George William Beattie was a 3rd generation Californian. His father, Dr. George E. Beattie, a prominent San Francisco dentist, graduated from the Physicians and Surgeons College of San Francisco and was president of the California State Board of Dental Examiners. Dr. Beattie was a member of the Peninsula Golf and Country Club and the Knights of Pythias.

George W. was born July 21, 1917 in Saint Mary's Hospital in San Francisco. He graduated from Lowell High School in 1934. He was a gifted jazz pianist who conducted his own swing orchestra in San Francisco while in his twenties. He entertained at many popular San Francisco venues including the Fairmont Hotel's Venetian Room. He graduated from the University with a degree in education in 1940 where he was the drum major of the University of Nevada, Reno, Marching Band.

This photo at right was taken May 5, 1965. Mr. Beattie would have been about 47 years old.

Aptos’ schools new $161,619.00 building unit was dedicated“to the service and the right of the children and to the community” by Dr. Charles Wesley Bursch, state school official, Friday night at ceremonies attended by more than 250 persons.

Dr. Bursch is Assistant Chief Division of Public Schools Administration in charge of schoolhouse planning and has been in this post for more than 23 years. He told his audience he seldom is called upon to dedicate new school plants and he considered the Aptos invitation a high honor. The dedication ceremonies arranged by school officials and the Parent-Teachers Association followed the PTA family potluck dinner in the multi-use room of the new unit.

Edward Lawrence, clerk of the Aptos School Board was master of ceremonies. The PTA with Mrs. Donn Baldwin presiding conducted a brief business meeting. Children gathered in one of the new classrooms to see rubies while the ceremonies were being held.

The new unit, Dr. Bursch said, is the result of corroborative efforts between his department of the State Educational System, School Board, the architect and the builder. Dr. Bursch had high praise for the new multi-use room which will serve as a cafeteria, meeting place, and recreation room for students, especially when it is raining or extremely cold. He said also the three new classrooms and administration room are spacious as contrasted to many schoolrooms in the nation which do not have “elbow room”.

He defended multi-use rooms in California schools in lauded state Parent-Teachers Association groups for their aid when some legislators opposed continuance of this type of schoolroom. “I ensure that multi-use rooms such as this very useful room which we are dedicating tonight, would not have been included in the new 185,000,000 state program if it had not been for the PTA.” the speaker said.

Dr. Bursch declared that prior to 1947, hundreds of school boards had not been able to provide the school facilities because of the state limitation of five percent of assessed valuation for new buildings. In 1947, the legislature finally launched a program which provides each child with equal opportunity as far as schoolhouse facilities are concerned with funds being provided for the poor districts,” he said. The legislatures and state voters since 1947 had put a half billion dollars “into the conception that Californians must have equal school facilities available for all children,” he added.

This photo was taken March 5, 1954 and appeared on page 2 of the March 11, 1954 Santa Cruz Sentinel. In the photo, Aptos dentist dentist Dr. Silvio J. Biancalana gives Aptos School student Anna Miller's teeth the once over while other fifth graders look on. Assisting are room mothers Mrs. W. R. Wardlow and Mrs. Al Aboudara.

Dr. Biancalana's niece, Claire Biancalana is now Assistant Superintendent and Vice President of Cabrillo College in Aptos. She reports that she believes that Dr. Biancala was the first dentist in Aptos. Dr. Biancalana died last year at age 91.

A $500,000.00 bond issue will be brought before voters in the Aptos School District on September 18, the Aptos School Board decided last night by a unanimous vote. The bond money would be used to complete the construction of Rio del Mar School, except for a multi-purpose room. It would also provide a new elementary school site and six classrooms on it. Trustee, Fred Banks, expressed doubt that $500,000.00 would be enough for the projects, but reluctantly went along with the group to make the vote unanimous. He favored a $600,000.00 bond issue.

The decision does not completely rule out a future request for a state loan, but the district will not ask the voters to okay such a loan this year. In two previous attempts, the Board had requested $700,000.00 and $800,000.00 state loans, along with $325,000.00 and $225,000.00 bond issue requests. Both attempts met with defeat.

Trustees decided to adopt a program that would pay for “immediate needs” rather than try for a state loan and a smaller bond issue again. The decision was prompted by a 40 percent increase in this year’s assessed valuation for the district which upped the district’s bonding capacity to $800,000.00.

To qualify for a state loan, a district must be bonded to its full capacity. The district is now bonded for $374,000.00. Therefore, the maximum amount of bonds that could be sold this year would be $426,000.00. Since the assessed valuation of the area will undoubtedly rise again next year, superintendent, George Beattie, told the Board he doubts if the district could maintain whole bonding capacity long enough to qualify for a state loan unless a $600,000.00 or $700,000.00 bond issue is passed.

The Board was hesitant to go that high on a bond issue after tasting defeat as recently as June 5. Three proposals were originally discussed by the Board and a half million-dollar plan emerged as a compromise. The three plans were:

(1) Called for a $400,000.00 bond issue to complete the Rio del Mar School and purchased a third elementary site.

(2) Called for a $600,000.00 bond issue and asked for a $425,000.00 state loan.

(3) Asked for a $1,000,000.00 bond issue.

It did not take just this long to dump the $1,000,000.00 bond issue idea and not much longer to forget the state loan proposal. “Due to the attitude of the public right now, I think we’d better try to meet immediate needs,” trustee, Charles Plate said. “We don’t want to put something on the ballad that will be trounced.” Cold, hard facts prompted Plate’s comment. The district now has 21 classrooms available and 27 is the absolute minimum needed for this role’s anticipated enrollment of 850 students. Children at Rio del Mar school will be on double session.

Trustees decided enough money would be saved by temporarily eliminating the multi-purpose room from the Rio del Mar School plan to enable the district to purchase a new school site. Gary Brown of Aptos suggested the Board ask for an extra $100,000.00 that would allow construction of six classrooms on the new site. The idea appealed to the Board and the $500,000.00 plan came about.

Superintendent, Beattie, explained to the audience that the additional money that would be available due to the assessed valuation jump would be used to meet operating expenses during the coming school year. It has been with reflected in the 1962 63 budget which will be adopted on July 16.

Although the $500,000.00 bond issue, if passed, may not qualify the district for a state loan, it will qualify the district for state aid toward operating expenses. [cont'd]