History of Schools          Capsule History of the
Monahans Schools    

Information Provided by Ward County Archives

Public education officially began in Monahans with the building of a one room school house strictly for school purposes.  This was 1989 according to reports in the State Archives.  The school system was known as the Common School District.

By 1900 there were 36 pupils in the Monahans School.

By 1902 the school was enlarged by one room; in 1905 an L-shaped extension was added making 3 rooms.

In 1911 a new two story school house was built.  There were four in the graduating class.  
see Exes page --  http://www.mwpisd.esc18.net/mhs/Classes%20of%20Exes/1911.htm 

In the Spring of 1927, a new brick school was built and the 11th grade was added.  (South Ward School, then later Browne Elementary.)

Discovery of oil in Ward County (1925-26) brought more people; in 1930 there were 217 students in the Monahans Schools.

By 1935 there were 468 pupils.  In 1936 a new school was built to serve as Junior High and Senior High School.

In the Spring of 1937, the Monahans-Wickett Independent School District was created.   A band hall and a shop were built.  (Declining school enrollment due to a population shift toward Monahans -- as precipitated by changing factors in the oil fields -- made the new merger feasible.)

In 1938 the Booker T. Washington school for blacks was begun.  Brockman replaced it in 1955.

In 1944 East Ward School was constructed especially for the Spanish speaking children.  Clements-Pope was constructed in 1955.

Bonds passed to build Edwards Elementary School in 1946.

In 1950 the new high school was built.

Tatom Elementary and Sudderth Elementary were built in the early 1960s.

In 1965, the school district became the Monahans-Wickett-Pyote Independent School District.  (Declining school enrollment in Pyote precipitated the merger.  Pyote had "boomed and busted" twice.)

In the 1970s there were more additions to the school system:
    Additional Wing on Monahans High School
    A new Junior High School (Lathan Walker Junior HIgh School) and demolition of the old one
    An indoor swimming pool

Plan - A Special Education was adoped by the MWP-ISD

Cullender Kindergarten was built.  MWP-ISD was one of the few school systems in the state with a separate facility for kindergarten program.

In 1982, the Multipurpose Complex (Re-named in 2003 as the Jerry Larned Sports Center) was built adjacent to the school indoor swimming pool.

Computers were introduced into the school system in the early 1980s, placing our school system on-line.