This school's roots lie in the former town of Havana (2 mi. S), where between 1890 and 1944 area children, most of whom lived on nearby ranches, attended classes in a one-room schoolhouse. Nellie Leo Schunior (1878-1920), who later became the first superintendent of Chapin (now Edinburg) schools, taught in Havana from 1913 until 1916. Several years after her death, persistent flooding of the Rio Grande caused Havana residents to relocate their town to this area. They renamed the town La Joya, and built a new school in 1926 which they named in Schunior's honor. (1992)