Heart Mountain High School began taking shape in early August 1942 when project director hired Clifford D. Carter as superintendent and John Corbett as principal, and their first task was finding teachers. Twenty-six Caucasian teachers and four internees with Wyoming teaching certificates valid only at Heart Mountain were hired, and turnover was high, with Clarissa Corbett the only teacher to remain through the life of the center. Classes first met in barracks with six rooms per building, each with a coal stove, a single light fixture, low partitions, open rafters, and benches, but initially there were no student desks, no blackboards, and few supplies, and often fifty textbooks had to serve two hundred students. Conditions were harsh, with students near the stove perspiring while those by doors and windows wore coats for warmth. Celotex wallboard arrived in December 1942, but barracks were never adequate for high school instruction. A dedicated high school building was completed for the 1943-1944 term, built largely by internees under the supervision of Bennett and Lewis Contractors of Billings, Montana, and Tatsu Hori, formerly an engineer at the Stanford Research Institute, designed its heating system. The building contained thirty-nine classrooms, a gymnasium-auditorium, and office space, and by the second year the school had enough textbooks and supplies. The school followed the normal curriculum of Wyoming schools, its journalism class published The Heat Mountain Eagle, and annuals titled The Heart Mountain Tempo were prepared in camp and printed in 1944 and 1945. Five elementary schools were eventually consolidated into Lincoln and Washington, still housed in barracks but more centrally located within the camp. Teachers developed curricula meant to benefit students who had been stripped of their freedom while also satisfying the Wyoming State Board of Education, even as students learned democratic principles within sight of guard towers and barbed wire. In its three years, Heart Mountain High School graduated 808 students; the Class of 1943 had 249 graduates, the Class of 1944 had 302, and the Class of 1945 had 250. Ted Fujioka, the first student body president, later enlisted in the U.S. Army and was killed in France.