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Anselmo-Merna Public School

Highway 2 And Ewing
308-643-2224

History :

The Anselmo-Merna High School was organized in 1963 with the joining of the Anselmo and Merna High Schools. A new Anselmo-Merna High School was built in 1968.

The first school at Anselmo was started in 1887. A frame structure was built in the late 1880's to house the first school. This building served as the school and church. In 1915 a new brick school house was built. By 1927 the school had grown to the point of needing a new high school. In January, 1928, a new brick high school was opened. A gym was added to the school in the 1940's. This served the community until the high school consolidated with Merna in 1963. The closing of the Anselmo School happened in December, 1980. The students that attended that fall began attending school in Merna in January, 1981.

The first school house in Merna was built in 1888. The school was rebuilt across from the Catholic Church in 1908. Part of the new school was finished in 1925. In 1930 a tornado came through and destroyed half of the building. The school was repaired and added onto that year and served as the K-12 Merna Public School until the late 1960's when they consolidated with Anselmo. The building then became the Merna Elementary School until 1981 when the Anselmo Elementary School closed and the elementary became the Anselmo-Merna Elementary School.
In 1990 a bond issue was passed to add on to the north end of the high school. This was to increase the availabilty of technology and allow more room for classes.

This addition of new classrooms, art room, science classroom and lab, computer lab, industrial technology classroom and lab, commons area, music room, weight room, wrestling room, boys and girls locker rooms, distance learning classroom, and media center more than doubled the size of the Anselmo-Merna High School. In the fall of 1996 an activities building was built between the high school and elementary school.

A brand new elementary school opened in 2002 with 9 classrooms, media center, technology lab, and music room. It joined the high school building with the activities building to form one large connected campus that has become one of the finest school districts in the state.

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