EARLY
SCHOOLS OF APTOS
by
John Hibble
The more things
change, the more they remain the same. Today, a school impact fee is charged to
developers and home builders to support local school districts. During the
early years of statehood, Aptos land owners donated land and paid for the
building of the first schools.
Rafael Castro, the
first owner of the Aptos land grant, provided land for the first grammar school
in Aptos. Prior to that, Vicente, his eldest son, provided class room space at
his home, “Rancho Aptos”, across the street from what is now Rancho Del Mar
Shopping Center. It is interesting to note that Vicente refused to speak
English for many years after California became a state.
The first one room
school house was built in 1871, just off the county road at 7851 Soquel Drive, behind where the
Bank sits today. The teacher at the Aptos grammar school used to send students
to Jose Arano’s general store to get the time as the school had no clock and
the teacher could not afford a watch. The average monthly wage for county
teachers was $90 for men and $58.75 for women.
W.W. Elliott’s 1879
Illustrated History of Santa Cruz County lists 109 children in Aptos between
the ages of five and seventeen years, 61 boys and 48 girls.’ The number of
children who attended public school at any time during the year was 68, 44 boys
and 24 girls. The average daily attendance was 35 and the school year was 10
months long. The value of the building, land and furniture was $500. The value
of the school library was $100. Union School on Hames Road, two years older
than Aptos, had an average daily attendance of 24 and a valuation twice that of
Aptos School
State law gave at
least $500 to each school district that had more than 14 children. The state
was required to raise not less than seven dollars per child and the county not
less than three, which put California near the top in
education spending. In 1871, the property tax rate per $100 was 60 cents.
Between 1872 and 1878 it varied between 15 and 32 1/2 cents. Total county
expenditures for schools in 1878 was $52,887. Aptos district received
$1,134.20, spent $1,038.92 and had $831.35 cash on hand.
Claus Spreckels,
the “Sugar King”, purchased much of the Aptos land grant from Rafael Castro in
1872. The Spreckels family paid for the construction of the second Aptos School in 1899. This
larger facility was located in, what is now Aptos Village
Square. (This is where the village of Aptos originally
started.) World Savings now occupies the site at 7970 Soquel Drive, across Wharf Road from the original
Arano general store, (the oldest building in Aptos). It is interesting to note
that both of these former school sites are now occupied by financial
institutions. Since Aptos had no high school in the early days, students took
the morning train to school. They attended Watsonville High School because the
morning train went south.
Several other
schools existed in the area. In 1871, Hill School was located on Larkin Valley
Road but moved in 1932 to San Andreas Road at Altivo Road and became known
as Rob Roy School. When the name of the town changed, the school was renamed La
Selva Beach School in 1936. It closed when the district merged with Aptos in
1942.
Valencia School, a two story
schoolhouse, was built on Valencia School
Road about 1881, to serve the lumber mill town of Valencia. After the lumber
played out, the school was closed around 1931.
In 1890, Charlotte
Day donated land on Cox Road near Day Valley Road, for Oakdale School. Originally,
Theresa Hihn would not grant water rights to the school but the Hihn family
eventually did. Gertrude Millies remembers that the graduation exercises for Oakdale School were held in
Valencia Hall at the corner of Valencia and Bear Creek
Roads. Valencia and Oakdale
districts merged with Aptos in 1928.
The
firm of Monroe, Lyon and Miller, also known as Peninsula Properties, acquired
1750 acres in Aptos during the 1920’s and developed Rio Del Mar. In 1928, they
gave the school district seven acres of land, formerly the farm of Thomas J.
Leonard, for the third Aptos School. District funds
paid for the building which is stucco with hardwood floors. It contained three
class rooms, an auditorium with dressing rooms, a library, kitchen, rest room,
two large corridors and lavatories. The school opened with two teachers, Mrs.
Knudsen of Watsonville and Mrs. Marie
Wessell of Soquel. The former school was turned into a gymnasium. The third Aptos School has grown in size,
but the original building still stands as part of Valencia Elementary School on Aptos School Road.
Today,
Aptos has three elementary schools, one junior high, our own high school and a
fine community college to boot, but the developers and land owners of Aptos
still pay for the construction of our local schools.
End