The 1860s marked the close of the rancho period when classes were held at the Ventura Mission. In 1865-66 there were 372 white children and 11 identified Indian children of white guardianship living within the boundaries of the San Buenaventura School District. Of that number, four attended private school and 309 did not attend school at all. School was held then in an old one-room adobe home on West Main Street near Ventura Avenue, known as Schoolhouse Number 1. The property was sold in 1873 for $110.

In 1866 the first schoolhouse was built near Harrison and Ventura Avenue, known as Canyon School, Schoolhouse Number 2, and School-in-the-Canyon. It could accommodate 40. It was boarded up and sold in 1873 for $465 when San Buenaventura School District was formed and Hill School built.

In 1872 a site near Poli and Cedar Streets was selected for a new school. It was purchased for $5 per front foot and was 400 feet deep. The cornerstone was laid in September of that year and the school was variously known as Hill School, Brick School, Ventura Public School, and Poli Street School. There were 200 students and the teachers received $65 to $125 per month. Located on top of a hill away from settled streets, the road leading to it was often muddy and difficult. The following year Ventura County was formed from Santa Barbara County. Hill School was sold in 1923 and razed in 1926. 

A building on Oak Street in 1876 was rented to accommodate the out-grown Hill Street school. Known as the Meta Street School, this temporary unit served approximately 40 students and one teacher during the ’70s and ’80s. By 1886 another temporary location for primary students was established on California Street.

Bonds were then passed for a new school at the corner of Fir and Santa Clara Streets, across from Plaza Park, containing six classrooms, each large enough to accommodate 50 to 60 pupils, and one recitation room. It was two-and-a-half stories high with three towers. The Plaza School commenced operation in 1888 and remained there until it was sold for $41,900 and demolished in 1932 to make room for the Post Office, which was built in 1936. The two palm trees planted in front of Plaza school around 1900 still stand in front of today’s Post Office. Pupils of the seventh grade and above attended Plaza School, with the lower grades divided between there and Hill School. By the spring of 1889, 79% of Ventura’s children were enrolled in school, an increase of 10% over the previous year. In 1901 President William McKinley and in 1903 Theodore Roosevelt spoke on its steps. By 1919 the school was modified to provide more classrooms. 

For some time people had been interested in education above the eighth grade and some private classes had been held to meet the need. In 1889 a tax of $1,200 was passed to pay the salary of a high school teacher. The class was first held in one of the upstairs rooms of Plaza School and the first graduation took place in 1890, with Bertie Lloyd the first graduate. 

The following year, 1891, Union High School District was formed for ninth grade and above students with the Avenue and Mound districts joining. In 1895 land was purchased and the following year Mill, Rincon, and Montalvo School Districts were admitted. In 1897 the high school classes left Plaza School for the new, although far from completed, Ventura High School, on the land now occupied by Lincoln Elementary School, bounded by Santa Clara, Ann, Main, and Hemlock Streets. In 1900 the Saticoy, Del Norte, and Arnaz Districts were admitted and Center the following year. The three main course fields at Union High School introduced in 1900 were Classical, modern language, and commercial. A large athletic field was created in 1902. That year seventeen girls and one boy graduated. With improvements, its value was estimated to be a little over $30,000. Manual Training was introduced in 1907. Cooking, Sewing, and Botany were added in 1909. From 1912, when a new high school was built, to 1930 it became Ann Street Grammar School.

A public kindergarten was established in 1906 when two teachers were hired. Two rooms of the Y. M. C. A. were rented for this use. Since families living on the west side of Ventura did not take advantage of this, the kindergarten classes were moved in 1909 to the centrally located Palace Hotel. This was not entirely satisfactory and a bungalow-type building was built on Palm Street in 1912. (1946 photo) This site was sold in 1963 for Senior Citizens housing. In 1912 it was reported that the yearly cost per kindergarten child in Ventura was $37.35 and $42.26 per elementary child. 

In 1922 a kindergarten unit was built on Santa Clara Street between Crimea and Hemlock. It was sold to the Girl Scouts in 1945.

With insufficient room and poor facilities in the Union High School, it was moved to the 14.61 acres on the Eastern city limits where Cabrillo Middle School is today, which had been secured by election in 1910 for $10,614. The cornerstone of the Administration building was laid in September, 1911, the building accommodating the entire school. It stood where the 50s-60s and 70s buildings are today. Of all the school sites, this and the Lincoln School site, both located in mid-Ventura, have the most history. In 1912 Union High had 150 students and ten teachers. Before 1921 students had to enter from the Meta Street side via a wooden trestle over the San Jon barranca. The school also served as the Junior College when it was created in 1925 until 1930, when a new high school was built. In 1921 a gym was built and in 1924-25 the campus was remodeled, with cafeteria and shop buildings added. At that time it housed 340 students in grades 9-14. Several adjoining strips of land were acquired in 1926. That year about 40 enrolled in the junior college, but at the close of the year that number had dwindled to a paltry few. After that, new life was fueled with music, drama, journalism, and clubs. In 1927 a new administration building was built. 

With the 6-4-4 plan beginning in the 1929-1930 school year, the first Ventura Junior High School as a separate unit and the opening of a new VHS-JC campus occurred about January, 1930. That year a new girls’ gym was built at the junior high in the northeast corner, now the oldest building remaining on the campus. Starting in 1935, double sessions were required for two years because it was overcrowded with 1,380 students. The 7th and 8th graders went from 8:00-12:00 and 9th and 10th graders from 12:00-4:10. In 1935 the original building was demolished to make room for the present two-story 50s/60s building, opened in the Spring of 1937, and that Fall a commercial building, half of the present 70s building, was added. Again becoming over-crowded in 1951, three new bungalows were added. The next spring construction of a new cafetorium began and the last 10th grade class graduated. A three-year Cabrillo Junior High School was established with grades 7-9 in September, 1952. That Christmas Eve a coffee percolator inadvertently left on in the counseling office by the custodian caused a disastrous fire.

Sixteen classrooms, counseling and administrative offices, art room, and library in the first floor of the west wing of the Administration Building were destroyed. Vacation was extended for a week while the office and library moved to the bus barn and seven Quonset huts from the Port Hueneme naval base were converted to fourteen temporary classrooms. When it rained, they leaked; when it was hot the students went outside. In 1953 the new gym was built and the old boys’ gym demolished. The girls’ gym was converted to music and shop use. The present 20s and 30s wings were opened in 1954 as science and art rooms. 750 students moved from there to the new Anacapa Junior High in March, 1954, our second junior high. A new woodshop building at Cabrillo was built in 1956 and new office, library, and 40s wing in 1957. The students and faculty were again split in February, 1958, when DeAnza Junior High was opened. The Quonset huts were then removed. Ventura’s fourth junior high was established in September, 1962, when students transferred to the new 22-acre site of Balboa Junior High. Girls could wear pants for the first time in 1970, when the strict dress code was discarded. In the fall of 1982 the junior highs all became Middle Schools when the system became 5-3-4.

Returning to the elementary schools, in 1912 the elementary board purchased the old high school building for $10,000, rehabilitated it, and renamed it as the Ann Street School. More classrooms were added to it and Plaza School in 1919. In 1921 the name of the Ann Street School was changed to its current name, Lincoln School. The building was finally condemned in 1929. A new building commenced operation in September, 1931, and Plaza School was vacated. The site included an amphitheater to accommodate 350 persons. Built in conjunction with it was the office of the Superintendent and Board of Education, located at the corner of Main and Ann Streets. In 1950 Lincoln School, pictured here, was considered structurally unsafe and, after a 1953-54 earthquake, it was demolished. The present Lincoln School was occupied in 1955. It closed during a period of decreased enrollment in 1973, and the students transferred to Washington School. Lincoln Elementary was then converted to Mar Vista Continuation High School until Lincoln was again needed for elementary students. At that time Mar Vista students were transferred to the El Camino School site.

In 1923 May Henning School, named after a pioneer Ventura educator, was built (1929 photo) on Santa Clara Street on the city land purchased the previous year, formerly occupied by the jail and first county courthouse. It closed December, 1959, and the secondary district offices and warehouses were built there in 1962. The elementary district office was located on Arcade Drive at that time. 

A bond issue for construction of Washington School on MacMillan Street was approved without a single negative vote and its cornerstone was laid in 1925, serving what is midtown Ventura. A new auditorium was built with WPA assistance in 1940, but the school was closed due to earthquake safety concerns in 1983. The students were transferred to Lincoln School. Years later the property was leased for use by Ventura Christian High School for K-12, which continues to date.

In 1927 a contract was awarded for a three-room school west of the Avenue, to be known as Sheridan Way, after a prominent pioneer family. (1949 photo) The present buildings were constructed in 1954. 

Late in 1928 a new school site was purchased for $3,500 per acre at the corner of Howard and Thompson Streets, the present Will Rogers site to accommodate overflow from Washington School. However, it wasn’t until 1938 that the new three-room school was opened, known as the Thompson Boulevard School. Its name was changed to its current name two years later. Today’s main unit was completed in 1950.

It is little known that from 1934-1937 there was a class on San Nicholas Island. It was finally terminated due to the cost for two students and it was deemed that Ventura was not responsible for their education.

Ventura’s population was exploding. By 1930 it was 11,432, a growth of 187.3% in 10 years. Because of this, the beginning of a separate high school/junior college campus was needed. It occurred when a $400,000 school bond was passed in 1928 to buy a 14.27-acre site at 2155 E. Main Street. The college had been created as the Ventura Junior College Department of Ventura High School on what is now the Cabrillo Middle School campus, as previously mentioned. The new campus provided a four-year education (grades 11-14) from 1929 to 1952. The 1929-1930 school year saw 54 students enrolled. The first graduation of grade 14 students occurred in 1931 with 18 graduates. A 17-acre farm and several residential lots were bought in 1934 to expand the Main Street campus. The college's name was changed to Ventura Junior College in 1936. Expansion of the campus was undertaken after a 1938 bond issue for $250,000 was approved and a PWA grant of $285,750 was applied for...resulting in six new classroom buildings, auditorium, library, gymnasium, and stadium. World War II particularly affected the high school district. Activities and sports were curtailed, staff and yearbook was cut, and the junior college enrollment dramatically declined. After the war athletics, clubs, theater, music, and social activities were all revived. The picture is of the campus around 1950. The beloved two-story brick building was demolished in 1958 because it “did not meet earthquake safety standards”. It was so sturdy the wrecking crew went bust trying to knock it down! Five one-story buildings quickly replaced it. A new two-story classroom building on the spot of the original brick building was added in 2005.

The ’50s was a time of many changes. Ventura’s population in 1950 stood at 16,534. Voters approved in 1951 a bond issue by 89%, with 3 junior highs, senior high, and junior college campus as the ultimate goal. A 3-3-2 plan for the secondary district began in 1952, with grades 13 and 14 sharing the high school campus with the 10th-12th graders until a new junior college was completed. Six temporary buildings were assigned to the college near the tennis courts. Construction of the Telegraph Road college campus started in 1952, and the college was renamed Ventura College (Anacapa College and San Buenaventura College were rejected). The college moved during the spring recess of 1955 and classes began the day after Easter.

With Ventura’s population moving eastward, a site at the corner of Loma Vista Road and Lynn Drive was purchased. The land was leased to harvest the walnut crop from its approximately 340 trees. The crop was sold in 1952, with the lessee keeping the first $1,500 and the district taking 70% of the balance. Loma Vista Elementary School opened its doors there in 1953.

Three classrooms of Pierpont Elementary school near the beach were completed by the opening of school in 1954 or 1955. The present plant was completed in 1959.

More new east-end schools were needed. Blanche Reynolds School, on Valmore Street, first had portable units in 1955 and a year later the permanent buildings were added. 

Portable units used at Blanche Reynolds were moved to El Camino School on College Drive in 1956 for a year, before permanent buildings were constructed, using the same plans as Blanche Reynolds. When enrollment declined in 1981 the school was closed and in 1983 was relocated there after leaving the Lincoln school site, sharing the El Camino site with Adult Ed. offices. Eventually it housed. When Adult Education moved to the current location on Valentine Road, an independent study school, was also started there. El Camino High students moved to the Ventura College campus on Day Road in 2009 and the site became a Community Day School for 6th-8th grades. 

In 1957 Poinsettia Elementary opened on North Victoria Avenue, with portable units used for a year. Four years later, in 1961 Elmhurst Elementary opened, with the same plans that Poinsettia had utilized. Ventura’s second high school, Buena High School, was built in 1960 to ease the seriously overpopulated Ventura High. Buena shared Ventura’s stadium until it finally received its own in June, 2004.

In the 1960s the California Legislature was determined to reduce the number of school districts appreciably and offered rewards to do so. Thus, the present Ventura Unified School District, serving grades kindergarten-grade 12, was created March 16, 1965, effective July 1, 1966. At that time the voters approved a new educational unit to include all of the area of the Mound, Avenue, Mill Union, and a portion of the Nordhoff Union School District, and the Ventura Elementary and Secondary School Districts. Punta Gorda, Montalvo, and Saticoy Districts had previously merged. The curriculum of the new district would be changed, although not for the first few years. Some favorite programs, such as outdoor science education favored by the Mound District, had to be dropped. Others were instituted, such as adult education, which could lead to the granting of high school diplomas. Classes for special education students doubled from 29 to 58. Release time for the religious education program was eliminated. Elementary instrumental music was continued for a time. Summer school was scheduled. With the burgeoning population, more portable classrooms had to be purchased in order to meet the needs of elementary and junior high schools. 

The new district’s business and personnel services were housed in the former high school district office at 295 South Arcade and the superintendent and educational services’ offices in the elementary school offices at 120 East Santa Clara.

Of the formerly independent districts now merged into Ventura Unified School District, Punta Gorda District along the Rincon became independent from the Ventura District the summer of 1888. At that time a one-room schoolhouse in La Conchita formed the Punta Gorda school. It was annexed in 1946 when their district was terminated. The school was moved in the mid 1950s to Santa Clara Street in Ventura. Prior to demolition of the building, part was salvaged and moved to its present location in La Conchita at 6746 Ojai Street. [Wikipedia]

Facing problems, the Montalvo District requested annexation and in 1954 the district joined Ventura. It had been established as an independent unit in 1889 when they built the Montalvo school with a $6,000 bond. In 1911 a contractor removing old paint from the building with torches started a fire which completely destroyed it. A new Montalvo School was dedicated in 1912 and the present one in 1937.

Facing problems similar to those in Montalvo, the Saticoy School District joined Ventura in 1962. The district had been started when Ventura County was still part of Santa Barbara County. In 1876 a contract was issued to build a new school in Saticoy on the present school site for $1,450 for students in that area. It was destroyed by fire in 1925. A new building was opened a short time later, later condemned for earthquake safety. The major portion of the present building was constructed by a WPA project in 1939-40. 1882 photo

The Mound District, with grades 1-8, left the Ventura District in 1875 and at one time was part of the Montalvo School District. The school was located where Telephone Road and Highway 101 presently intersect. It was a one room school and, when classes were moved, stood as a residence. From there, Mound School was moved to the corner of Day Road and Telegraph Road. The first phase of the building was in 1921. The building was later used by the YMCA. It is now part of a shopping center called the Mound School Plaza. The bell from there is at the present Mound School. Because of oil income, a bond issue was not necessary when in 1951 a cafetorium, office, and additional classrooms were added to Del Mar School, part of the Mound District, on Hill Road, where Mound Elementary is today. They were the pioneers in providing education for the blind. The school was closed temporarily in 1982, but reopened in 1988 as a magnet year-round school. A second school was added the fall of 1962 when Juanamaria School was added, named after Juana Maria, the heroine of Scott O'Dell's novel, Island of the Blue Dolphins. 

The Avenue School District became operational in 1888, the school consisting of two classrooms and costing $9000. The picture of the school was taken in 1895. It was replaced by the present building in 1914. A second school, E. P. Foster, was added in 1929. Students from Avenue School (grades 4-6) were moved there when Avenue closed in 1982.

The Mill School District was founded on the upper Avenue in 1878, but in 1981 it was extensively damaged by flood. Because of that and its near proximity to an oil refinery, it closed in 1982 and was sold the following year.

Joining Ventura Unified from the Nordhoff District in 1966 was Oak View, Arnaz, and Santa Ana. Oak View, built in 1948, is now used for other community services. Arnaz, built in 1962, is now called Sunset. Santa Ana was built in 1957, closed in 1981, and reopened in 1983 as a private school.

Construction of a new Junipero Serra Elementary school fell seriously behind schedule and facilities were shared the first part of the 1967-1968 school year with Juanamaria, Both schools operated on double session schedule until Serra opened in January.

Ventura’s first new school in ten years was dedicated in the fall of 1978 as Portola Elementary. The only permanent structures were the administrative office and cafe-torium, with portables used as classrooms. It was updated in the 2000-2001 school year.

The newest of Ventura’s elementary schools is Citrus Glen Elementary School in east Ventura, opened in the fall of 1999 to accommodate the growth in that part of town.

Foothill Technology High School, on Day Road across from the college, was started in March, 2001, focusing on technology and health careers. For a year space was rented at the college and the students moved to the new school in April, 2002. Also on Day Road are Project Secure, with special needs and pre-vocational programs, and the previously mentioned El Camino High School.

In June, 2003 a great opportunity to purchase the Kinko (originally Vetco) complex on Stanley Avenue occurred. This allowed the VUSD to consolidate its administrative offices in a centralized fashion. Between 2004 and 2007 the Arcade and Santa Clara district offices were sold and the moved completed.

Many thanks to the many individuals who helped fill in details for this article. Pictures courtesy of: Eric Daily, Bob Immel, Glenda Jackson, Dorothy Lee, Dena Mercer, Dotie Wheeler, and San Buenaventura Conservancy Association. The education which started in homes and the mission has evolved about one hundred fifty years later, in 2009, to the Ventura Unified School District, involving two comprehensive high schools, a magnet school, continuation school, Adult Ed school, independent study high school, Community Day School, four middle schools, and seventeen elementary schools, all serving approximately 17,550 students. Ventura now has an administration complex, schools, students, and personnel of which to be proud. The townspeople long ago could not have envisioned the massive changes that have taken place, with a Ventura population now in 2009 of 108,787. Who knows what the future has in store!  

No matter what changes may occur, quality education of the students is the main goal.

Bibliography: * Johnson, Gary. “Ventura College: A 75 Year History.” 2000. Available from. Accessed 08 Apr 2009.

* Lee, Dorothy Jue. “A History of the San Buenaventura School District.” 1969. Copy at Ventura Historical Museum Library.

* Manion, D. Kenneth, Maintenance/Operations Technician. “Public Schools in Ventura: A Chronology. December, 1996.

* Rogers, John. End of an Era. 1966. San Buenaventura School District.

* Rooney, Patrick O. History of the Ventura Unified School District, 1862-1986. Copy at Ventura Unified School District office.

* Nicholas, Helen, researcher. “Cabrillo Middle School History” [video]. 1997.

* Ventura High School La Revista yearbooks. Various years.

* Ventura Unified School District Office of Business Services