For a time the Iowa Work Projects Administration used the building to train Defense Workers.  Due to the influx of recruits as the military ramped up for World War II, there were not enough basic training facilities to funnel the solders through before they were routed to their specialty school.  So, the military used the West High facility for recruit specialty training until the solders could be transferred to basic training facilities.  Later, as War came to end, the returning solders were offered government sponsored industrial and academic classes at West High School, so that Vets would be eligible for a diploma and have a marketable skill to enter the work force.
Because these events happened so close to the reopening of the high school, many people have confused the events as being the reason and start of the "new" high school.   

Long before this, there was a thought that technical - vocational classes would be better maintained and utilized if they were offered in a central location where they would be available to a broader spectrum of students.  A place where equal access by the city's students was easy, and where no neighborhood influences dictated course offerings.  A school where expensive course offerings could be offered, where as in an area school, there would not be the support to maintain it.
The root of this thinking could be found clear back in 1925 with the inefficient way the technical and vocational classes were distributed throughout the District.  Industrial classes for Mechanical Drawing were at all the high schools; West, North, East, Lincoln, and Roosevelt.  The same could be said for Wood Working, except Roosevelt did not offer it.  Lincoln and East offered Metal Working and Auto Mechanics, but these classes were not offered anywhere on the west side of town.  And only East offered Printing.
A plan was developed and approved to re-open West High School as an independent high school.  The building was centrally located, positioned on a major bus route, was large enough to support a large student population, and close to the business district.  The building had physical space enough to house various Industrial Courses, and allowed for easy migration of equipment to the "new" facility.  The students were expected to fulfill the normal required credit courses for a high school diploma, in addition to the course work pertaining to specific career training.  
Several notable people who helped propel this concept, were Roy C. Woolman, director of industrial education, and Mr. Perry G. Frasier, who eventually became the first Principal to the "new" high school.

In the fall of 1942, the West Des Moines H. S. building was reopened as a senior high school.  It was not a traditional high school but rather a vocational high school.  Only juniors and seniors were eligible for enrollment.  Many things that once was West High, became West again.  The school colors of Blue and Maize was the same.  The school annual name, The Tatler,  was once again used.  And the name West High and Industrial School on the building, contained a lot more vocational classes.  But this was a new West High School, new direction, new educational philosophy, and new purpose.
No finer example can be found of this new philosophy than the printing of the 1943 Tatler.  Proudly, the school published it's own annual the first year of the school's existence in the printing class.  This publication and other forms of printed material were branded with the words: West High Press.
Even the students themselves touted their pride in the newly formed school.  The senior class of 1943 had as their motto - "Go West, young man, go West."
Interestingly, the re-opened school had a problem with it's name.  Originally named as a reference to the West Des Moines School District that had formed it, the name now had the distinction of being in competition with a suburb of Des Moines.  Valley Junction had incorporated in 1893, and changed its name to West Des Moines in 1938.  The West Des Moines School District had merged with the other Des Moines School Districts and incorporated in 1907 as the Des Moines Independent School District.  This lead to certain confusion if you were not aware of locations and history.  In the 1943-44 school year, the school became known as West Technical High School.  The name of the school was not the only thing to change, The Tatler Annual would switch names to - The Warrior.  That same year, West High (locally known as West Technical High School), was elected to full membership in the North Central Association of schools and colleges.  Membership in the association means that the work of the school is recognized and credits earned there are-transferable to any high school or college in the association and in similar associations of schools and colleges throughout the United States.
The name issue was finally resolved in the 1944-45 school year.  Mr. Frasier lead a discussion with the students in the auditorium, and name submissions were considered by the student body.  They voted, and Des Moines Technical High School became the brand which the school would build it's own reputation.
As written in the December 8, 1944 edition of The Technician, "Des Moines Technical High is not a product of the depression nor of the war emergency.  Nor is it just a fifth high school in Des Moines.  Des Moines Technical School is the outgrowth of long years of educational planning.  It is dedicated to the education and training of youth and adults."  The article continues, "As a technical high, Des Moines Tech is dedicated to the tasks of assisting boys and girls of high school age to select vocations in which they can be reasonably sure of success and of preparing them to enter their selected vocations as self-respecting, self-supporting, efficient workers and citizens"

It must have served the students and community well. West - Tech had grown from less then 300 students in 1942 to 900 in 1952, to a sustained 1100 census in 1954 through 1957.
Another change took place in the Fall of 1946.  Mr. Elmer C. Betz became Principal of D. M. Tech.  Mr. Betz would serve as Principal of Tech until his retirement in 1969.  He oversaw the move of D. M. Tech to the new facility in the late 1950's.
The Class of 1958 was the last to graduate from this building.

After Tech moved, the building was used for storage, and Clay D. Slinker School - where special classes were held for retarded children.  Speaking at the West High Centennial Reunion in 1964, Ava Johnson (Class of 1911) said," 'The Old Building', the original brick structure that opens on Fifteenth Street, is moldering.  It has not been kept in condition because, in the modern manner, it seems cheaper to tear the building down than to maintain it."  It was razed just 4 years later.  The addition, built in 1902, was demolished in 1976 to become a parking lot for Iowa Methodist Medical Center.
Although the building is gone, an adornment of it still can be seen.  Click <HERE> to see part of the old West - Tech Building.