The short history of Vale Union High School District
The 1890s saw a surge in interest in the establishment of high schools in Riverside County.
At the time, graduation from eighth grade was still seen by many as a satisfactory education. Eight years of education provided a student with the ability to read, write and do everyday math. However, some students and their parents wanted something more. Getting a high school diploma then was in many ways equivalent to graduating from college today, in terms of its assistance in finding a career.
At that time in Riverside County, most school districts were established for first through eighth grades and had just one school building. When six elementary school districts in the Menifee, Winchester, Diamond Valley and Crown Valley areas wanted to establish a high school in 1891, they had to vote to create a separate school district for the high school. Because it was a coming together, or union, of several districts, the new district was named Vale Union High School District.
When the high school district was established, its board was made up of one elected representative from each of the founding elementary school districts. Menifee School offered a room for a lease of a $1 a year for the high school, which the new board accepted. There was only one problem — Menifee was on the western edge of the newly-formed district.
In July 1893, the Riverside Enterprise reported that the district had never been satisfactorily organized due to a dispute concerning the location of the high school. At that time, the compromise was to nominally have two high schools, one at Menifee with one pupil and one at Winchester with 15 students. The Enterprise also said there was a general desire of people in some of the elementary districts to suspend the high school. However, after a visit by the county schools superintendent in which he played the peacemaker, representatives of the various districts decided to continue the school and locate it at Winchester.
However, Menifee wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
A court case was filed by A.W. Reynolds that alleged the school board didn’t have the right to change the high school location without a petition of at least two-thirds of the heads of households in the district agreeing to such a move. Before the judge could rule, the high school district board voted to have an election, which made the lawsuit moot. The vote was to keep the school at Menifee.
However, the rest of the Vale district continued to be frustrated by the high school being so far from their homes. The issue finally came to a conclusion when an election was held Saturday, Oct. 30, 1897, on whether or not to dissolve the district. With one district not yet reported, newspapers reported that the vote was 78-13 to dissolve the Vale district.
The current school year continued and Vale High School’s last commencement was June 8, 1898.
There were two graduates: Etta and Lita Cook. On July 6, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution formally declaring the Vale district disorganized as per a vote of the people. The property of the district was sold and the funds raised were distributed to the elementary districts that made up the Vale district.
When Paloma Valley High School opened in 1995, Menifee once again had a high school within its boundaries. Liberty High School opened in 2021 in Winchester, giving that area its own high school once again.
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