The Valley School was one of the oldest schools in Rockingham County, tracing its beginnings to 1790 when it was opened as a pay school. The Valley school was located about two miles west of Broadway on the Brock's Gap Road (Route 259). The original building was replaced near the beginning of the Civil War and was incorporated into the public school system in the early 1870s. A stone from the original Valley School was used as a memorial to early education in northern Rockingham and was dedicated at Broadway High school in 1940. The one-room frame building continued serving as a public school into the twentieth century, closing after the 1912-13 school session. The schoolhouse and lot were offered for public auction by action of the Plains District school trustees on July 8, 1913. Teachers known to have taught at the Valley School are:

1903-04 Barbara A. Alger

1906-07 W. J. Wittig

1907-08 Noah Dove 

1908-09 Mrs. N. F. Kline

1909-10 Hallie H. Turner

1910-11 Ella May Cummings

1911-12 David Ritchie

1912-13 Hallie H. Turner

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