United States. The district includes the communities of

Marion Marion or MARION may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Marion (band), a British alternative rock group * ''Marion'' (miniseries), a 1974 miniseries * ''Marion'' (1920 film), an Italian silent film * ''Marion'' (2024 film), a UK short People a ...

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

Aulne The Aulne (; ) is a long river of Brittany in north-western France, flowing down the hills and emptying into the roadstead of Brest, one of the many fjord-like bays just south of Brest. The river is part of the Canal de Nantes à Brest, the na ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, Eastshore,

Marion County Lake Marion County Lake is southeast of Marion, on the western edge of the Flint Hills region of Kansas, United States. An unincorporated residential community is around the lake. The much larger Marion Reservoir is located northwest of Marion. ...

, and nearby rural areas of Marion County.

History

The number of students in rural communities dropped significantly across the 20th century. As farming technology progressed from

animal power A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for transportation (e.g. riding horses and camels), while othe ...

to small

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

s towards large tractors over time, it allowed a farmer to support significantly more

farm land A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

. In turn, this led to fewer farm families, which led to fewer rural students. In combination with a loss of young men during foreign wars and

rural flight Rural flight (also known as rural-to-urban migration, rural depopulation, or rural exodus) is the Human migration, migratory pattern of people from rural areas into urban areas. It is urbanization seen from the rural perspective. In Industriali ...

, all of these caused an incremental population shrinkage of rural communities over time. In 1945 (after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

), the ''School Reorganization Act'' in Kansas caused the consolidation of thousands of rural school districts in Kansas. In 1963, the ''School Unification Act'' in Kansas caused the further consolidatation of thousands of tiny school districts into hundreds of larger

Unified School District A unified school district (in the states of Arizona, California, Kansas and Oregon) or unit school district (in Illinois), in the United States of America, is a school district that generally includes and operates both primary schools (kindergarte ...

s. In 1969, Florence was one of a hand full of school districts that was still non-unified. In April 1969, the state legislature passed a law pushing all remaining non-unified school districts to attach themselves to an adjacent unified school district by July 1, or the state would decide which adjacent district(s) would get their territory. In June 1969, the Florence school district held a vote choosing between Marion, Peabody, Chase County school districts, the winner was Marion. In fall 1971, grade school and high school students from

started attending schools in Marion, middle school students from Marion started attending school in Florence, and the Florence High School closed.

Current schools

The school district operates the following schools: * Marion High School at 701 East Main Street in Marion * Marion Middle School at 125 South Lincoln Street in Marion * Marion Elementary School at 1400 East Lawrence Street in Marion

Closed schools

* Florence High School in Florence. It was closed in 1971. * Florence Elementary School in Florence. It was closed.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Marion-Florence USD 408 School districts in Kansas Education in Marion County, Kansas

History

Current schools

Closed schools

See also

References

Further reading

External links