22-02-2025
How state earthquake regulations changed the face of this SLO County high school
At a recent basketball game in Atascadero, I noticed banners celebrating the high school's 100th-year anniversary.
But when I began to research newspaper clippings on the subject, I quickly became confused.
A combined high school district was formed in a 1920 election that consolidated districts in Atascadero, Santa Margarita and Pozo.
The measure won overwhelmingly, according to the Daily Telegram of March 1, 1920. The totals were 512-4 in favor.
At the time, it was named the Margarita Black Union High School District.
The mascot name, Greyhounds, was selected in a contest and announced in the Daily Telegram on Dec. 16, 1933.
'The selection met approval, since it conveyed the idea of the school colors, gray, with orange and at the same time indicating speed and cunning, and a determination to win the race,' the article said.
The May 14, 1935, Daily Telegram carried a note that the student body had requested a name change. They made a unanimous appeal to the county Board of Supervisors asking the name be changed to Atascadero High School, which was granted.
So after being completely confused, I sent an email to Stacey Phillips, executive assistant to the superintendent of the Atascadero Unified School District.
Phillips, Lon Allan and others wrote a book on the history of the school, 'AHS: The first 100 years.'
Phillips said the move to form a high school district began in 1919, and the first class of five girls graduated in 1921, the same year the original high school building was dedicated.
COVID disrupted the actual century celebration, so it's a case of better late than never.
In January 2017, the school was in the process of tearing down the last of the old buildings and cracked open a time capsule buried in the walls.
A story by Lindsey Holden documented the contents of the 95-year-old copper tube: newspapers, photographs, coins and blueprints.
It was lucky to last that long. There aren't many century-old school buildings in California.
When an estimated 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Southern California in March 1933, many schools collapsed.
The moderately large earthquake was one the of largest modern-era quakes at that time. Unreinforced masonry walls fell into piles around buildings.
One child was killed, though the toll would have been much higher if it had struck during school hours, instead of shortly before 5 pm.
The Long Beach quake produced photos of catastrophic failures, and the Field Act was the result.
Schools had to be built or retrofitted to a higher standard. Many of the old, stately buildings were torn down.
The bell tower at Atascadero was one such structure to be removed.
And because of that, one of the original Atascadero High buildings was once caught in a strange legal limbo.
Phil Dirkx wrote this story Sept. 12, 1972.
An Atascadero school building is unique because of its unsafe condition. It has become a precedent-setting case.
The building in question is the old gym-theater building on the Atascadero High School campus.
It was built in 1922. It was rehabilitated in 1934, the year after the state Field Act set the standards for earthquake safety for school buildings. At the time it was believed to meet the requirements of the Field Act.
However, in recent years engineers hired by the Atascadero Unified School District have declared it unsafe for students to use, according to the standards in the Field Act.
Since then the students have been generally kept out of the building except for an Air Force ROTC class that will meet there this year with the doors open and on a limited basis.
The Atascadero Unified School District has applied for a state loan which is available to replace buildings that have been condemned because of the Field Act. The amount of the loan is based on the square feet of the building being condemned.
The gym-theater building has 18,126 square feet. If this can qualify for replacement under the state loan program, it can approximately double the amount that can be financed.
District Supt. David Gray says that without the gym-theater square footage, the district can borrow enough to build the library-instructional materials center it is planning at the high school at a cost of about $275,000.
If the gym-theater can qualify, the district would also be able to borrow enough to build a music room, agriculture shop and other shop additions.
This would mean the total cost of the new construction at the high school would be between $500,000 and $600,000.
The district hired the State Office of Architecture and Construction to examine the building in August. The engineers from that department declared the gym-theater unsafe for student use under Field Act Standards.
Gray says that this makes the big building the first school building in the state to be declared unsafe despite its having been rehabilitated after the Field Act was passed.
Gray said that because of the precedent-setting nature of the case, the State Office of Local Assistance was unable to make a decision on the loan application. He will have to take it before the local Allocations Board. This board is made up of two state senators, two assemblymen, the director of the Office of Local Assistance, the associate superintendent of Public Instruction and the deputy director of General Services.
Gray said he will appear before this board in Sacramento on Sept. 20.
