TORRANCE

If you drove through Torrance, California today you could not imagine what it looked like in April 1955. There were open fields in most of the city. There were many old "stripper" oil wells in much of the town and only two residential subdivisions at that time. Hawthorne and Crenshaw Boulevards were the main north-south traffic arteries and Torrance and Sepulveda Boulevards ran east and west. "Down Town" was along Torrance Boulevard in the eastern part of the city. The industrial development consisted of the General Petroleum refinery, a U. S. Steel plant that made reinforcing bars, an American Standard Plumbing fixture plant and National Supply, an oil tool manufacturing plant. Standard Oil and Santa Fe Land Development Company owned large pieces of real estate but none of it was developed. There was a small commercial development along Pacific Coast Highway in Walteria.

I am not sure what the population of Torrance was in 1955 but there were about eleven thousand students in Kindergarten through Twelve. There were a half dozen large elementary schools and one high school with a second high school under construction.

The Superintendent of Schools at Torrance was a brilliant man who had been a full Commander in the Navy during World War II. He was convinced that students were best served by self-contained classrooms in Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Grades and then by four year high schools. That was the way the district was organized and during his tenure , there were no Junior High Schools. This was a very economical organization because it eliminated a whole layer of school service. We constantly monitored the success of our high school graduates and found they competed very successfully with those from districts that had Junior High Schools.

The Business Manager whom I replaced was a bright and able individual who had one weakness, he could not delegate responsibility. As a result he was obligated to do everything himself. Because of this weakness the district was unable to keep up with the increasing numbers of students at all grade levels. I found over five Million dollars in unobligated funds in the Building Fund. The Business Manager was just "too busy" to buy sites, hire architects and award construction contracts even though he worked eighteen hour days.

Now when I say "I did this and I did that", please remember that I had plenty of help but when you assign a job to an individual, you must hold him or her responsible and you must check up now and then to make sure the person is performing. Also it is necessary to retain the confidence and support of the Superintendent and the Board of Education who must approve everything that is done in the district. I was well-trained in bringing Boards along and always maintained a good working relationship with the Superintendent.

I found we had four thousand five hundred elementary pupils on double sessions and the City Building Department was swamped with thousands of building permits for new homes. It was imperative that we get some new schools under way immediately.