The History of Sheldon High School

Laela Dawson staff writer

In 1963 Sheldon High School was built. It was the third high school in the area. Business teacher Les Phillipo started his high school years here at Sheldon. He matriculated in 1987 and graduated in 1991. Before the mid 80s, Sheldon used to only have three grades 10th, 11th, and 12th. Around the time Phillipo started, the transition from three grades to four grades had begun.

On the topic of change, Phillipo said, “This place has changed, it’s changed a lot. Our student population is a lot more diverse now. But we have become really good at certain things, you know, everything has an ebb and flow to it and ups and downs.”

Phillipo said that he wishes there were some things done differently. He said, “I think we could do better overall with some stuff like safety, security, mental health and stuff like that. And unfortunately, I don’t think we do as good of a job as we could or hopefully can soon.” He feels we’re making steps in the right direction.

“The way life is now is different from what it used to be. I still think we have been improving on things, culturally and inclusivity and diversity wise, but I think there’s some things that we still need to make some strides and it’s going to take some time.”

Phillipo feels technology has advanced a lot, therefore improving Sheldon. Phillipo said, “Back in the day we had small labs of a few computers here and there, and that was it. So technology has come a long way and that’s a neat deal. But technology also causes some distractions and problems as well. So that’s both good and bad.”

When Philipo attended Sheldon, the football team did not play home games because Sheldon didn’t have a proper field. They finally had their first home game in 2000. “2002 is when we had our first state championship After playing 57 pro league games in a row and losing a state championship in 2001.”

When English teacher Jeremy Washburn started working here in 2001 the principal was Doug Smith, who stayed for one whole year, and then Dr. Bob Bolden became the principal. He was the principal for seventeen years until he retired.

Washburn said, “Sheldon is better than it used to be. The school was a lot smaller when I started here. And the classes were really cramped, like teachers couldn’t even stay in their classroom for a prep period. They had to go somewhere else because their classroom had to be used.”

Washburn said, “When we built the science wing, it turned a lot of our other science classrooms into regular classrooms and created a lot of new space for us.” According to Washburn, that made spacing problems a lot easier for the teachers, and students.

Tyler Martell started at Sheldon High School in 2004 as a student. Funny enough, Mr. Jeremy Washburn actually taught him. Martell graduated in 2008 and started coaching for Sheldon right after that. Martell was only a coach at Sheldon until 2014, when he was offered a teaching position. After that he continued to coach and teach.

Martell feels that it’s hard to pinpoint changes in Sheldon, he said, “The nature of our world is always changing.” Martell said that, “COVID stuff definitely puts a wrinkle in everyone’s nature of school and themself.” Yet he feels that now we’re kind of getting back to that kind of “normalcy.”

Martell feels that the demographics at Sheldon have changed in a good way from before. which he feels is a good thing. Martell said, “If you look back to 15-20 years ago, Sheldon was kind of quote ‘the rich white school,’ which I think is not a good thing.” Yet he thinks that Sheldon is a lot more open now that it’s one of the most diverse schools in our area.

Martell said, “It’s more of an inclusive place than it used to be.” He feels that Sheldon used to be more, “cliquey and kind of separate.” He feels that it has improved in their culture and does a better job of trying to get everyone a place where they feel safe and comfortable.