Voters of Sterling and Coloma Townships approved the area's first independent township high school on April 11, 1896, then within sixty days chose C. A. Wetherbee, Reverend E. Brown, J. F. Platt, F. W. Wheeler, and W. A. Sandborn as the first Board of Education. From a dozen offered locations, this centrally located site was selected by election on August 1, 1896. A $40,000 bond referendum was approved on May 11, 1897, construction began later that year, and Sterling-Coloma Township High School opened on October 3, 1898, to 212 students. In 1906, after Coloma Township separated from Sterling, the school became Sterling Township High School. Although an addition was built in 1920, growing enrollment and curriculum led to construction of new facilities, and a new campus at Fourth Avenue and East LeFevre opened in the fall of 1950. The old high school then became Sterling's first junior high school, serving until 1959 when Challand Junior High School was built, and the original building was later sold at auction and demolished in 1965.