1875 Cleland

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., 1875

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     With the founding of the community in 1875, and the influx of families, the need for schools soon became apparent. In that year, eleven years before the town was incorporated, the organization of the school district as a political unit began. The early settlers of Santa Monica may have been rough and ready citizens, hard riding, and quick on the trigger; but they were not slow to recognize the value of an education for their children. Through the determination of these early residents, a foundation of education was established for culture and progress of which modern Santa Monica is justly proud.

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     Chapter I, entitled The Background of a Community, gives a brief history of the town of Santa Monica and provides a setting for a better understanding of the growth and development of the schools. A history of the development of the city and the development of the schools are so firmly linked that each must be considered in relation to the other. Many of the early functions of the city first found their origin through the needs of the growing school district. The first official election in Santa Monica, the first tax assessor, the first census, the fixing of the first tax rate, all were brought forth through the needs of the first Santa Monica school.

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     A private school, known as the Santa Monica Academy, was opened on November 8, 1875, by D.G.C. Baker and his wife. . . .

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Chapter II Early Schools in Santa Monica

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.]

     " . . . The organization of the district came about through the desires of the early townspeople to provide a suitable education for their children. A public meeting was called on December 5, 1875, and a petition signed by thirty-four citizens of Santa Monica was sent immediately to the county superintendent of schools as a request to form a school district in Santa Monica." [2. School District Organization in Los Angeles County, p. 47.]

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 Kelyn Roberts 2017