A look back at OM over the years

50 years ago, Oakland Mills High School officially opened its doors to educate and enrich its first classes of students. Starting with only one semester and a limited number of grades, OM quickly expanded its list of extracurricular activities. Though the first couple of school years didn’t have homecoming dances, there were plenty of school dances and 1975 saw Oakland Mills’ first prom for Juniors and Seniors. Apparently, square dancing proved to be a popular dance at the time. By the 1980s, homecoming was an annual occurrence and even included a homecoming parade, something that continued throughout the 2010s.

Over the years, the building has undergone a multitude of changes. Originally, Oakland Mills was designed with a new style of education in mind: pods. Classrooms were divided by a combination of brick walls and retractable accordion walls in order to promote multi-class cooperation. However, as this style of education was phased out, the accordion walls were replaced with more permanent walls. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the building was expanded. The field behind OM and part of the back parking lot became the back half of the building while the cafeteria was expanded and the former annex cafeteria, which was right next to the bathrooms across from the auditorium, became an office. Additionally, the entire science wing was also a late addition to the school as the need for extra space within the building persisted.

Despite all the changes, one thing has stayed the same: the HVAC. As early as the 1974 to 1975 school year, problems with the school’s temperature caused two school closures. An article from the October 1995 edition of The Scroll entitled “Why is it so cold in here?” by Josh Warner-Burke even goes into detail about the issues with the building’s severe temperatures, issues and complaints that still persist to this day.