1948 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., 1948

     Courses in driver education were first introduced [in the Santa Monica High School Curriculum] in 1948, the work in this field including the theory as well as the practice of safe driving. A dual-control car is used for training purposes on the road, while in the classroom, many instruments are employed to test observation, reaction time, and general ability in handling an automobile.

     " . . .

     The City College still needed a home. Expanding enrollments housed in the old, temporary bungalows; a slight drop in school building costs; and bond money which had been waiting five years to be spent for the development of the new City College plant, prompted the Board of Education and the new Superintendent of Schools, William S. Briscoe, to ask for speed in planning the proposed construction. In October of 1948, Superintendent Briscoe, with the approval of the Board of Education, appointed a director of educational planning, whose first assignment was to develop educational specifications and detailed requirements for the new buildings. [80. Johnson, op. cit., p. 9.] Milo Johnson, general trade coordinator of the Technical Division of Santa Monica City College, was the man selected to fill the new post.

     Johnson began immediately to determine the needs of the various divisions and departments of City College that would be housed on the new campus. A faculty building committee was organized to collect information from various faculty members with reference to requirements for room size, storage facilities, lighting, and equipment. The new director worked carefully with the committee and the individual departments in coordinating their plans, and time to time called in consultants to advise on specific problems. [81. Ibid., p.25.]

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 Kelyn Roberts 2017