Once the initial fever of the gold rush subsided, the men became concerned with the welfare of their wives and children. Schooling for the children was an early concern. In 1861, a Mrs. Doud started a select school in Idaho Springs with eleven pupils. The price of tuition was seventy-five cents in gold dust. The building was made by driving four posts into the ground, which were covered with pine boughs for a roof. A piece of carpet, which crossed the plains in 1859 on a wagon from New York was used to cover the opening for the door. Legend has it that Mrs. Doud ran off with a miner and the school was closed.

The second school was taught in a chicken house at the rear of a home which stood on Colorado Boulevard near 14th Avenue where the Great Hall of the west building of the United Church now stands. A Mrs. De La Mar, wife of a surveyor, started the school, but when her four-year-old daughter died of scarlet fever, the school closed.

In 1862 a log house at Colorado and 17th Avenue that had been used as a courtroom was used to house a school with about twelve pupils. The school was supported by subscription. By the year 1868-69, the pupils had increased to twenty-five.

At that time Spanish Bar and Idaho Springs formed a district, levied a tax for support, and built a frame building at the corner of 12th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard. A room was added in 1880 when enrollment went to 100.

By 1884 the accommodations were so inadequate that citizens voted a bonded indebtedness of $15,000 to build a brick three-story structure at 13th and Colorado Boulevard to house both grade and high school levels. It had eight rooms and was occupied in 1885. The first high school graduating class consisted of three students in 1890. The school census for this district was 500 school age children in 1890, 800 in 1895, 911 in 1900, and 1,001 in 1902.