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.
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 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.
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 1958-59 school year, the principal was John J. McCormick.
The two new schools opened in San Pablo in January 1959.