This one room school was moved, in 1884, to another part of town. It soon became too small and in May 1887 it was decided to build a larger two story school house. By August the school was in the process of being erected and on November 25, 1887 was opened for school with fifty students, the teacher was E.W. Boling. There being but one teacher, school was held only in the lower story that winter. Because of family illness Mr. Boling stopped teaching and E.J. Robinson was engaged as teacher who had about thirty classes. School moved along smoothly by having the advanced scholars aid with the teaching.
Steps were taken to grade the school and hire more teachers. The pupils were divided into grammar, intermediate and primary and a partition was built to divide the upper story into two rooms. This school house was moved to where the present school now stands. It faced the west and had a sidewalk built on two sides. An addition was built onto the south side in 1900.
By 1897 there was an enrollment of 138 pupils. High school 25, grammar 30. intermediate 33 and primary 50.
In 1902 this school burned down very quickly. The school was in session, but the children marched out unhurt.
For the next year school was held in churches and other available building in town. A new building, which is still in use, was erected in 1903. James Riley Wilson was the only high school teacher with three grades, Nellie Wilson was teacher for the grammar school, Viola Kratzner was second intermediate, Lucy Inman taught first intermediate and primary was taught by Anna Smith. in 1906 an assistant principal, Clara Jackson, was added to the staff and the superintendent was A.R.Nickels.
The first school did not include high school grades, but as enrollment kept increasing, the school included grades up through the eleventh. Then a law was passed that rural school teachers must graduate from the twelfth grade and was added rather than send the students to the Sibley school to finish the twelfth.
In 1948 many country schools in the area began closing because of difficulty in obtaining qualified teachers. It became apparent to the Ocheyedan Board of Education that more room would be needed to take care of the influx of students from the country schools. As election of $12,000 bond issue was voted and passed. After much consideration some abandoned army barracks were purchased in Missouri. These were dismantled and hauled to Ocheyedan. The salvaged lumber was used in the construction of an annex for added classrooms. This building has since been removed.
In 1958, the children from the World Was II and post-war baby boom began to move into the classrooms. It was soon apparent that more classrooms were needed to handle the enrollment. An election was held in November of 1958 on and $175,000 bond issue to be used for the construction of a new elementary building containing nine classrooms, plus hot lunch facilities and office space. The vote passed.
With the completion of the new elementary building, more room became available in the old school house and the use of attic rooms for classes was discontinued. Facilities for science and home economics were enlarged and more equipment added. Music rooms were moved to the old elementary annex. This moved a lot of distracting noise away from classrooms and study halls.
As the student bulge began to get into high school, it became evident that still more classroom space was needed to provide for the expanded curriculum that was being asked for by the State Department of Public Instruction. Various means of expansion were discussed and it seemed the most satisfactory and economical method was to remodel the old gymnasium. A successful, but much talked about election on a $100,000 bond issue was held in March 12, 1962. A very severe blizzard kept people from reaching the polling place to vote.
The sale of bonds and letting contracts on the new gymnasium during the winter of 1962-1963 were delayed because of an attempt to reorganize the entire county into a one-unit district.
When the attempt at reorganization failed, construction on the building was begun in the spring of 1963 and completed February, 1964. The old gymnasium was remodeled to provide two classrooms. a special-education room and an audio-visual education room.
Bus service for pupils was begun in 1948 when country schools began closing.
In 1984, due to decreasing enrollment in our high school, a successful election was held to consolidate the Ocheyedan School District with the Sibley School District commencing with the 1985-1986 school year.
We have come full circle by beginning and ending this high school building by sending our students to Sibley to finish their higher education.