The Newhall School District is an elementary school district in the

Santa Clarita Valley The Santa Clarita Valley (SCV) is part of the upper watershed of the Santa Clara River in Southern California. The valley was part of the Rancho San Francisco Mexican land grant. Located in Los Angeles County, its main population center is th ...

that serves the

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

and Newhall communities within the city of

Santa Clarita, California Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-largest city by population in Los Angeles County, the 17 ...

, as well as the Stevenson Ranch community in unincorporated

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

. It currently includes ten schools.

History

The first school in the district was Newhall Elementary. The school opened in 1876, near the current location of the Saugus Cafe. The school is named for Henry Mayo Newhall, as is the town. The school and the town of Newhall moved two years later, to a location 2 miles south of its original location. An oil boom in the Santa Clarita Valley brought the families of 53 students to area and the school was placed where the current Valencia Marketplace (Target store) currently stands. One year later, in 1879, a proper school house was built at the corner of 9th and Walnut streets, in the current town of Newhall. The building was a wooden, two-story building. The second story was used on weekends, for Sunday school classes. This original building succumbed to a fire in 1890. A new two-story school was built on the same site as the first two-story building. Those students who continued on to high school faced a long horseback ride to San Fernando High School, in the San Fernando Valley, once that school was built in 1896. In 1914, a fire struck Newhall Elementary School again. Another building was built at the northwest corner of Lyons and Newhall Avenues. The older students were able to catch a ride in a converted automobile to San Fernando High School. In 1932, an actual bus was purchased. As the town grew, so did its school-aged population. The schoolhouse at Lyons and Newhall Ave. was not able to be expanded and so a new school was built in 1928 at the corner of 11th and Walnut streets. Fire hit the school again in 1939; however, the school was rebuilt where it stood. The school re-opened in 1940. This is the current location of Newhall Elementary School (2012). As for the older students, they would continue to travel until 1945 when Hart High School opened. The original grades were 9th–12th. In 1948, the 7th and 8th graders moved to Hart High School. Hart High stayed a 7th–12th grade school until Placerita Junior High School opened in 1961. The second school in the Newhall School District was Peachland Elementary School which opened in 1959. The third was Wiley Canyon Elementary School which opened in 1966. On January 13, 1945, the California State Board of Education approved the petitions of five Santa Clarita Valley school districts — Newhall, Saugus, Castaic, Mint Canyon and Sulphur Springs — to form the Santa Clarita Union High School District, later renamed the

William S. Hart Union High School District The William S. Hart Union High School District (commonly referred to simply as the Hart District) is a school district in the Santa Clarita Valley of Los Angeles County, California. It serves all of the valley's high school students (grades 9– ...

. Two weeks later, on January 29, local voters approved a bond measure to build the valley's first high school on a 27-acre parcel on Newhall Avenue, just down the street from Newhall School (Hart High School). The first Hart District school board was composed of school board members from each of the elementary districts. Tom Frew III and S.S. Donaldson represented the Newhall district. Donaldson was a sitting Newhall school board member, while Frew had already retired from a lengthy tenure on the Newhall board which included several years as president.

Schools

References

External links

* * For an expanded version of this please visit - http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/newhallschool.htm {{Santa Clarita School districts in Los Angeles County, California Education in Santa Clarita, California 1876 establishments in California School districts established in 1876