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| Douglas School District - Quality Education
for the Children
The Douglas School System has always sought to provide an educational system that will develop the full potential of each individual student. To achieve this goal continues to necessitate a building program, outstanding faculty and staff, parents dedicated to education and an administration capable of molding dreams into realities. The present Douglas School District began one hundred years ago. Thomas Baird Douglass did not realize that he was enrolling his children in a system that would have 2553 students in the year 2003 but also a system that would bear his name. The Douglas School population remained rather constant for its first 60 years with 10 to 20 youngsters attending the one-room school. Suddenly, all this changed. In 1947 the government, under President Harry Truman, reactivated the Rapid City Air Force as a permanent installation. Wherry Housing built quarters for military personnel adjacent to the base. The little Douglas school district was held responsible for educating the children living in these units. In 1952 the Vandenberg building was built to care for the children from the base and the Box Elder area. However, the base grew so rapidly that the Vandenberg building was not sufficient to house the students so classes were also taught on the base - in barracks, in private housing units, and in the old hospital. In 1955 an eight classroom addition enlarged Vandenberg. Bob Spelts, who became superintendent of Douglas, was the analyst for the U.S. Department of Education who made the final inspection of the Vandenberg building for the federal government. The Rapid City Independent District contracted and operated the Vanderberg School for the Douglas District but in May of 1955 the South Dakota Attorney General ruled that such an operation was illegal. Blaine Whitehead, Clerk of the Douglas District asked Robert (Bob) Spelts to become the superintendent. Thus, on June 15, 1955, Superintendent Spelts began the present Douglas School District with only a three member school board. When Mr. Spelts arrived on June 15, he was the first employee to report for work under the new operation and had to knock over sunflowers to get to the Vandenberg door. The present system began at that point with 626 pupils. More housing units had to be constructed so that by 1959 the enrollment soared to 1300. Superintendent Spelts and five other administrators - William Baldwin, Eldon Gran, Donald Mueller, Glen Frary, and Merle Tysdale - began to plan a quality educational system. In 1960, 95% of Douglas' professional staff held a bachelor or higher degree whereas less than 11% of the elementary teachers in South Dakota held a degree. Interestingly, the '64 - '65 base salary was $5000. The top salary after 10 steps with a Master's degree was $7,250. The 1955 brochure to inform prospective teachers about the benefits of teaching at Douglas said: "Teachers may obtain units in Skyway Homes, a four-hundred-and-one Wherry Housing Project next to the school. One, two, and three bedroom units are available." From 1960 to 1965 three additional elementary buildings were built: Badger Clark, Carrousel, and Francis Case. Before 1962, between 180 and 200 high school students from the base attended Rapid City High. In 1962, Douglas Common School District No. 3 became Douglas Independent School District No. 3 and to alleviate this situation, initiated a high school building program that was completed in 1965. Sunday, December 6, 1963, Douglas High School and Whitehead Auditorium were dedicated. Superintendent Spelts praised Blaine L. Whitehead by commenting that Blaine Whitehead was responsible for the building projects during his tenure from 1952-1961. Mr. Whitehead had seen the district grow from 25 pupils in a one-room rural school house to 1500. Mr. Spelts said, "The auditorium, largest in the area, can accommodate approximately, 2,250 spectators on bleacher seating and will seat about 3,300 for a stage performance. It can handle five physical education classes at one time." The high school building was designed to accommodate 950 students in grades seven through twelve. Nearby rural districts recognized the advantages of a larger system. In 1959 the four Nike sites surrounding the base were attached to the system. Also, between 1961 and 1968 seven rural schools became part of the Douglas School Districts: Fairview, Lone Tree, Pleasant Hill, Prairie View, Ben White Eagle, and Heavlin. Today the Douglas District educates students from an area of 145 square miles located in Pennington and Meade counties. Contrary to the beliefs of many, the Douglas School System is not under the jurisdiction of Ellsworth Air Force Base or any other federal agency. It is an independent school district operating under the laws of the state of South Dakota. In 1963, the Douglas School System had reached an enrollment of 2870 pupils, approximately 130 more than its present enrollment. Thirty-seven seniors received diplomas at the first graduation ceremony June 5, 1963. The main speaker was Barbara Gunderson who had served as a U.S. Civil Service commissioner during President Eisenhower's administration. The first class was representative of the classes to follow. Of the 37 students, only five were permanent South Dakota residents. The parents of the remaining 74 percent claimed permanent residence in 17 other states. On an average, these students had lived in eight states, traveled or resided in two foreign countries and attended nine different schools. Some had lived in as many as 12 states, traveled in 20 foreign countries and attended 14 schools. 68% of this class planned to attend college. 86% of the group were military dependents. They averaged seventeen and one-half years of age and came from families of approximately three children. In 1964 the second graduating class grew to almost double the first. Sixty-three seniors, 33 young men and 30 young ladies garbed in royal blue were graduated. |
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By 1966 classrooms had been established at the East Nike site. This annex was named the Merle Tysdale Center. Merle Tysdale was a Douglas staff member and a staunch educational advocate. Also, in 1966, the Douglas School System was selected to sponsor and be headquarters for the federally funded program, the Black Hills Area Cooperative Schools, later changed to Western Educational Council, which served seventeen counties of western South Dakota for five years. Other federally funded programs included the Demonstration School which was an elementary ungraded exploratory open classroom. The Black Hills Library System, headed by Gladys Gannon, was the forerunner for the present interlibrary loan system. The Materials Development Center designed and implemented uses of the audio-visual equipment of the 60s. Also, S.L.I.C.E. (Service Leadership In-Service Training Counseling Services and Evaluation) consisted of 20 schools that contracted through Douglas primarily for identifying reading problems of educationally deprived pupils. This program involved 600 teachers and 9000 students. The staff of five education specialists was headed by E. C. Coddington, executive secretary. The consultants worked on a variety of projects, such as library improvement, bus driver training, janitorial services, secretary workshops and curriculum changes. In January, 1973, Bob Spelts resigned as superintendent to join the State Department of Education in Pierre. Dr. Eldon Gran, the Assistant Superintendent for Instruction since 1956 except the years 1968-1971 when he served in the State Department of Education in Pierre, became the Douglas superintendent. One of the most startling developments was the closing of the school on Friday, April 13, 1973, because the banks would not lend any more money to the district since the school had reached its legal debt limit due to a lack of distribution of expected Federal Impact aid, which was congressionally allocated to help pay for the education of the dependents of federal employees. One of the immediate results was that on Monday, April 17, Ellsworth's gates were blocked by parents and students who sought to obtain signatures on various petitions. On May 7, after much consternation by the state and federal government, Judge Joseph Bottom issued a court order that mandated the reopening of the school. In order to operate for 175 days as required, the district remained in session until June 20 that year. During the summer of '73, Dr. Gran resigned to accept a position on the staff at the University of South Dakota at Vermillion. Don Mueller, who had served in various administrative positions for 20 of his 23 years on the Douglas staff, became the third Superintendent. Naturally, he inherited the financial dilemma. Dr. Mueller restored funding stability to the district, but he was forced to fight constantly to maintain funding. The East Nike site that had been opened in 1966 was renovated to house eight first grade classrooms to alleviate the overcrowding in the elementary schools. In 1988, Dr. Mueller retired and Dr. John M. Sweet became the fourth superintendent of the district. With a new superintendent came a new "look" for the district: fences around the buildings were taken down, a landscape plan was developed, and color schemes for the exterior of schools and the interior of Vandenberg were designed. Several innovations can be attributed to Dr. Sweets leadership: the School Board now meets twice a month to better manage district operations; Dr. Sweet initiated a bi-monthly newsletter to school district patrons to keep the community informed about the district; the School Board, Box Elder "City Council, and Ellsworth AFB representatives have joint meetings to facilitate communication and planning, a Transportation advisory council assists with student transportation. He implemented effective schools practices more extensively to improve student achievement. The district has also been selected as a model site for South Dakota Live Net Distance Learning Network, but to date this has not been implemented. The major development since 1988 was securing a $7.2 million Department of Air Force grant along with $2.7 million in cost-sharing monies from the State of South Dakota for the financing of an $11,000,000 construction project. The project included a new middle school and additions to and remodeling of the high school. This allowed the district to vacate the East Nike site that housed eight sections of first graders and also to vacate the eight temporary modular classrooms. The Douglas Middle School dedication was held August 8,1991. The 1991 valuation of the land, buildings and equipment of the Douglas School System was $18,277,326.40 |
