The Valley of Heart's Delight
GILROY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
None of the many progressive communities in California is prouder of
its public schools than Gilroy, for under the able leadership of Prof. Elmer E. Brownell,
the popular supervising principal, they have come to rank among the best
schools in the Golden State. The grammar school is attended by
Gilroy pupils only, and until lately only the your of Gilroy have
enjoyed the advantages of the Gilroy High School. On August
21, 1921, however, a change for a broader and better policy was
effected. Then, on the recommendation of the county
superintendent of schools and certain supervisors of the districts to
be affected , the Adams, Rucker, Live Oak Redwood, Sunnnybrook, San
Ysidro and Prunedale school districts were annexed to the Gilroy high
school district, thereby extending widely the range of usefulness, and
creating at GIlroy a union high school. This annexation was the more
notable, for it was one of the first of its kind in Santa Clara County,
and it was popular from the beginning, for it affords to pupils from the
districts mentioned physical education, drawing, manual training,
music, cooking and sewing and other advantages heretofore beyond their
reach. FIve motor busses are no used to transport he pupils
between their homes and the high school a t a minimum cost.
Before 1911, the grammar and high schools at Gilroy occupied the same
lot, in two separate buildings, but the board of trustees acquired
eighteen additional acres of land, and a new high school building,
erected at a cost of some $40,000, was constructed. This high
school structure was formally opened in December, 1911, and
according to the more extensive ground plan, the main building will be
gradually surrounded by other structures, each to be practical and
ornate, and to be dedicated to a particular service. A junior
high school will be formed in time, and the eighth and ninth-year pupils
will be segregated from the tenth, eleventh and twelfth year
pupils. In 1904 four teachers formed the staff, and today there
are twelve teachers and 175 pupils. The first graduation was held
in 1904, when eight students stepped forth into the world; in 1920 a
class of twenty-five graduated, and in 1922, there was a class of
twenty. IN 1904 eight teachers taught 350 pupils in the grammar
schools; in 1921 fifteen teachers had charge of the welfare of 550
pupils. On May 6, 1922, Gilroy grammar school district
voted $180, 000 in bonds for the erection of a fourteen room building
in the Hanna field, on ten acres of land, to accommodate a kindergarten
and the first six grades, also an eight room building on the high
school grounds, to accommodate the seventy and eighth grades, and to
form a junior high school.
Professor Brownell has had heavy odds to overcome, but he has always
had the confidence of the citizens in his pioneering work, and that has
enable him to accomplish what he has with the Gilroy schools, in both
original and permanent reforms. An evening school was organized in
1916, with regular courses of study in the commercial department, and
with courses in mathematics, languages, etc., from teachers directing
the ambitions work of from sixty to seventy-five students. A
branch of the Free County Library has been installed for the use of
both the students and the public, and this in itself has added to the
public appreciation of the educational service a their disposal in
Gilroy. Professor Brownell has his heart and soul in the work
committed to his care and it must afford him satisfaction that the
board of trustees have been agreeable to all requests for advancement.
Sawyer, Eugene T.
History of Santa Clara County, California :
with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county
who have been identified with its growth and development from the early
days to the present
Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic Record Co., 1922
Santa Clara County- The Valley of Heart's Delight
Gilroy
Transcribed by Cdf
July 17, 2005