Elk Grove High School - Elk Yearbook (Elk Grove, CA)

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W N Grace Denton CDomestic Science, Frenchj Clara Joslyn Cagwin CLatin, Englishj L. E. Richards QPrincipalJ H. W. Dallien CHistory, Military Sciencej Mabel Briscoe CCommercialj R. T. MacGregor CMathematicsJ ' lflevcn

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if 'X l if Q 'A ' X I V fi - .F jwvjwli-L, 1' Aliywj' ' L 'lf ' N, - L Q,7.'l'jl ,YJ . Wy. But his earnest work was rewarded. An election was called in each dis- trict and a vote taken on the establishment of the union high schoolg it car- ried in sixteen districts. Each district then sent a representative to a meeting held in Toronto Hall, in july, to determine the location of the new school. Naturally the people of Elk Grove felt that the site should be in their own town, first, because it was the most central point and second, because they had started the movement and carried it on. Furthermore, they knew that the success of the school depended in a great measure upon the location. But other districts bid for this. Franklinis delegate offered the Franklin Hall for a school building. Mr. Thomas McConnell offered a piece of land at McConnell's station. The delegate from Florin humorously announced that they had no site to offer, but could provide plenty of children to run the school. Many who opposed the high school had insisted that the necessary ten pupils required to open it could not be found. Then the delegates asked, VVhat has Elk Grove to offer ? Dr. McKee handed an envelope to County Superintendent of Schools, Mr. B. F. Howard, who was chairman of the meeting. Mr. Howard drew out a paper and read it. It was a deed of the present site from joseph Kerr to the Elk Grove Union High School. This was something tangible, it was a gift where the others were only promises. The Elk Grove Union High School had its site. Need- less to say a large majority voted to accept the donation. This result was announced by firing the anvils in the street. Wfork was begun on the building in the fall of that year. It was not com- pleted by the time school was ready to openg so the library building adjoin- ing the school grounds was used, when school opened the first week in No- vember with an enrollment of twenty. A three years' course was decided upon. R. T. lNlcKisick, just fresh from the University of California, now a leading lawyer of Sacramento, was the principal and faculty. The new school building was completed and dedicated in December. After the Christmas holidays, school opened in the building which it still occupies. The far reaching good of the high school was soon felt in the outlying districts. Pupils who had been indifferent towards completing their grammar school course, knowing that no further opportunity awaited them for a higher course of learning, felt a new inspiration, and immediately the number of graduates from the country districts showed a marked increase. ln some instances, pupils who had dropped out of school, returned and completed the course in order to attend high school. The high school has now far outgrown the building erected twenty-seven years ago, fand enlarged at more recent datesj and also the grounds so gene- rously bestowed by Joseph Kerr. Let us hope that Dr. McKee, the originator, and the one surviving founder, may see during his life time an adequate modern building for the Elk Grove Union High School. One of the Pioneer Class. Ten

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1 Paul Voss fAssistant Editorj Hugh Tickler CBoys Athletics and Typistj Derril Wildanger CEditorD I Helen Mitchell Cjoke Editorj Richard Hawley CEditor of Dramatlcsj Twelve