Avilla R-13 School District

[3] Prior to the American Civil War the first schoolhouse in the Avilla area was a one-room dirt-floor log cabin, located about one and a half miles southeast of the future town site near White Oak Creek.

Consequently, Avilla was an overnight boom town during the Reconstruction Era and in 1865 much of the rest of Jasper County lay in ruins.

Because it spans grades kindergarten though eighth, high school level students thereafter were sent to neighboring Carthage, Sarcoxie, or Golden City, Missouri for continued studies.

Today Avilla eighth-grade graduating students may also choose to attend high school at Miller or Jasper, Missouri as well.

In the 1970s the building was expanded on the west side (new front) with a red brick addition for the library, classrooms and offices.

In 2013 the village of Avilla, Missouri is considered one of the living ghost towns of historic route 66 and long established family traditions in livestock raising and agriculture continue in the region.

Avilla R-13 School in 2009, home of the Panthers. This newer red brick addition to the older part of the (second) school was constructed in the 1970s.
Avilla High School pupils 1936 - 1937, Avilla, Missouri. Clipping from The Carthage Press dated April 3, 1937. During the 1930s grade cards were marked “H” “M” and “L,” meaning high, medium and low. Classes would start at 9:00 A.M. giving the students time to do farm chores (feeding animals, milking cows, etc.) before it was time to be at school.