About

Mission Statement

We at Iago Junior High School believe that

all students are capable of learning and that

our school will make a difference in their

educational futures. We will provide each

student with the foundation for a successful

high school career.

Who We Are

Iago Jr. High School is a class AAA Junior

High School. The staff is composed of 18

teachers, two secretaries, one counselor,

one principal, one nurse, one aide, and two

custodians. The student to teacher ratio is

15 to 1. We are culturally diverse campus

with the following breakdown:

10% African American
51% Hispanic
38% White
01% Asian
53% Economically Disadvantaged
01% ELL

We have an enrollment of approximately

270 students and are fully accredited by the

Texas Education Agency. In recent years,

Iago students have been, Duke Talent

Search Qualifiers, University Interscholastic

League winners, Youth Fair Academic

Rodeo finalists, and district and regional

qualifiers in athletic and co-curricular

events.

The staff at our school work hard to make

all children feel welcome and supported.

Our veteran teachers have high

expectations for all students in both their

academic achievement and their behavior.

They work diligently to make each child's

educational experience a fulfilling one.

Everyone connected with our school, from

the custodian who cleans the building to

the principal with his open-door policy, is

committed to making a difference in the

lives of our students.

Location

Iago Junior High School is a rural school

that is located at the intersection of Farm

roads 1301 and 1096, two miles northwest

of Boling and twelve miles east of Wharton

in southeastern Wharton County. Most of

the children that attend our school live in

the surrounding communities that make up

the Boling Independent School District.

History of Iago

The local Caney Creek was originally

named Canebrake Creek for the large

primeval forest of what Texans call "cane,"

a native bamboo, Arundinaria, growing to

heights of twenty feet. The first settlers

burned off the large tracts of canebrake,

built large plantations, and grew sugar cane

and cotton. The results of the Civil War and

the sugar cane blight ended the large

plantations, and the area was generally

abandoned until 1899, when the New York,

Texas and Mexican Railway ran a branch

from Wharton to Van Vleck in Matagorda

County. This opened up the area to small

farming interests.

Clarence D. Kemp owned three and one

sixth leagues of land where he set up a

mercantile store in the late 1880s. The

nearest settlements were Waterville, five

miles west, and Preston, three miles west.

A post office operated in Iago from 1891

until 1900 with Kemp as postmaster. Kemp

was sheriff of Wharton County from 1914

to 1921. G. C. Mick surveyed and laid out

the township of Iago in 1911, from 1,000

acres that he bought from Kemp. The area

had been part of the Seth Ingram league

and was next to the railroad.

The name Iago was chosen by M. D.

Taylor and C. W. Kemp, after the villain in

Shakespeare's Othello. The first school was

organized in 1902; it became part of the

Boling school district in 1941. By 1920 Iago

had two gins, a syrup mill, a blacksmith,

several mercantile and grocery stores, a

drugstore and doctor, a barbershop,

saloons, a church, and a population of

200.

The 1927 Wharton County poll tax roll

lists 134 white registrants, seven of whom

were women and fifty-three black

registrants, three of whom were women.

The church was a federation of

Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and

Disciples of Christ. Each group was

responsible for services one Sunday each

month and any fifth Sunday was open to

other denominations. Summer revivals were