Seville Dependent School History
Opened: 1955
Closed: January 1959
Seville Dependent School began in 1955 with one registered student who had attended a Spanish school until the American School was founded in the El Cano building. This building was composed of Spanish offices. The first principal was Thomas Michelson. There was one senior and seventeen students in the high school.
The school moved from the El Cano building to a converted olive warehouse in the Exportadora area. Here, things were not much better than before. There were only four rooms available, three for regular classes and one for the principal’s office. A combination correspondence-conventional curriculum was operated under the supervision of four teachers. Chemistry students used the Laboratory Seras in the center of Seville to complete their work. The small group of high school students called themselves the Seville Conquistadores.
The walls of the rooms did not reach the ceiling and, consequently, lessons from the next-door class could be heard. The roof was a makeshift affair and through the holes and cracks the students could gaze at the sky. Keeping the rooms warm in the winter was impossible. A combination correspondence-conventional class curriculum was operated under the supervision of four teachers. According to the combined Spain yearbook of 1957:
Through the combined efforts of the Student Council and every high school student, an immensely successful Christmas dance was held, for adults as well as teenagers, at the exclusive Betis Club.
Visits to ceramic plants were made possible for members of the Art Club early in the year. The history class has also made several field trips to local or rural locations.
The second year of the school, 1956-57, the high school student body consisted of eighteen students who used orange crates for chairs. The first name given to the school was Washington Irving School in honor of the American author who spent several years of his life in Spain. However, the next year the school’s name was changed to Seville Dependents School. The principal for the 1956-57 school year was Tomas Michelson, and the teachers were Miss Maria Hinojoso, Mrs. Aileen S. Watts, and Mrs. Glenellen Woodward. There was one senior, Trinidad Marble. The next school year there were nine high school faculty including a fulltime librarian. The high school curriculum included industrial arts, home economics, physical education, and commerce classes in addition to the academic subjects. There were now sixty-four students in the high school. The first newspaper was the Knickerbocker News and there was a student council.
For the 1957-58 school year, the school’s name was changed to Sevilla High because it was considered more suitable and typical. The principal was Robert Sellers. There were ten faculty for the eighty-four students in grades seven through twelve. No enrollment data is available for the elementary students.
During the 1958-59 school year, the second and final transfer of schools was just after the Christmas vacation to a new, modern school at San Pablo. John Cormack, Jr. was the principal. The yearbook stated:
Sevilla High School occupies an actual school building now! Before January 7, 1959, we were attending classes in an old, cold, and moldy warehouse.
As I sit here writing this, a gigantic caterpillar-tractor outside the window is leveling the ground for a recreational area which should be quite a contrast to the Base Exchange parking lot we had been using. Since, at Exportadora, there were no windows the students are now constantly gazing at a whole window of them and the workmen we see are actually building anew, not just constantly repairing as before.
Just imagine —stairs to climb! And water fountains that actually spurt COLD water suitable for drinking-not the Old Faithful that spurted only hot water (even on the coldest days!). The new school building has an exhilarating atmosphere which has awakened the students who now show a get-up-and go ambition that seemed lacking in the past. Even the temperature of the school is just right —no need to carry or wear heavy overcoats, and no danger of an old pot-bellied stove erupting for instead of the stoves, there are genuine radiators. We have a separate lab— which is great because the science room had originally been the senior home room and the pobre seniors inhaled unpleasant odors during their Exportadora lunch hours. There is only one thing lacking— a cafeteria. However, the privileged seniors have a lounge in which they can study, listen to records, have refreshments, and gossip.
No reason why the juniors shold[sic] drag their rubber boots to class now —they don't have to wade in and out of leaky rooms. And their amphibian friends, the sophomors, shed their water wings when they came to the school. The freshmen moved from a very small and crowded room to an even narrower and noisier one.
Special features of our school make it different from others— men’s barracks and radar equipment nearby— also olive trees and MUD but MUD!
Our student dream come true —a school with conveniences that make one feel like studying!
The school yearbook was titled Taurus, and the newspaper was Tribane. The mascot was the Toro.
The two new schools, Sevilla High School and Sevilla Elementary School, opened in San Pablo in January 1959.
Information from school yearbooks and AOSHS archives