School Celebrates 75th Anniversary

Sylvan Park Elementary School was a vastly different place when Joe Gilbertson Santellano was a student there in 1936.

There was no asphalt in the school’s dirt field, which became muddy when it rained. Fields of cucumber and watermelon and orchards of apricots surrounded the campus.

“Many kids came barefoot [to school],” recalled Gilbertson, 69, of Van Nuys. “We used shoes for special occasions.”

On Saturday, about 40 alumni representing several decades gathered to reminisce and celebrate the school’s 75th birthday at Sylvan Park. About 3,000 attended the festivities.

Mostly Mexican children attended the school at Noble Avenue and Delano Street from the day it opened in a barrio in 1924. That was because segregation laws kept Mexicans and other minorities from attending other schools or living in many neighborhoods, said Manuel Moreno, 84, of North Hills.

“This is something bittersweet. We were not put here by choice,” said Moreno, who attended the school in 1924. Back then, teachers paddled children who spoke Spanish, he said.

Older alumni remembered the school as Lemona Avenue Elementary, its original name. Back then, there were three or four bungalows, an auditorium, a restroom and showers for about 100 students, Moreno said. Now there are 45 classrooms and 1,400 students.

Neighborhood moms cooked tamales, enchiladas and other Mexican dishes they sold to buy school books and other supplies, said Betty Duran, 70, of Arleta. Her 91-year-old mom, Jenny Moreno Contreras, attended the school in 1924 and was also at the event.

There were no gangs back then, Duran said. “We never locked our doors. We played hide and seek, kick the can, and had relay races at night.”

It was fairly easy to find alumni for the celebration because many families have stayed in the neighborhood and attended the school generation after generation, said Assistant Principal Ina Lessem.

“That’s what a neighborhood school is all about--keeping people together and bringing people together,” Lessem said.