Remember When

Gean Rupert Vonk, Guest Writer

Anderson Historical Society and Museum

The founding of the first Anderson Union High School was in 1908 following the approval by petition with 294 property owners signing in favor and only one signing against.

Prior to the founding of Anderson Union High School, teenagers from Anderson, Cottonwood and surrounding areas either did not attend classes beyond grammar school or they elected to attend Shasta County's high school in Redding.

The county's Superintendent of Schools appointed a trustee from each of 16 subsidiary elementary school districts including Anderson, Antelope, Bear Creek, Beckwith, Cloverdale, Inwood, Latona, Lone Tree, Oak Knoll, Olinda, Parkville, Pine View, Prairie, Sacramento River, Sheldon and Sheridan.

The number of feeder elementary districts was eventually reduced to five in 1909.

The high school began its first term in the fall of 1909 with 45 pupils.

Anderson Union High School was located on the east corner of South and East streets on land that the trustees purchased in 1910.

A second story was added to the building in 1912, but the building was not able to keep up with student growth. As a result, a petition to build a new school was circulated in 1916 with a bond proposal for $60,000.

The first two attempts to pass the bond issue for a new building did not pass.

Rivalry between Cottonwood and Anderson was the major reason given for its failure, as well as the first proposal's high cost. Also, Cottonwood residents wanted their own high school.

A second bond proposal - this time for $40,000.00 - prompted a mass protest meeting in which the Cottonwood people served notice that they desired their own high school. They again called upon voters to defeat the second proposal.

Cottonwood voted 65 against and one in favor on the bond issue even though it carried with a wide majority in Anderson and other areas.

Following the failure again of the bond issue, the matter went before the county supervisors. They discussed that the school issue could be built by a direct tax levied by the county's Board of Supervisors.

Finally, a compromise was reached and a bond proposal for $35,000 was put before the voters on July 28, 1917. That bond issue passed by a 277-40 vote count.

Once the money was gathered, the contractors estimated that the building would take three months to complete.

The new high school building was located on a beautiful, six-acre hilltop site donated by the Anderson business community.