|
|
|
Taft High School has taken the first steps in preparing for its 100th birthday party.
The school will link its centennial celebration with its annual Homecoming Week activities, it was announced last week.
“We’re working on our centennial,” Supt./Principal Dr. Mark Richardson told his Board of Trustees. “We plan to tie it into our Homecoming Week activities leading up to the game against Corcoran.”
He said plans call for hosting a social on the softball field adjacent to Martin Memorial Stadium on Sept. 23.
“We’ll have the social and then go into the football stadium,” he said.
The homecoming theme will revolve around the centennial celebration.
“ASB is working on that right now,” Richardson said. “It should be a nice birthday party for Taft High School.”
Last month, the board approved the Sept. 23 date after getting a review of the school’s history from Pete Gianopulos, a retired teacher and counselor at Taft High and co-author of a book on Taft’s history that traces the origin of the high school.
The date the high school was formally established, he said, was Sept. 18, 1911.
“There was an $8,000 bond election to construct a school,” Gianopulos said, “and on Sept. 18, 1911, Conley School began. It began with a ninth grade and there were 10 students enrolled. The graduates had to go to Bakersfield for graduation.”
Conley is now a K-4 grade school.
Another bond issue was held, Gianopulos said, to build a new high school at its present site on Seventh Street.
“They began building it in 1917,” he said, “and had the first graduating class in 1918. They changed the name from Conley to Taft High.”
The first high school classes in the rapidly growing oil town of Taft began on Sept. 18, 1911 in a building at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Crystal Street in South Taft, according to “A History of Early Taft, California” written by Gianopulos and Larry Peahl.
At the time, South Taft was known simply as Taft and was one of three distinctly separate areas of the community – all with different names. Besides Taft, there was Moron to the north and Boust City to the west. The Sunset Western Railway divided Taft and Moron. Boust City was located between the two and to the west along an area that is now Lincoln Street.
The first high school classes – with only ninth graders – were held under the auspices of the Kern County Union High School District in Bakersfield.
Gianopulos said Taft High’s official seal is inaccurate.
“It says the school began in 1912 instead of 1911.”
Richardson said the official seal is being re-designed to reflect the correct year Taft High began.
Taft High School has taken the first steps in preparing for its 100th birthday party.
The school will link its centennial celebration with its annual Homecoming Week activities, it was announced last week.
“We’re working on our centennial,” Supt./Principal Dr. Mark Richardson told his Board of Trustees. “We plan to tie it into our Homecoming Week activities leading up to the game against Corcoran.”
He said plans call for hosting a social on the softball field adjacent to Martin Memorial Stadium on Sept. 23.
“We’ll have the social and then go into the football stadium,” he said.
The homecoming theme will revolve around the centennial celebration.
“ASB is working on that right now,” Richardson said. “It should be a nice birthday party for Taft High School.”
Last month, the board approved the Sept. 23 date after getting a review of the school’s history from Pete Gianopulos, a retired teacher and counselor at Taft High and co-author of a book on Taft’s history that traces the origin of the high school.
The date the high school was formally established, he said, was Sept. 18, 1911.
“There was an $8,000 bond election to construct a school,” Gianopulos said, “and on Sept. 18, 1911, Conley School began. It began with a ninth grade and there were 10 students enrolled. The graduates had to go to Bakersfield for graduation.”
Conley is now a K-4 grade school.
Another bond issue was held, Gianopulos said, to build a new high school at its present site on Seventh Street.
“They began building it in 1917,” he said, “and had the first graduating class in 1918. They changed the name from Conley to Taft High.”
The first high school classes in the rapidly growing oil town of Taft began on Sept. 18, 1911 in a building at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Crystal Street in South Taft, according to “A History of Early Taft, California” written by Gianopulos and Larry Peahl.
At the time, South Taft was known simply as Taft and was one of three distinctly separate areas of the community – all with different names. Besides Taft, there was Moron to the north and Boust City to the west. The Sunset Western Railway divided Taft and Moron. Boust City was located between the two and to the west along an area that is now Lincoln Street.
The first high school classes – with only ninth graders – were held under the auspices of the Kern County Union High School District in Bakersfield.
Gianopulos said Taft High’s official seal is inaccurate.
“It says the school began in 1912 instead of 1911.”
Richardson said the official seal is being re-designed to reflect the correct year Taft High began.
