Early Odem Area Schools

Early Odem Area Schools. . As population increased in south central San Patricio County in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, independent schools were established in a number of communities, serving students in isolated areas before the construction of a good road system allowed easy travel between towns, the schools played an important role in county history., The Meansville school (3 mi. SE) opened about 1860 and continued in operation in a combination school/church/lodge hall building until 1881. A school near the Baylor ranch (5 mi.SE), variously called Bonnie View, Valley, or Fair View, operated in the 1880s and 1890s until it was consolidated with the school at Kaleta (7 mi.SE), which was established in the 1880s and also served as a Baptist church. Opened in the 1870s, a one-room school served children in Sharpsburg (9 mi. W), and the citizens of Angelita (4.5 mi. W) established a school in a building shared with a church and community meeting hall in 1904., The first school in Odem opened in 1911 in a warehouse. Improved county roads brought about a number of school consolidations, and by 1916 the schools at Kaleta, Sharpsburg, and Angelita merged with the Odem school to form Common School District No. 7.