There were eight students in the graduating class of 1915. The school budget totaled $12,650. Today that number would just about pay for a season’s worth of volleyballs.
Of the 1916-17 budget, the lion’s share — $4,000 — was for teacher’s salaries, $1,275 for maps, apparatus, stoves, curtains and other necessaries.
“After the first year of school the levy will not be as high as it is this season as the building is new and must be equipped with all that is necessary to make a modern school and one that every voter and taxpayer in the district may be proud of,” the Seaside Signal wrote.
In 1966, the district consolidated three districts: Seaside, Gearhart and Cannon Beach.
“All of the districts are growing and additional facilities will be needed,” wrote the Signal.
The unified district debuted in September 1967 with 1,475 students, 501 at the high school.
In decades to come, with increased enrollment, buildings past their projected life span and evidence of a mortal seismic threat, the need for a new school building became a perennial topic of conversation.
In 1970, 400 voters in the school district filled out building questionnaires.
“Construct a Clatsop County High School,” was the suggestion in one reply.
“Replace Central and remodel Broadway,” “Consolidate with Warrenton-Lewis and Clark area” and “build a new high school in Clatsop Plains,” were others.
Only 20 of 400 respondents voted for a “do nothing” plan.
Throughout the next two decades successions of administrators, board members and the community sought solutions.
In 1986-87 voters had the chance to approve a plan that would allow the district to develop ideas for a new high school.
Plans for a 25-year bond issue included purchase of a new site and building of an 800-student high school.
That year’s $12.3 million plan would have alleviated space problems at the elementary level as well, particularly in Gearhart and Cannon Beach. That was a lot of money — a “rib-eye” purchase, the Signal wrote.
The verdict from the voters was crushing — 2,913 to 570.
It was at about this time that Oregon State University marine biologist Curt Peterson and researcher Mark Darienzo began piecing together the links between the Juan de Fuca plate and seismic activity along the coast, referred to then as “tectonic subsistence.”
This information was to have a profound influence on all efforts to replace at-risk schools.
In 2013, with declining enrollment, Cannon Beach Elementary School closed after two engineering consultants found that its gym was likely to collapse in a quake.
Compelling research brought the realization Gearhart Elementary School, Seaside High School and Broadway Elementary School were potential death traps for kids in a disaster scenario.
Led by Superintendent Doug Dougherty, the district brought a $128.8 million bond measure to fund construction of a new consolidated school campus above the tsunami inundation zone.
Supporters of the bond measure focused their campaign on children’s safe, high-tech classrooms, wrote Bonnie Henderson in her recounting of the campaign in “The Next Tsunami: Living on a Restless Coast.”
“But the bottom line for many ‘no’ voters seemed to be the cost,” Henderson wrote. “Even some supporters were having a hard time swallowing the increase in property taxes that the construction of the new campus would have required.”
The defeat sent Dougherty and the school board back to the drawing board, according to Henderson, to consider other options, such as building a smaller campus on the hill or one to house just elementary school students.
This century mark is bittersweet. While we welcome the 100th year of Seaside High School, we join in the enthusiasm and urgency for a new high school to take its place.
One hundred, 50, 25 years ago there was no hard evidence of the risk we face every day. There is now.
The high school stands 14 to 18 feet above sea level, according to geologist Tom Horning. The likely tsunami will flood to elevations of about 40 to 50 feet, nearly to the top of the high school gymnasium roof.
“The wave will strike about 15 minutes after the inception of quaking,” Horning said in an email. “It takes roughly 15 minutes to reach safety in the hills from the school, assuming that traffic doesn’t block evacuation and that the weather is good for evacuating. The high school structure will be swept away, leaving only concrete foundations and steps. Anyone caught in the building by the tsunami will die. Anyone caught below 50 feet elevation will also likely die. Very dangerous place.”
Taylor Barnes, a Seaside High School senior and student representative on the City Council, among young leaders seeking to move the school. Their voices are reaching to Portland, Salem and points beyond.
“I think this is the year,” Barnes said last week after Seaside’s council meeting. “Ultimately it’s going to come down to the community members. They’re ready. A lot of people are frustrated. The time is now because we can’t wait. Whether we’re ready or not, it needs to be now.”
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s South County reporter and editor of the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach Gazette.
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