History

Adapted from the work of former County Assistant Superintendent, Dwain McDonald

Tuolumne County has a much longer public school history than most regions in California. Schools have been in existence in Tuolumne County since 1852. It was not until the second legislative session of the California State legislature that state funds were appropriated for public schools in California. Tuolumne County received the first support for public schools in 1855. The schools were Sonora, Columbia, Shaw’s Flat, Springfield, Jamestown, Jacksonville, Don Pedro’s Bar, and Chinese Camp.

Local solid community identity has long influenced the various public schools within our county. This fact is evident today because the electorate has enjoyed having a locally elected board of trustees governing the local school district.

In 1855 there were 809 students between the ages of 4 and 18. That’s the way students were reported to generate school funds. Students did not need to attend school; the state only wanted to know how many resided in the school community. More than forty different public school entities have been in our county’s history. As population centers were established and later diminished, schools were established or reduced accordingly. In the mid 19th century, the only public schools enrolled all-comers, whether 4 or 24 years of age. It was the dream of the county superintendent at that time, Mr. George Morgan, to establish a “high school” by the turn of the century. Finally, in 1902 the Tuolumne County High School was established and held its first classes in the basement floor of the old courthouse in Sonora, with about 15 students attending. Some students lived in Tuolumne and typically came to school by local train service. Within five years, some parents and students thought the trip to Sonora was too arduous and lengthy.

Consequently, a group formed that lobbied for a high school established in Tuolumne. So, in 1911, on the second floor of a commercial building in downtown Tuolumne, the first class met with fewer than a dozen students. Interestingly, 79 years later, a new high school was opened south of Tuolumne River in the Big Oak Flat-Groveland Unified School District for many of the same reasons.

School districts in the county have come to exist to meet particular needs of parents and students at specific times in our history. Over the years, the State of California has drastically changed how schools are created, funded, and managed. Public perceptions of the purposes of schools have significantly changed over the years. For example, for 75 years, no one ever imagined that school transportation was anything but a family responsibility.

Over the years, and probably for years to come, school districts in our county will continue to change to meet the unique needs of each community within our county. For example, a school district such as Columbia Union is the product of many existing and now non-existent places – American Camp, Bear Gulch, Columbia, Deer Creek, Gold Springs, Jupiter, Knickerbocker Flat, Rawhide, Shaws Flat, Springfield, and Tuttletown to name some. The themes that seem to be the genesis of school formation have been:

1. Needs of parents to educate their children.
2. Ease of attendance for children and families.
3. Control of each school by a very locally elected school board.
4. Quality of the instructional program.
5. Cost and source of funds to conduct the program.
6. Value of expenditure per pupil.
7. The relative importance of attending one school vs. another.
8. Qualities of the physical plant.

Throughout the county today, there are eleven school districts: Sonora Union High with feeder districts Sonora, Columbia, Jamestown, Curtis Creek, Soulsbyville, and Belleview; Summerville Union High with feeder districts Summerville and Twain Harte; and Big Oak Flat-Groveland Unified.