The small rural town of Spearville, a city with an approximate population of 800 residents, is located 17 miles east of Dodge City on Highway 50.  The city was settled on land deeded by the Santa Fe Railroad to the Town Company, a company of men from the Santa Fe stockholders headed by Alden Speare of Boston who served as the President of the group.  The “e” was dropped from his name and “Spearville” was named.

Spearville was known as the City of Windmills until 1916 when the town’s water well was drilled and a complete system of waterworks was installed.   In 2006, Kansas City Power & Light; developed the third wind farm in Kansas, just north of Spearville.  Since the original 67 turbines were erected in 2006, there have been a total of 357 such turbines erected and surrounding the town.

The first school building was built within the community in 1877.  In 1978, Windhorst School consolidated with Spearville.  The Spearville School district presently is 182 square miles which serves the communities of Bellefont, Windthorst, and Spearville. Throughout the years, there have been many changes to the facilities to bring us to the present setting.  Currently, the school system includes: a K-5 Elementary Building and a 6-12 Middle School/High School Building all located in Spearville.  The most recent renovation involved removing the old high school built in 1937 and building in its place the present building.  The new building includes a new kitchen, common/lunch area, gymnasium, weight room (tornado shelter), upper commons area, and new classrooms on the existing middle school.   

The USD #381 Board of Education is dedicated to keeping our class sizes small. Through the past several years we have been able to maintain a teacher/student ratio of 1:12.  The BOE has also made the commitment to invest in the student’s learning though various technology interventions such as going to 1:1 district wide, Promethean TVs in the elementary classrooms, etc. 

Spearville Junior/Senior High School is committed to providing a positive learning experience for each student. We are continuing to move forward with each student having their own Individual Plan of Study and an Adviser to help them along the way. We will continue to focus on each student’s interests, strengths, and areas they are working to improve.  Spearville High School currently has 3 Career Pathways, Construction Trades, Business/Finance and Visual Arts as well as a partnership with Colby Community College for the Renewable Energy Program and certification.    The highly qualified teachers continue to work on school improvement material that will not only help the teachers, but the students as well.  We believe as a staff is the ability to work with students in a positive manner and in turn foster a positive attitude with younger students.  This takes place through the Lancer Buddies program, a local off shoot of Big Brothers/Big Sisters which has been in the Spearville Schools for 4 years.  Much of what is able to be accomplished is due to low turn-over in staff in the Middle and High School teachers and administration. 

Spearville is a member of the SPIAA League, a 12 team league with the tradition of participation in various state activities.  We are fortunate in Spearville to have good participation in extra-curricular activities.  The participation is something that other schools have asked on how we get such great involvement.  Through the SPIAA League Spearville students are able to participate in the traditional athletics such as Football, Volleyball, Basketball, Track, but we also offer Baseball, and Softball.  The key to the SPIAA League participation and success is also the other activities students are able to find an area to participate throughout the school year.  These activities include; Scholars Bowl, vocal and instrumental festivals, forensics, times where the entire league comes to together for speakers, both as student groups and teacher groups, SPIAA League In-Service and Collaboration day, Forensics for High School students, 4-8 grade Math Contest, League All-Star recognition, honoring of students through an award, as well as the League BIG READ to encourage collaboration and reading league wide.