McCamey had no school before 1925, when 20 students were taught in a tin shack on 5th Street during the outgrowth of the 1920s oil boom. A year later, enrollment had reached 550 pupils, with classes held in dance halls, skating rinks, and two churches, and desks and seats made from apple and orange crates. This building, erected in 1927 as the "Old High School," also served as a community center for weddings, funerals, Draft Board meetings, and other activities, and it remained in use as a high school until 1961. The first superintendent, C. V. Compton, set high goals that have since guided the schools.