The discovery of the Van oil field in 1929 transformed the community and swelled school enrollment, forcing a change from a five-room rural school to a large, ultra-modern campus. While many Texas schools cut budgets during the Depression and later World War II, oil revenues allowed the Van schools, led by Supt. Jesse E. Rhodes and Principal C.C. Moore, to expand rapidly. Enrollment rose from 90 pupils in the 1929-1930 school year to 611 students at the start of 1930-1931. A gymnasium built in the summer of 1930 first served as a temporary high school, and after local voters approved a bond, construction began on new schools in spring 1931. By the start of the 1931-1932 school year, brick elementary and high school buildings were ready for use, and the temporary high school returned to use as a gymnasium. The Pure Oil Company let the school use its water lines free of charge, supplied gas from the gasoline plant to heat the buildings, and donated $12,500 to help pay expansion costs. A teachers’ home was built in 1930 to attract strong teachers, a transportation program began in the 1931-1932 term with the purchase of three buses, an athletic park was completed in spring 1933, and a physical education-vocational building was erected in 1937. A second major building program, continued even during World War II, was completed in 1947.