San Dieguito High School and SDA Celebrates 80 Years of History

A large class of students seated and standing in rows on the grass in front of low stucco school buildings with tile roofs, two 1930s cars parked on the road behind them — San Dieguito Union High School class of 1938 at the new high school campus.

This year, 2016, marks the 80th anniversary of San Dieguito Academy. Though our high school has evolved through three name changes over time, it still embodies a continuity and connection that remains unique to the history of our San Dieguito community that binds all alumni together through the decades.

In the olden days of the San Dieguito area, your education typically ended with the completion of eighth grade. Continuing on to high school was a challenge because it meant traveling to attend Oceanside High School by horse or train. Our small community was growing, and forward-thinking town leaders knew it was time to look to the future and build a high school that’d be able to house at least 500, if not 1,000 students.

In January of 1936, voters passed to create the new San Dieguito Union High School District to service Del Mar, Solana Beach, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Encinitas, Leucadia, Olivenhain, and Rancho Santa Fe. On September 14th of 1936, San Dieguito Union High School’s first day of senior high classes were held at the Pacific View Elementary School site on 3rd and E Street. Six tents with stoves were erected on the school grounds to provide the extra room needed to accommodate classes for the new high school students. The junior high students were housed at a second location at the site of what is now Cardiff Elementary School on Montgomery Avenue.

A wide panorama of the first senior class posed on a lawn beside an arched stucco building, a man in a dark suit and a dog standing at the end of the group, and a row of canvas-roofed tent classrooms under cypress trees at right — The first San Dieguito Union High School Senior Class at its temporary home at Pacific View Elementary, 1936.

In January of 1937, groundbreaking commenced for the new permanent site of the San Dieguito Union High School between Nardo Road and Bonita Drive along Santa Fe Drive. Architect Lillian Rice, who had designed the first buildings in The Village in Rancho Santa Fe, was hired to design the school. Within the year, the new campus site was occupied with the combined students of the junior high and senior high classes.

Two-story school buildings with a school bus and 1930s cars parked in front, above a second photograph of the student body seated and standing in rows — The new campus on Santa Fe Drive, with the school bus out front, and the students who filled it.

San Dieguito Union High School’s first official graduating class was in 1937. The exact number of graduates is uncertain because the commencement list has been lost, but photos of 30 graduating seniors did grace the first yearbook.

Then and Now

An aerial photograph of the new school buildings standing alone on open, scrubby land, a dirt athletic field in front with a few figures on it, and a single paved road cutting diagonally past — San Dieguito Union High School from the air, 1938. Open country on every side of Lillian Rice’s campus.

What’s Happening Today — Fall 2016

The closing section of the manuscript, which the magazine had no room for. These were the anniversary events of the 2016/17 school year.

Everybody is invited to October 14th Founders Day celebration which kicks off at 1:30 PM at the Media Center of SDA with a reception for classes 1941 through 1956, followed by the 3:30 PM Hall of Fame Induction honoring football hero Thomas Dempsey class of 1964 and marks the first of many celebratory events to be held during the 2016/17 academic year.

The public is also invited to join to help support and raise money for SDA student activities at the November 5th, Fall Fund Raising Gala, 80’s for the 80th, from 6:30 PM till 11:00 PM at the Encinitas Community Center, 1140 Oakcrest Park Dr.

To keep informed on what is taking place you are encouraged to contact the SDA Alumni and SDA Foundation offices. The Mustang Memories San Dieguito Alumni Newsletter currently goes out to over 4,500 alumni. If you are an alumni and are not receiving it, get your name on the list!

From the Same Issue

A young football player in a dark jersey numbered 33 leaping with the ball cocked back to pass, school buildings behind him — Fred Ashley, honorable mention blocking back at San Dieguito Union High School.

Fred Ashley was a San Dieguito student too. His story ran in this same October | November 2016 issue: The Life & Times of Fred Ashley — An Encinitas Legend.

As It Ran in Print

The original pages, Encinitas Magazine, October | November 2016 — pages 52 and 53 in the Memories of Old Encinitas section, and page 54 in Then and Now. Click any page to see it full size.

San Dieguito High School and SDA Celebrates 80 Years of History as it ran in Encinitas Magazine, page 52, with two class photographs framing the headline and opening text — Page 52.

Page 53 of the story in Encinitas Magazine, the 1936 tent classrooms above the text and the class of 1938 below — Page 53.

Page 54 of Encinitas Magazine, Then and Now, the 1938 aerial photograph of the campus above a 2016 aerial — Page 54.

Sign the guest book

Were you there? Do you know someone in the photos or mentioned in the story? Leave a note — Kyle reads every one.

← All stories