Prior to 1921 the area that now makes up the Hartland Consolidated School District was composed of 15 one room school houses called Primary Districts. These one room schools only went to the eighth grade. The Primary Districts all had their own school boards. Students who wished to go to high school would have the Primary District contract and pay tuition with a city high school.
In 1920 the Hartland Area decided to build a modern new high school. In order to do this a larger tax base was needed and the Hartland Consolidated School District was formed. The farmers in the Primary Districts, that chose to disband, voted on whether or not to join the new district. When the farmer joined, all of his land was then taxed by that district. The only rule for joining the new consolidated district was that the farm land had to be contiguous with another farm. As different farmers voted to join, the new boundaries were literally shaped by the property lines of the fields rather than along the roads.
In 1921 it became the second district to become consolidated in the state of Michigan. This process took nearly 30 years to complete.
In his belief in the need for self-improvement, Crouse established the Hartland Consolidated Schools Foundation Board in 1928. The purpose of the board set down by Crouse was “to promote better living conditions, health measures, educational activities, or for any other purposes that would make for the mental, moral and physical improvement of the inhabitants of the Hartland School District. Money from the Foundation is dispersed yearly through a grant writing process. One of the recipients of grant money each year is the newspaper Community Life.