![\"1864\"](\"https:\/\/fremontunified.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2023\/05\/1864.jpeg\")
THE FIRST WARM SPRINGS SCHOOL IN 1864<\/strong><\/p>\nIn 1864, a small schoolhouse was built across Warm Springs Boulevard from the present school. The name was changed to Warm Spring School District in 1866, and the “s” was added later to form Warm Springs.\u00a0 The name is taken from the real warm springs that flow from the hillside at the present Hidden Valley Ranch on Stanford Avenue. The building was remodeled in 1879.\u00a0 The report of the Alameda county superintendent in 1877 noted that the school did not have “sufficient grounds.”<\/p>\n
The teacher in 1879 reported that she was using McGuffey’s readers but admitted that she didn’t always stick to the course of study.\u00a0 She commented, “you who are an old teacher will understand how hard it is to do justice to all in an ungraded school.\u00a0 I am aware that I have no authority to use the word book but it is the wish of the patrons of the school that their children learn to spell correctly.<\/p>\n
A new building was constructed in 1889 on Warm Springs Boulevard across from the old building.\u00a0 It was a commodious school building from the old building that cost $6,000 and was located about eight feet behind the building of today. The old building was sold to the Christian Church and later burned.<\/p>\n May Davis came to teach in 1913. Her students included Rose Vargas and her daughter Evelyn Brown. Miss Davis stayed long enough to teach “the third generation.”<\/p>\n Mr. Brown’s daughter, Evelyn, was one of the students at Warm Springs School.\u00a0 She later graduated from Washington Union High School and served a secretary to the district superintendents at both Washington and Fremont Unified School Districts.<\/p>\n Leslie Maffey served as a teacher and principal until 1944.\u00a0 His wife, Eva also taught here from 1927 to 1944. Joe Brown was a trustee from 1918 to 1929 and sometimes board meetings were held in his Warm Springs grocery store.<\/p>\n Trustees wrestled with the problem of maintaining the old building.\u00a0 One August meeting they faced the questions of “fixing the fence, covering the toilet with shingles, putting a door on the tank house, cleaning it and the yard, and fixing window jambs.”\u00a0 The question of a new school came up but they decided this was not the proper time because the “residents were very busy” with the prune harvest.<\/p>\n They called for a bond election in 1930 but it failed, and building plans were postponed again.\u00a0 The depression was hurting everyone and salaries had to be reduced in 1932 “on account of the shortage of funds.”\u00a0 They had to be reduced again the next year. The trustees called a meeting to hear what the taxpayers had to say concerning the budget. The trustees met and waited but “nobody showed up.”<\/p>\n In 1936, the present building was erected in front of the old 1889 schoolhouse.\u00a0 The enrollment ranged between 70 and 90, then established around 100 except during the spring pea harvest of the 1930’s and ’40’s. When the Mexican families moved in to harvest the peas the enrollment spurted up to as high as 165.<\/p>\n A cafeteria was started in 1952 and Edna Treleavere was the cook.\u00a0 The children ate in the room that is now used as the library.<\/p>\n In 1953, the staff was increased to four teachers when Mrs. Appel was hired to teach third grade in the upstairs room.\u00a0 Francis Trembley became principal in 1955. At that time, a band was organized.<\/p>\n James Sullivan became principal in 1959. Because of the growth that began in the late 1950’s, Joe Bettencourt’s walnut orchard was pulled out to make way for two new classroom wings and the playground.<\/p>\n WARM SPRINGS SCHOOL 1936<\/strong><\/p>\n In 1960, two subdivisions were developed.\u00a0 The enrollment shot up to over 600 students.\u00a0 Portables were added in 1961.\u00a0 Mr. Sullivan was made principal-superintendent in 1962. A kindergarten began and a teacher was hired for each grade. There were four separate additions beginning with a kitchen, portable classrooms, and three wings.\u00a0 The school expanded seven times its size in four years.<\/p>\n By 1963, the district had grown to 29 teachers.\u00a0 The 662 students were on double session.\u00a0 Mr. Sullivan was made full time superintendent, and the Board of Trustees decided to build a new school on Warren Avenue to be named James Leitch in honor of the Leitch family.\u00a0 Because of the need for space, the Warm Springs district offices were housed in a tract home bought by the district for that purpose.\u00a0 It was sold after unification.<\/p>\n Warm Springs merged with the other districts to form the Fremont Unified School District in 1964 and Al Semenza became principal.\u00a0 James Howden became principal in 1969, and upon his death in 1973, Howard Johnson became the school’s 29th principal.<\/p>\n The mascot also has a history.\u00a0 It\u00a0 has been changed from the “raiders” to “warriors” to the current mascot, the “wolves.”<\/p>\n The school has added several classrooms to accommodate the 20 to 1 ratio in the third grade.\u00a0 The Science and Computer Labs and Library were modernized in 2000.\u00a0 In 2008, the district purchased the first ever two-story, seven classroom portable building placed by the third grade classrooms to accommodate the ever increasing Warm Springs student population.\u00a0 Hence, making Warm Springs Elementary a very unique environment with an average of ten third grade and nine of each 4-6 grade classrooms, bringing our current enrollment over 1100 students. \u00a0In 2016, Warm Springs opened a brand new twelve classroom, two story permanent structure. \u00a0This building\u00a0currently\u00a0houses all 3rd grade students.<\/p>\n This history of the school was written in a documentary called Reflections – The Educational Heritage of Fremont, compiled and edited by Philip Holmes and Dolores Rose.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The first school in the Warm Springs area opened in 1863 in a shed, 12 feet by 14 feet, located on the Wilson property. \u00a0Elizabeth Ann Valpey Shaw taught 15 pupils there for three months in order to organize a district. The Higuera School District was established and named in the honor of the Higuera…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":190913,"parent":24,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page_left_column_singular.php","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","advanced-sidebar-menu\/link-title":"","advanced-sidebar-menu\/exclude-page":false},"class_list":["post-25","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-10 15:52:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fremontunified.org\/warmsprings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fremontunified.org\/warmsprings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fremontunified.org\/warmsprings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fremontunified.org\/warmsprings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fremontunified.org\/warmsprings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fremontunified.org\/warmsprings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fremontunified.org\/warmsprings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fremontunified.org\/warmsprings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fremontunified.org\/warmsprings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"1889\"](\"https:\/\/fremontunified.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2023\/05\/1889.jpeg\")
THE SECOND SCHOOL 1889<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"1934\"](\"https:\/\/fremontunified.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2023\/05\/1934.jpeg\")
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