SCHOOL DAYS! SCHOOL DAYS! Good old fashion rule days! Is there anyone out there that remembers the rest of the words to that song?
This is that time of the year when students look forward to graduation day, whether its elementary school students moving on to middle school or high school students going out into the world of college or work.
Los Osos Valley at one time had five school districts: the Pecho School District founded in 1898 (annexed to Laguna School District); the Irish Hills School District founded in 1926; the Laguna School District founded in 1898; the Sand Hill School District founded in 1875. The name was changed to Sunny Side School District in 1891. Los Osos School District was founded in 1872.
Before the five school districts merged c 1966 with the San Luis Obispo Unified School District, there were mixed feelings, according to an interview in the 90s with Bill Froom, a trustee of the Laguna School District.
Los Osos Valley School was built in 1875 on the south side of Los Osos Valley Road at Turri Road. It was moved to its present location on LOVRD and Palisades in 1973.
Laguna School was on the corner of Madonna Road, where the fire station is today.
I remember the Stowe School. It had been moved from its original site on O’Connor Way in 1966 to the south west corner of Los Osos Valley Road and Clarke Valley Road. When Granny Orr and I interviewed Mr. and Mrs. Joe Turri, Marguerite recalled the days she taught at the school.
When I sketched the one room school house in 1977 before it was demolished, it was occupied by the owners, Horace and Albert Rockwell.
I was privileged to meet O.B. Paulson in the 70s, when he published “The End Of The One Room School Era.” What was I thinking when I neglected to buy a copy of his outstanding book — a major contribution to the history of the one room school? Los Osos Library has a copy that can referenced whenever the library opens to the public again.
Reference: One Room Schools in the Valley of the Bears by Joan Sullivan 1993
