From when the two towns were first established along the New Orleans Railroad Company's track line to Houston in 1856, up through the early 1900s, Cypress and Fairbanks had been two separate communities with separate school systems.

"[Cypress and Fairbanks] are 12 miles or so apart, and back when the immigrants were first arriving, 12 miles was a long way," said Jane Ledbetter with the Cypress Historical Society. "Each area had its own schools up to eighth grade, but Fairbanks students had to go to Houston for high school and Cypress students went to Addicks."

Beverly Richardson, a member of the Cypress Historical Society who grew up in Fairbanks, recalls the difficulty some of her family members faced getting to school.

"My aunts were born during the 1920s and they had to go to Reagan [High School in Houston]," she said. "They'd stay there all week with my great aunt and uncle and go home on the weekend. My dad only went to the eighth grade because the system just didn't go any higher than that."

Each community continued to develop its education system on its own, sometimes with help from area Methodist or Lutheran churches, until 1939. At this point, Cypress had constructed a schoolhouse with seven rooms, a superintendent's office, a library and a new wood-framed schoolhouse for high school students where Lamkin Elementary now stands. It was called Rural High School No. 5.

Meanwhile, elementary students in Fairbanks were attending school at the present site of Bane Elementary. High school students started going to Rural High School No. 5—which was much easier than going to Reagan High School—setting the scene for the consolidation.

"Both communities pushed for the merge together," Ledbetter said. "People in both areas were very much interested in education. People knew that they could accomplish a great deal more education-wise if they could join together."

The push to consolidate the school districts was led by E. A. Millsap, former superintendent of the Cypress school system, and J. F. Bane, trustee with the Fairbanks school system. Despite the general support for the consolidation, when put to a vote in December 1939, the measure narrowly passed in Fairbanks 90-87. In Cypress, it passed 129-66.

Many people in Fairbanks voted against the measure because they preferred consolidating with Houston, Ledbetter said. Although Fairbanks would eventually be annexed by the city of Houston in 1956, the bond forged between the two school systems would prove to be one that lasted.

"It was a close vote, but it did pass, and it was one of the best things that they could have done," Ledbetter said. "I think the growth of the Cy-Fair district through the years bears that out."

Soon after the merger, in 1942, the wood-framed high school in Cypress burned down. However, the Cy-Fair district was already building a brick high school on Hwy. 290—Cypress-Fairbanks High School. Ledbetter said the new school was symbolic.

"I think the new school really solidified the two districts coming together," she said. "They were coming together as a new district and coming together into this new school building pretty much at the same time. It was something new to grow from."