In the late 1930s, elementary teachers Olivette Ellis and Minnie Smith, supported by the trustees and county superintendent, worked to open a training school for high school students. With funding from the Smith-Hughes Act and a teacher supplied by the Jeanes Foundation, the school opened in 1940 in Sardis with W. S. Demby as principal. The first school in the county to offer agricultural and vocational training for black students, Walton Chapel closed in 1962 and was the predecessor of the North Panola Vocational High School in Como.