SAN JACINTO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT HISTORY
A project of the San Jacinto Education Foundation.
Contact: Don Wickham, email: dwickham@bigfoot.com
The district is one of California's oldest, with a rich contribution to California
& U.S. education. None of us knows its complete history, but many know part. Here is the place
to note your recollections and comments. Together we can assemble a history ourselves.
Recollections of Don Wickham
When my wife and I moved to San Jacinto in 1963 with our then two children, the district had
only four sites: There was a triangle of three schools near the intersections of First and
Ramona Boulevard, consisting of the High School on First Street where the original Bell Tower
still stands, Monte Vista Middle School immediately to the West and San Jacinto
Elementary across on Ramona Boulevard to the South. The fourth school site was Hyatt
Elementary School on Shaver Street.
Our daughter, Cassy started Kindergarten the next year in Mrs. Lamp's class in the Kingergarten
classroom constructed in 1935 on Grand Army, presently used as an adult conference facility
adjacent to the PreSchool. We attended the all important "Kindergarten Graduation
Ceramony" in the large, theater-type auditorium then on site, with a slanted
floor rising from the approach to the stage backward to the entrance. On the sides of the
auditorium were offices for the principal and staff, school nurse.
The classes were separately constructed free-standing wings on
each side each of four classrooms with eight foot wide covered walks.
That was the entire school consisting of those four structures and the main playground and the
"junior playground" for First Graders in the corner near Santa Fe and Ramona Boulevard.
sand_box, Rev. 62, Last changed on 2008-10-31 07:42, 382 page hits