Richardton Taylor Public School District #34

Richardton-Taylor Public School District #34 is a small, rural school district located in Southwest North Dakota. The school district is comprised of two schools: Richardton-Taylor Public School located in Richardton for grades 5-12, and Taylor-Richardton Elementary School located in Taylor for grades PreK-4. The school district is a merger of two districts, Richardton School District #4 and Taylor School District #3. The Richardton Rebels and Taylor Redbirds, formerly rivals, joined in 1983 becoming the Richardton-Taylor Raiders. Taylor is older with its first class graduating in 1917. The original school building is no longer standing, and the current building was built in pieces, with the lower level and gymnasium coming first and the upper level later. It used to house all grade levels until the merge with Richardton. Richardton had its first building erected by 1962 and was solely a high school, with the younger public school students attending at a different location that was formerly a Catholic school. Around the time the new high school was built, the Catholic schools stopped educating grades above 8th. Many students in Richardton attended the Catholic schools in the town, so student population at the public school was not as high as it would have otherwise been.