Countdown to 2000: Schools

For schools, the 1920s were a time of growing pains.

The prosperity and rising population of the Newport-Mesa area in the

third decade of the century put pressure on local schools to expand, and

it also challenged the community to come to an understanding of the role

education should play in a diverse community.

In the Harper School District, there were only three teachers for the

1919-20 school year. They earned between $100 and $125 a month for the

job of teaching 80 pupils each.

With the dawn of the ‘20s, the economic doldrums that had afflicted

postwar Fairview were finally lifting and the area was beginning to

develop a sense of identity. Educationally speaking, this manifested

itself in the development of Costa Mesa’s first PTA in 1921 and the

opening of Costa Mesa Grammar School in 1923.

The district continued to grow throughout the decade, so much so that by

1930 another building, the Monte Vista School, was erected. Here, the

tensions produced by the area’s rapid growth became evident: the new

school was to be for Mexicans only because Costa Mesa Grammar School

principal Dale Evans “was convinced that the district’s Mexican students,

the majority of whom were having language difficulties, would learn more

at their own school.”

It’s not an idea that would be greeted with much enthusiasm today, but

Brown vs. Board of Education, the Supreme Court’s decision overturning

the notion of “separate but equal” facilities for different ethnic

groups, would not take place until 1954.

School facilities in Newport Beach were still fairly primitive during

this period. Though the area had grammar schools, high school students

commuted to Santa Ana, a situation that didn’t change until the

construction of Newport Harbor High the next decade.