Glendale school hits century mark
John LeGendre has longstanding ties with Glendale Landmark, formerly known as Unit One and Glendale Grammar School. His grandmother and mother taught at the school, he attended Unit One and his two sons currently attend Landmark.
He tells his kids: “We have history there, so you have to behave yourself.”
That’s 100 years of history — an achievement few and far between in a state so newly built out.
Glendale School District No. 40 was founded in 1892, the same year as the town, with the first Glendale Grammar School opening a few years later. The school moved to the Landmark location, near 59th and Myrtle avenues, in 1913.
It was one of several schools serving the largely agricultural West Valley community.
The Peoria Unified School District opened in 1889 with 15 students, and neighboring Glendale Union High School District opened Glendale High School in 1911. A log schoolhouse in the southwest Valley eventually became Liberty Elementary School District in 1908.
LeGendre, 61, is one of the Landmark alumni who helped students piece together a narrative for the school’s 100th birthday celebration on Nov. 21. Students began researching the school’s history this year with the help of a $2,000 grant from Salt River Project.
At the time the school opened, Glendale didn’t extend much beyond what is now considered the city’s downtown and was home to mostly ranchers and farmers.
In 1910, Glendale had 1,000 residents. Today, the city has about 230,000 residents.
The school, built with $190,000 of voter-approved funds, was considered an architectural innovation for its “unit system,” named for the individual classroom buildings. Instead of one large building, there were more than 30 oneroom buildings that featured large windows built for natural light and ventilation to ward off tuberculosis, wooden floors and slate chalkboards.
About four years after opening, the district built the school auditorium, a focal point for entertainment in the community.
“It was the only place in town, if they put on plays or anything like that, for the whole community,” said Vesta Roper, 86, who graduated in 1941.
Carol St. Clair, 79, who attended the school from 1939 to 1948 and is vice president of the Glendale Arizona Historical Society, still remembers the excitement when Gene Autry, the famed cowboy singer, performed at the school auditorium.
“We were so disappointed that he didn’t have his horse (Champion),” St. Clair said.
School leaders are unsure of when Glendale Grammar School was renamed Unit One, the name by which most alumni know it, but Principal Gina Schmitz guesses sometime in the 1940s or 1950s, when the district expanded.
Gloria Griego, 78, became the first Hispanic classroom teacher at the school in the mid’60s, teaching third and fourth grades.
In 1976, the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare cited the district for failing to comply with the Civil Rights Act, specifically for not identi- fying and providing equal services for students learning English, according to a district newsletter.
That’s when the district brought in more bilingual teachers, Griego said.
She stayed at Unit One until about 1988, when the district converted it into a middle school and it became known as Glendale Landmark.
In 2010, the school was turned back into K-8 to address low-enrollment issues in other parts of the district.
Today, only one classroom building, a bell and the auditorium, which has been converted into a library, remain from the original school. The lone classroom became part of the National Register of Historic Places in 2006, but is closed to the public.
Parts of the campus now house the district office and serve as classrooms for alternative-school students.
Joanna Aguirre, who teaches seventh- and eighth-grade reading, said Landmark’s 100th birthday is giving her students the opportunity to make personal connections to history. Her class is writing letters as if they were students in the 1940s.
“It’s really important for kids to get an understanding of what has come before them, look at all the different aspects of (history) and not just be stuck on what they already are experiencing,” Aguirre said.
Death of bighorn sheep in Catalinas stirs inquiry
TUCSON — Arizona Game and Fish officials are investigation the death of one of the more than 30 desert bighorn sheep recently released in Tucson’s Santa Catalina Mountains.
The 4-year-old ram was found dead Wednesday by Game and Fish staff along the eastern edge of Sutherland Ridge near the headwaters of Romero Canyon. The discovery was made after a signal from the sheep’s GPS radio collar was detected during an aerial survey. Samples have been collected from the carcass for analysis.
Game and Fish officials said possible causes of death are injuries that may have occurred during or after capture, including stress that can lead to heart failure. Other possible causes are a fall, a predator or disease.
The ram was captured Nov. 16 near Yuma and released two days later. der’s body was face-up on pine needles of the forest floor.
Alexander was Patrick’s boyfriend, and Barnes was a friend of the two. Jones said it is likely more than one person was involved in the killing.