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).
"During a period of six turbulent years from 1901 to 1907, more growing pains plagued the city fathers of Santa Monica. The anti-prohibition campaign waged fiercely, the question of the legal separation of the north side (Santa Monica) from the south side (Ocean Park) became an open issue, and finally, the topic of providing a suitable city hall engaged a great deal of attention. After many town meetings, a great deal of oratory, the appointment of special committees, the board of trustees called a special election for the reorganization of the city government and to vote on bonds for the construction of an adequate city hall. The bonds were passed for the new city hall and the building was completed in 1903. [80. Santa Monica Evening Outlook July 8, 1950, p. 3B.]
" . . .
". . . With the granting of a city charter to Santa Monica in 1906, the schools passed from the jurisdiction of the County Superintendent of Schools to that of the Santa Monica Board of Education. This change afforded the city an opportunity, through its Board of Education, to create its own courses of study and establish its own educational policies, in accord with the general school law of the state.
" . . .
"On May 2, 1906, the voters of Santa Monica again turned out to the polls in even larger numbers and approved the bonds by a vote of 288 to 66. The women of the Circle had once again secured a record vote approving another $60,000 worth of school bonds, an almost stupendous sum for the small beach city to assume when it had virtually no industry to help increase its assessed valuation. In 1907, the property value of the Santa Monica School District totaled $194,000 with an outstanding indebtedness of over $129,000. [25. Annual Report, Santa Monica City Schools, 1906-07, unpublished report in files of Santa Monica Board of Education.]
As a result of the three school bond issues, six new buildings were added to the district in less than two years. The buildings ranged in size from the one-room Westside School to the large eight-room buildings for the Garfield and Jefferson schools. A brief account of some of the salient historical events is presented for each of these schools.
Garfield School
Garfield School, the eight-room, two-story, brick building which rose at Seventh Street and Michigan Avenue at an approximate cost of $22,828, began its existence in 1906.
Nettie B. Rice, who had been with the schools since 1903, opened Garfield School as principal with a staff of four teachers. She remained in that position until 1921, when she went into high school work. Garfield School accommodated grades one through eight, a fact which created special problems since the size of the playground prevented the older pupils from playing ball because it endangered the smaller ones in their play. Additional property soon provided the necessary play space, however.
Some of the modern school functions that today are accepted as a matter of course, had their inception in the difficulties experienced at Garfield with its mixed pupil population. "Spanish Hills" on the south, the Chinese farm children on the north and east, side by side with a settlement of Negro families and a scattering of Italians, Japanese, and Russians-all added to the melting pot area that surrounds the school. [27. Personal interview with Sadie Jenkins, May 8, 1951; Santa Monica, California.)
The first school cafeteria was established in the Garfield School to help provide adequate nourishment for children from some of these homes. Miss Rice described the development of the cafeteria program as follows:
"Many of the children came to school hungry because both home and labor conditions were bad. In the belief that a hungry stomach and a fertile brain do not go hand in hand, an attempt was made to remedy the situation. For a time the Imperial Ice Company, through the kindness of Mr. J. Howard Blanchard, the owner and a member of the board of education, furnished and delivered all the skimmed milk we could use. The French Bakery at the corner of Michigan and Seventh Street, gave us all their day old bread. Children who had come to school without food were served warm milk and toast.
"The crude little cafeteria, its only cook-stove the school furnace, was a far cry from the modern school cafeterias today, yet it served it's purpose. With hard times country wide, the need at Garfield grew. Kind women, among them Mrs. Blanchard, Mrs. Carrie Parker, Mrs. Mae Fogel, and Mrs. Abbott Kinney supplied that need with hot soup that was served to the hungry children without charge." [Pearl, op. cit., p. 36-7.]
"The first Parent-Teachers Association in Santa Monica was established at the Garfield School, its first president being Mrs. H.R. Morton. Both Mrs. Fogel and Mrs. D.G. Stephens, who assisted at the first meeting, continued their sponsorship of the organization for a number of years and were instrumental in its spreading to other schools in Santa Monica. [29. Ibid., p. 39.] The present units of the association can point with pride to the services they have rendered throughout the years to the Santa Monica City Schools.
"It was at Garfield, too, that Santa Monica's first "opportunity" or ungraded rooms were established, when Superintendent Martin discovered that pupils from the ages of eight to eighteen were still attending the primary grades. Emily Rhodes was appointed to conduct these new ungraded grammar grades, while the primary division was under the direction of Marie Donahue. The philosophy underlying the program was utilitarian in character, as evidenced by the fact that a part of the "opportunity" training was devoted to instruction in gardening. On a plot of ground adjoining the school, and loaned by its owner for the purpose, the classes planted and harvested vegetable gardens. Part of the produce was used in the school cafeteria and part was sold to provide seeds, fertilizer, and tools for the project.
" . . .
"Chapter III follows the expansion of the Santa Monica schools from 1887 to the establishment of the present Santa Monica High School in 1911. That period marked the greatest expansion of school facilities yet experienced, and resulted in the approval of a series of bond issues. The first bond issue was for a $15,000 school structure which eventually became the first separate high school building. In 1905 and 1906, the voters approved three additional bond issues totaling $135,000 to construct six additional elementary schools. Finally, in 1911, the voters endorsed expansion of the secondary school program by approving a $200,000 bond issue to establish a new site and plant for the high school on Prospect Hill, midway between Ocean Park and Santa Monica proper. The chapter also includes an account of the high school course of study as first developed, the expanded offerings at the new high school, and the beginnings of the present high school program.
" . . .
"A summary of the period of rapid expansion in the schools would be incomplete without again giving credit to the electors of the Santa Monica City School District who, insistently spurred on by the women of the community, gave their support to providing adequately for the large increase in school enrollment and the constant betterment of the educational program.
The present chapter begins with a description of a campaign waged by the Board of Education to establish a separate high school and remove the higher grades from their cramped quarters in the original Sixth Street school. Undaunted by the defeat of a bond issue to erect a high school, the Board submitted another proposition to the vote of the electors to build an additional grammar school. Upon the approval of the bonds and the construction of the Lincoln School, the Board proceeded to rent the new building to the high school. Thus was their original purpose achieved.
As the city developed, the board helped to solve the problem of increased enrollment in the elementary schools by securing the passage, in less than one year's time, of three bond issues totaling $135,000 and used the money for the construction of six new buildings in various parts of the district. Five of the new buildings were of brick construction, which not only made them considerably safer from fire but created jobs for local labor and industry. "
" . . .
Santa Monica High School
In 1910, twelve years after the revelation by the Weekly Signal, [48. Supra, p. 110] it had become an established fact that the high school had outgrown the "borrowed" Lincoln School building, and that a new building must be provided. The Board desired to find a site that was large enough to meet the existing needs of the high school and to allow for future development. A good many people thought that it would be expedient to consolidate the two sections of the town by building a polytechnic high school where it would serve both areas. Thus, at a public meeting in the City Hall, called October 27, 1910, school functionaries of both Ocean Park and Santa Monica gathered to discuss the feasibility of such a plan. [49. Board Minutes, Oct. 27, 1910.]
In the early days, a good deal of bitterness had developed between the community that lay south of the arroyo and that which comprised the north section of Santa Monica. The southern portion of the city began to impute the city leaders from the north with unprogressiveness. As early as 1900, Ocean Park had had its own water system, post office, amusement pier, race track, and golf course. The fact that Ocean Park had developed its own business section and had its own school, churches, and civic organizations made the southsiders somewhat independent. Ocean Park, moreover, had become popular with summer visitors, a fact which some of the more conservative Santa Monica residents were inclined to minimize by referring to its amusement pier as "cheap and gaudy," and averred that it attracted "undesirable elements." The phenomenal growth of Ocean Park, they said, belonged in the "mushroom" category. [50. Pearl op. cit., p. 89.]
It is not surprising, then, that the strong feelings of each side of town precluded an immediate solution to the problem of locating the high school. But the meeting of October 27 was not entirely without results, for an advisory committee to represent the city, in cooperation with the Board of Education, was appointed. This committee consisted of Roy Jones, chairman; George D. Snyder, secretary; Carl F. Schader, Robert White, and Horace M. Rebok. It later was expanded and became known as the "Committee of Fifty," [51. Ibid., p. 90.]
On December 12, 1910, a resolution was adopted by the Board of Education declaring its intention to call an election for a $200,000 bond issue. [52. Board Minutes, Dec. 12, 1910.] On the same date, another resolution was adopted declaring the board's intention to establish the high school on Prospect Hill located between Fourth and Sixth Streets and between Michigan and Fremont Avenues. [53. Loc. cit.] Prospect Hill, a spot rich in local history, had been selected for the high school site partly because of its location midway between the two sections interested in it, and partly because of its topographic features. At its crest, the hill stands 120 feet above sea level, and offers a view of the entire city. A visitor once said of the spot:
"I have seen the best of public sites, both in Europe and America, and some of them on one side are equal to your Prospect Hill; but never have I seen a public building site as good as this on every side, with sea, hills, mountains and valleys so spread out in a continuous panorama." [54. Pearl, op. cit., p. 90.]
" . . .