1870-1880 Cleland 1952

Donald M. Cleland A History of the Santa Monica Schools 1876-1951, Santa Monica Unified School District, February 1952 (Copied for the Santa Monica Library, July 22, 1963). 140 pp., 1870s

     Chapter II traces the development of the very early schools in Santa Monica [1875], starting with the organization of the first Board of Trustees [1876], who called a special election to form a new school district, and concluding with the founding of the first high school in 1884. The first school in Santa Monica, known as McKusick's School after the first teacher hired in the district, was opened on March 6, 1876.

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Formation of the District

     The Santa Monica School District was organized as a political unit of the state in 1875, eleven years before the town was first incorporated. The school district originally included the vast stretch of valleys, plains, and mountains, embracing La Ballona Rancho on the southwest and the Malibu Rancho on the northwest and everything in between. Out of this broad domain numerous other school districts were formed from time to time, and it has only been in recent years that the geographical boundaries of the Santa Monica School District have been reduced to the area of the city, with the addition still of a stretch of twenty-six miles of seashore and mountains lying between Topanga Canyon and the Ventura County Line, with the exception of the Decker Elementary School District which is only a part of the Santa Monica High School District. [1. School District Organization in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles: Office of the County Superintendent, 1937, p. 47.]

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 Kelyn Roberts 2017