Letter: More background on district history

I would like to add to James Gorton’s detailed letter regarding the Sagebrush issue in western La Cañada Flintridge (“Sagebrush history: effort and outlook,” Mailbag, Oct. 30).

The La Cañada community did have its own school system, an elementary school district, which was founded in 1885, nine years after the land representing La Cañada was purchased by its co-founders, Dr. Jacob Lanterman and Col. A.W. Williams. There were only 18 students enrolled the first year.

Until 1920, older La Cañada students attended junior high and high school in Glendale. Then the Pasadena school district came into the picture, providing secondary school education for La Cañada students.

In 1950, Pasadena built La Cañada Junior High for grades 7 and 8, with grades 9 and 10 attending other junior high schools in Pasadena until 1957, when newly constructed Pasadena High opened and grades 10 through 12 from La Cañada began attending Muir High in Pasadena.

This Muir arrangement continued until La Cañada built its own La Cañada High School in 1963, after La Cañada and Flintridge residents, joining later in cityhood in 1976, had approved a unified school district in 1960 for grades K through 12.

The boundary on the west side of the unified district was Rosebank Drive, with La Cañada residents living beyond that point sending their children to Glendale Schools, Mountain Avenue Elementary, Rosemont Middle School and Crescenta Valley High School.

Don Mazen
Glendale
The writer is a former associate editor of the La Cañada Valley Sun and author of the book, “The History of La Cañada Flintridge.”