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| Grant Preps for 100th Anniversary Ann K. Williams August 25 -- Time passes quickly, even in Santa Monica, and, believe it or not, Grant Elementary School will turn 100 years old next year. "It seems that 100 years in California is an impossible amount of time," Grant Principal Alan Friedenberg told the Board of Education last Thursday.
And as the board proclaimed the 2005-2006 school year as "The 100 Year Celebration of Grant Elementary School," others were already busy planning the festivities. To honor the centennial, a committee of Grant parents is putting together a reunion of past students and their families who will get together during the school's traditional May Carnival weekend. Meanwhile, Friedenberg and his staff are planning a "100 year curriculum" -- conforming to State standards, of course -- to enrich next year's students with living history. Other plans include appreciation luncheons honoring past principals and presidents of the many organizations that have supported the school, concerts featuring local school ensembles and fundraising events.
Santa Monica has seen many changes since Grant first opened its doors in 1906, but many of our community's preoccupations have stayed the same. Meeting traffic needs, alternative energy sources for mass transportation and a rail line from downtown -- sound familiar? These were some of the issues the Daily Outlook covered when Grant Elementary School was born. The "royal San Vicente road" extending from the "Soldiers' Home" to the beach had just been proposed, Alfred Darlow of the Union Pacific Railroad extolled the virtues of "gasoline cars" for their "economy, efficiency and certainty of operation superior to electric cars," and a headline announced "Pasadena to the Beach by new Short Line: As the Crow Flies, Via San Fernando Valley and Hollywood." More schools were needed in the idyllic, booming beach town to serve its growing population. A cadre of energetic Santa Monica women called the "Child Study Circle" led the drive for a series of bonds to pay for three new schools. One of them was Grant, which was built in a part of town then known as "Irwin Heights," according to a book by local historian Donald C. Cleland. Half of Grant's first students came from "Mexican-American homes" and were "non-English speaking," Cleland wrote, so Grant offered "special classes" making it the Edison Language Academy of its day.
In 1924, the school was expanded, and a decade later, when Douglas Aircraft began to attract thousands of workers to Santa Monica, it moved to its present location in Sunset Park at 2368 Pearl Street where the depression-era Works Projects Administration built much of the school we see today. Grant School now boasts nearly 700 students, 32 teachers and a host of parent and community volunteers who, as they make plans to celebrate the past, are also looking forward toward the future. "I want Grant to retain the feeling like a true community school," Friedenberg said. "I want people to feel a personal attachment... an investment that's ongoing." Grant PTA president Kathleen Micham looked at the larger picture of State politics and public education. "Historically, the best public schools were in California, everyone knew that," Micham said, decrying the "steady decline" of the State's schools in recent decades. "I want this to be the turn around year for California," she said, referring to the special election in November in which the PTA plans to play a pivotal role mobilizing voters. Meanwhile, Friedenberg encourages everyone who went to Grant to get in touch with 10 other people to spread the word about the spring reunion. And Steve Nemzer, who chairs the 100th Anniversary Committee, asks everyone
who wants to help in the festivities to contact him at steve@partnerstream.com |
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