Sunol: Never Too Small to Succeed

By Dr. Peter Corona

Sunol-Never Too Small to Succed, shows there is hope for the under-dog. It is an inspiring story that provides hope for the individual and small organizations. It describes how dedication, commitment, and the will and desire to succeed, can help us achieve our goal.
Sunol, as other small school districts, was destined to lose its local autonomy. The Governor and the California state legislature, along with leading college professors advocated elections within high school districts. The larger communities through the election process were able to out-vote the smaller communities and take them over.
Although Sunol only had six percent of the voters, they were able to go to the larger communities and get those voters to vote for them. Eventually, the California legislature passed laws supporting the smaller districts and the Governor signed those bills into law.
How was this done?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503565364

Dr. Peter Corona

Sunol-Never Too Small to Succed, shows there is hope for the under-dog. It is an inspiring story that provides hope for the individual and small organizations. It describes how dedication, commitment, and the will and desire to succeed, can help us achieve our goal. Sunol, as other small school districts, was destined to lose its local autonomy. The Governor and the California state legislature, along with leading college professors advocated elections within high school districts. The larger communities through the election process were able to out-vote the smaller communities and take them over. Although Sunol only had six percent of the voters, they were able to go to the larger communities and get those voters to vote for them. Eventually, the California legislature passed laws supporting the smaller districts and the Governor signed those bills into law. How was this done?

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Copyright © 2015 by Dr. Peter Corona.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2015906610

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5035-6534-0

                Softcover        978-1-5035-6535-7

                eBook             978-1-5035-6536-4

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Rev. date: 06/29/2015

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CONTENTS

The Book

History of Schools in Sunol

Preface

Acknowledgments

Sunol: Never Too Small to Succeed

Postscript

Appendix

Comments for Book

This book is dedicated to the students, staff, and citizens of Sunol and to the residents of the Amador-Livermore Valley as we celebrate Sunol’s 150th year of education. This historical story describes the communities of Sunol, Pleasanton, and Dublin, and their people, events, and organizations. I am thankful to those I came in contact with during my ten years as Sunol Glen’s superintendent, as president of the Amador-Livermore Valley Historical Society, as president of the Pleasanton Rotary Club, and as board member of the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce. I also thank the community leaders of Livermore for participating in my doctoral dissertation.

THE BOOK

S UNOL—NEVER TOO SMALL to Succed shows there is hope for the underdog. It is an inspiring story that provides hope for the individual and small organizations. It describes how dedication, commitment, and the will and desire to succeed can help us achieve our goal.

Sunol, as other small school districts, was destined to lose its local autonomy. The governor and the California state legislature, along with leading college professors, advocated elections within high school districts. The larger communities, through the election process, were able to outvote the smaller communities and take them over.

Although Sunol only had 6 percent of the voters, they were able to go to the larger communities and get those voters to vote for them. Eventually, the California legislature passed bills supporting the smaller districts, and the governor signed those bills into law.

How was this done?

HISTORY OF SCHOOLS IN SUNOL

1865 - Sunol School (renamed Sheridan School in 1889) merged with Sunol Glen in 1919

1868 - Vallecitos School merged with Sunol Glen in 1919

1875 - Rosedale School merged with Sheridan in 1910

1883 - La Costa School merged with Vallecitos in 1905

1885 – Sunol Glen School. Sheridan and Vallecitos Districts, merged with Sunol Glen in 1919

T HE SUNOL SCHOOL District started 150 years ago when Michael Rogan and others petitioned the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to establish a school in the Sunol area.

The board members unanimously supported their request. They were Mr. Shattucks of Oakland; Mr. Frasskins of Alameda; Mr. Farrelly of Brooklyn; Mr. Meeks of Eden; Mr.Overacker of Washington Township, and Mr. Green of Murray. They approved that the Sunol School begin classes on June 1, 1866.

Let’s celebrate!

PREFACE

T HIS IS A story of Sunol’s quality education and its campaign to retain its independence. During the 1960s, the governor, state legislators, and college professors advocated the closure of elementary school districts and having them unify with the high school to form new K-12 school districts. The state legislature approved and supported the law that an election be held encompassing the communities within the proposed unified school district and that those districts voting in favor of unification be given a $15-per-student incentive. A majority of the total vote determined the outcome of the election. Smaller communities were outvoted by the larger ones, and this resulted in many small elementary districts being dissolved and becoming part of the larger unified school district. The greatest loss to those small districts was the disbandment of local school boards elected by their citizens. With unification, the new board members were elected by the larger outside community.

In Alameda County, all elections passed, except one. The smaller communities were outvoted, and in some cases, they could have voted 100 percent against unification and still be drawn in. Seeing the writing on the wall, many small district citizens went with the flow.

California called for an election on June 1, 1965, that included the Amador High School District and its three feeder elementary districts: Pleasanton, Murray (Dublin), and Sunol. The Amador High School superintendent also served as superintendent of the Pleasanton Elementary School District. Pleasanton had more voters than Dublin and Sunol combined. To many, this seemed the easiest election in the county to pass.

Sunol represented the smallest elementary school district with only 150 students. The town of Sunol was unincorporated with a population of 900 people and no local government. The town functioned under the supervision of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors in Oakland, and no residents of Sunol served on that board.

Sunol had quality education, and its citizens knew that. Most people residing outside of Sunol were unaware of its location. Sunol wanted to maintain its local control, although its citizens accounted for only 6 percent of the voters. They needed to convince more than 50 percent of the voters in the Amador High School District to vote against unification. How did they do that?

Some of the other questions that surfaced included:

• What steps did Sunol take to defeat the election by a 65 to 35 percent margin?

• How did it develop its quality education?

• Why did the president of the United States, members of Congress, California’s governor and legislators, and college professors recognize Sunol?

• Why did California school superintendents meet there annually for twenty-seven years?

• How did Sunol convince citizens of Pleasanton and Dublin to vote for them when their high school superintendent and the majority of the Amador High School and Pleasanton elementary boards and teachers and city officials actively supported unification?

• How did Sunol become recognized in the United States, Europe, and the former Soviet Union?

• How did college professors continue to guide Sunol superintendents as they progressed to acquire higher educational degrees?

• How did the Sunol board encourage its superintendents to get doctor’s degrees?

• How did Sunol finally become its own unified school district?

The governor and the state legislators originally advocated closing Sunol and small elementary districts. They later changed their opinion and passed legislative bills signed by the governor supporting the survival of Sunol and other small elementary school districts.

We are never too small to succeed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

M ANY THANKS TO those who helped make this book a reality. Orren Rupert advised the author that his career should be written in several books and that he should focus book 1 on Sunol.

Ted Fuller read and edited the manuscript and offered helpful suggestions.

The Museum on the Main curator, Ken MacLennan, is acknowledged for allowing Judy Rathbone Burt to gather 1960s documents of the Amador-Livermore Historical Society and the Pleasanton Times. They were donated to the museum. I was able to compare their documents with mine. I thank them for permission to use those newspaper articles and the Amador-Livermore Valley Historical Society bulletins.

The library staff at Diablo Valley College offered helpful suggestions with computer skills.

Tim Koopmann and Amy Dawson at the San Francisco Water Company verified my early research of land deeds in the Sunol Valley.

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors allowed me to review early school board meeting records.

Sunol Glen Superintendent Mollie Barnes, Miki Vargas, and Lowell Hoxie allowed me to review records for the years I served as superintendent. They invited me to be their graduation speaker in 2011 and encouraged me to leave historical information to the children and citizens of Sunol and the Amador-Livermore Valley.

Thanks to the leaders of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) and the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) for their encouragement to write this book.

SUNOL: NEVER TOO SMALL TO SUCCEED

T HE TOWN OF Sunol, with a population of nine hundred, is located seventeen miles north of San Jose and thirty-two miles southeast of San Francisco. It borders Fremont, Pleasanton, and Livermore, and is part of the Amador-Livermore Valley. It has a rich history of early settlers, including the Ohlone Indians, Spanish explorers, Mexican land grants recipients, American pioneers, and the influx from the railroads, water, politics, and education.

The town has no city government and politically works with the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. In 1955, the General Electric Vallecitos Nuclear Research Center located here. The Calaveras Dam was built in 1925 and the Turner Dam in 1963. The Sunol Regional Park opened in 1962 and the golf course in 1968. Sunol is located a few minutes from the former home of Phoebe Apperson Hearst in Pleasanton and the Essanay Theatre in Niles, now part of the city of Fremont. Actors Charlie Chaplin, Ben Turpin, Buster Keaton, and Bronco Bill Anderson performed here before going to Hollywood.

School Districts

Sunol, at one time, had five small school districts located within two miles of the walking distance of the students’ homes. When the need occurred for the formation of a school, it required the support of the county superintendent of schools, along with those citizens within the school boundary, to appear before the county board of supervisors for final approval. The same procedure occurred when a school needed to dissolve or merge with another school district. These small school districts eventually merged and became the Sunol Glen School District in 1919.

Superintendent Vacancy at Sunol

On November 1, 1960, the position of principal-superintendent for the Sunol Glen School District opened. It included teaching a fifth- and sixth-grade class and serving as the district’s business manager. I heard about it from the UC Berkeley Placement Office and applied for the position. The day of the interview, I spent the morning in Sacramento doing research in the Department of Natural Resources Building for my doctoral dissertation. My interview in Sunol was scheduled that evening. I took the wrong road and almost ended up in Castro Valley. It pays to get to a destination early. It allows time to recover from mistakes.

Twenty-three candidates were waiting to be interviewed by the school board. The candidates chatted before being called into the room with the board, talking about their current or past jobs. Their comments revealed that they were seasoned, experienced administrators.

When I was called in, the three board members introduced themselves as Con Westling, Edwin Burr, and Herman Koopmann. They asked me a series of questions, which I responded to with ease.

The next day Con Westling, the school board clerk, called. He said that the board was impressed. He noted that I was able to look each board member in the eye and respond to questions without hesitation. He said, We narrowed our decision to two candidates. We selected you because you had the answers. The other candidate had to contact his school district finance and personnel office for information.

I asked him for twenty-four hours to give him a response because I needed to discuss the job with my wife and my boss, Dr. Fickel, the Walnut Creek School District superintendent. He said, Okay.

My wife told me it was my decision. My father-in-law said, Do you think you can handle the job?

I responded, Yes.

The next morning, Dr. Fickel, was away attending a meeting. I saw David Shelver, the new business manager. He was impressed with my role of summer school coordinator, especially the manner in which I handled the school finances, leaving the district with surplus funds. I said, I love it here in Walnut Creek and have doubts about leaving.

Dave said, Sunol is an excellent opportunity. If you don’t take the job, I will fire you!

With his confidence and support, I decided to accept the job. It was one of the best educational decisions I ever made.

First Board Meeting

At the first Sunol board meeting on December 1, 1960, I expected the members to run the meeting, as I was taught at UC Berkeley; so I attended with curriculum information. Con Westling, with Edwin Burr and Herman Koopman present, looked at me and said, Young man, this is your board meeting, and we are here to assist you.

During my long career, I had many good board members, but none exceeded these three. During the meetings, they would sign the warrants and bills and discuss events and issues that might affect Sunol. During the early years there, the meetings were over by 9:00 p.m. The citizens were supportive of their school, and if they had concerns, they felt at ease contacting the board members personally.

The Wise Three Men, as the board members were called, got along well. They represented the whole community. When they made a decision it was for the good of the students, parents, and Sunol.

Con Westling was born in 1890 in Davenport, Iowa. He frequently talked about Moline, Davenport, and Rock Island. He attended Augustana College. He was Swedish and a devoted Lutheran. In 1970, I spoke at his funeral.

During World War I, Con fought for the U.S. Army in France. He was mustard-gassed and came home, he first thought, to die. His parents had a piece of land in Sunol. He moved there to regain his health.

Con was active in the Pleasanton American Legion at the Veterans Hall. He came on the Sunol Glen school board in 1928, the year I was born. He retired in 1966, after serving thirty-eight and a half years. I encouraged him to complete his term and become Alameda County’s longest-serving school board member. He did not. The longest-serving board member in Alameda County was Al La Coste of Emeryville, who served forty and a half years.

Edwin Burr was the brightest of all the board members. I could visualize him as being president of General Motors. He was good-looking, articulate, well-dressed, and had the manners of an urbane person. He showed no emotion and handled issues with ease. To this day, I have met no one who exceeds his class and demeanor.

He grew up in Alameda and ran his own insurance business in San Francisco. His office