HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN PASCO COUNTY

The Sand Pond School

Students in this area earlier attended the Lake Buddy School.

The photo above, courtesy of a local researcher, shows the earlier Sand Pond School in the early 1920s. The building was a clapboard building which was in use as early as 1911. It was located where The Gardens Nursery is now located (2009) on the west side of Fort King Road just south of the intersection with Bozeman Road. According to a local resident, the building was used 6 to 10 years. Eula Goldsby was one of the teachers. Philmon, Wendell, J. J. Delmer and Garnet LeHeup were some of the students.

On Oct. 10, 1917, the Tampa Morning Tribune reported, “The school at Sand Pond opened Monday morning with a good attendance, Miss Sylvia Ingalls being the teacher.”

On Oct. 3, 1918, the Zephyrhills Colonist reported: “Sand Pond school will commence Monday Oct. 7th with Miss Gladys Osborne as teacher.”

A 1969 newspaper article by Alice Hall reported:

During the 1969 Founders' Days Festival thoughts of many pioneer area residents backtracked down memory lane to the one-room schoolhouse which was for many years a landmark on historic Fort King Road.

Sand Pond School was an institution of learning for children in grades one through eight. The frame building which housed it served as a community center and a place for neighborhood gatherings.

Opened in 1912 as a public school in the 1-room structure on land donated by John Fox for the purpose, Sand Pond had as its first teacher Miss Fannie Mobley of Dade City. Earlier there had been a school on Gilbert Lake where Miss Eula Goldsby, also of Dade City, taught and some of her pupils came to the new school.

Sand Pond School continued in operation as such until 1922 when the transporting of children to other Dade City or Zephyrhills schools began, but the cherished little schoolhouse continued to be the place of meeting for church services, social gatherings, Christmas programs and the like.

Each Sunday a visiting minister came and there was a Sunday School and preaching with dinner on the grounds while on every other Saturday night the community Literary Society met....

On Sept. 3, 1926, the Dade City Banner reported in a column of Sand Pond news items, “Another school term has opened and most of the children are glad to get back in school. Wendell LeHeup is driving the school bus from the Sand Pond district to Dade City. There will be 25 children in school from this district.”

On Sept. 4, 1936, the Dade City Banner reported that Mrs. Lottie Cripe was appointed to teach at the Sand Pond School.

When Sand Pond School closed, about 1941 or 1942, the property reverted to the original grantor to the School Board, in accordance with the conditions of that original grant. Med (Schuyler Meadows) Gaskin and his wife Mae Stanley Gaskin purchased the land and school building about 1942 and used it as a home. They also bought the building (only) that was the Prospect School, razed it, and used the material to enlarge their home.

The old building is located on the Gaskin property at the bottom of the south side of LeHeup Hill and on the east side of Fort King Road.