In 1952 nine common school districts voted to consolidate which led to building of two large modern schools to which the children were bussed. At the time the consolidation that formed Orono District was voted in the members of the Maple Plain school board were: Chairman, the Reverend Milton Gunberg; Stanley Hill, treasurer and Mrs. Winnie Bryant, clerk. The first new schools were built in Orono near Long Lake, just off of State Highway 12. The Junior Senior High School was built in 1949 and Orono Elementary in 1956. In September 1965 a large and beautiful school was built in Maple Plain on Independence Street, named the Maple Plain Elementary School. It contains seventeen class rooms, library, modern kitchen and lunch room facilities, gymnasium, offices and storage space. It takes care of kindergarten through the fourth grade. September, 1968, the new high school opened in Orono, and the former high school is known as the Middle School, housing grades five through eight. So times and ways change and progress marches on.
