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30 school fund that the money from this source, amounting to $1,953.67, paid the entire cost of the school during the year 1876, the six-mill tax not having been used. "The district is now out of debt, and has $250 cash on hand."

The erection of a new school building was the main question before the taxpayers at the school meeting of 1882. That it was a necessity was admitted by all. The Astorian said editorially: "There are three things Astoria needs—and we place them in their relative importance—a new schoolhouse, a flouring mill, and a new theater."

At the meeting held April 24, 1882, four mills for current expenses and five mills for building purposes were levied and a new schoolhouse ordered built. The present McClure is the result of that meeting.

District No. 26, known locally as Alderbrook, was established in 1890.

By a legislative act of 1892 the four districts, now included in the city schools, together with the schools at John Days and Walluski, were consolidated into one district of the first class. This arrangement proved unsatisfactory, and in 1899 the boundaries were again changed so as to exclude the two districts lying outside the corporate limits of the city.

During the fifty years that the public school system has been in existence the school population has increased an hundredfold. The distance between "upper" and "lower" Astoria, the rapid growth of the town during the seventies, made the division of the district almost a necessity. The gradual growing together of the two parts of the town making the interchange of classes possible