Jan Maxwell

Fort Osage School District

The Fort Osage R-1 School District is about 20 miles east of Kansas City, Missouri, and encompasses 132 square miles of Eastern Jackson County, including northeast Independence, the communities of Buckner, Levasy, Sibley, Atherton, and a portion of Sugar Creek, as well as many acres of unincorporated land. The school district serves as a center to this unique blend of rural, small town, and suburban atmospheres. The Fort Osage R-1 School District is named after Fort Osage, which was built in 1808 as the first government-training house on the frontier in the new, largely unexplored Louisiana Territory. The historic Fort Osage still stands in the northeastern portion of the district next to the Missouri River in Sibley. In 1910, there were 91 different school districts listed in Jackson County. In August of 1949, Jackson County voters approved a countywide reorganization plan that combined 18 small rural districts to become the Fort Osage R-1 School District. Throughout subsequent years, several other small school districts also became part of the Fort Osage schools, expanding the district to its present size.