At this time in McLean County history a great discussion and debate was taking place over the establishment of a new high school district in the Empire Township. What really had people "riled up" was the fact that the promoters wanted to draw in land from other townships. This would of course mean an additional tax burden on land owners in those annexed areas. Letters to the editor were probably coming thick and fast. Whether all of them were published is unknown. One lady wrote that when her grandfather came to Empire Township in the 1850's the township board that he had headed had refused to give up land for a school, so of course it was the wrong thing to do now. Logic did not prevail.
No one who did not have children wanted to support a school. Some students would have to travel distances of over 9 miles to attend the school, which was simply not feasible unless their parents could create a home for them in the town of Leroy. Others, who had easy access to Bloomington by rail, were attending school in Bloomington (for a fee) and did not want to pay twice for access to education. Other students' families had actually moved to other locations so that they might have an education in some place like Bloomington.
Not only the tax payers objected, but the leaders of the other townships and school districts objected. Leroy was attempting to do something no other school district had done in the past. Most school districts reached out only about 2 or 2 and a half miles out from the location of the school. By reaching out so much farther, Leroy was possibly being unrealistic in the scope of the enterprise. Downs, Ellsworth and Farmer City all had their own high school districts and the boundaries of the proposed school district encroached in to areas that could more easily imagined the province of other school districts.
It would be interesting to know why the Leroy community thought it possible that they could snap up part of the neighboring townships without causing this incredible tempest. The district was created by a vote in Leroy on February 15 and passed 418 "for" to 355 "against." There were no demonstrations or shouting, just a quiet voting day where fewer voters appeared than had been expected.