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A BBRIEF HISTORYOF HART HIGH SCHOOL

By A . B. PERKINS

The Santa Clarita Union High School District was organized January 30,
1945, and the following October the name was changed to William S. Hart Union
High School District. The nine original elementary school districts comprising
it, with organizational dates, were Newhall (May 10, 1877) which had absorbed
Felton (1885) in 1933, Sulphur Springs (1879) , Castaic
(March 25, 1889) which had unionized with Live Oak (1915 )
in 1929, Saugus (1908) which had unionized with Hon by
(1917) in 1940, Mint Canyon (1913) and Bee 1920)
The high school's enrollment draws from the com-
munities of Val Verde, Forrest Park, Castaic, Saugus, New-
hall and the contiguous canyon country of Soledad Town
ship.
The district's present name honors the late William S.
Hart, first and greatest of Western film stars, resident of
Newhall for his last two decades, whose love of community
was evidenced by the American Theater which he gave to
the local American Legion, by his generous and unadver-
tised donations to local needs, and by giving his large New-
hall estate to the public.
Prior to 1945 children from our side of the hill were
forced to use San Fernando High School facilities if they
continued in school beyond the elementary grades. To con-
nect with the high school buses they had to rise before 5 a.m. in the canyon
areas and it would be 5 p.m. before they got home. Buses left the school im-
mediately after classes, which meant that any of our students interested in
extra-curricular activity must chance hitchhiking home, when, as and if. In
1926 the Newhall PTA, with endorsement from the first district PTA, called
these adverse conditions to the attention of the Los Angeles Board of Educa-
tion and also petitioned the board for improvement. But with no results.
Consequently more than half our local children eligible for high school
simply gave up further education. Families with children of high school age
got out, or stayed out, of our area when possible.
It was the major problem and as early as 1928, when the Kiwanis Club
was chartered here, it was placed at the top of their active projects. But no
action came until 1945.
In 1945 the country's economy was suffering from postwar shortages
and building supplies were unavailable. Therefore, with the cooperation of the
Newhall Elementary School, Hart High commenced functioning, with only
a Freshman class, at the grammar school, using offices, auditorium, field house
and a temporary structure or two. When the next class matriculated, some
buildings were available at the present site which has been constantly expand-
ing with increasing enrollment. Finances were never a problem, thanks to
our many local oil fields.
Today any thinking local citizen, being asked what our most important
asset was, would unhesitatingly answer "William S. Hart Union High School,"
which supplies cultural sources to an area once sadly devoid of such.
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