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To this end, I began to interview Architects and I filled the position of Director of Construction. This individual would work with each architectural firm in developing plans for each school so that it would fit our particular organization and he would also be responsible for supervising building inspectors once construction was under way. In addition to new schools, we also needed an addition to our office building, a central library, a warehouse a bus garage and maintenance shops. After this review, I recommended employment of six additional architectural firms. Two were already "on board."

When I projected our financial needs, it was obvious that we could not finance the building projects that were going to be required. It would be necessary to have a bond election and at the same time, get authorization to accept a State Loan. This whole process was not new to me since I had gone through it at both Lawndale and Corona.

We worked out an enrollment projection that indicated we would have over thirty thousand pupils enrolled within a few years. In those days we could accurately predict pupil enrollment based on the number of "undeveloped" acres of land in the district and we had a lot of them. It was like estimating the yield per acre of corn.

The Superintendent had organized an Industrial Tax Committee representing all the major industrial tax payers in the district. We assembled this committee and got their agreement and that of the School Board for a Bond and State Loan proposition to be voted on at a special election. The Superintendent and I then held "Information Sessions" all over the City where we discussed the building propositions. When the election results were totaled the voters had approved $15,000,000 in bonds and $25,000,000 in State Loans for a total of $40,000,000.

Now we could go to work. I hired a structural engineer to "bird dog" the architectural firms who were doing State Loan Projects because the State requirements were very strict and there was a very structured system for all reports and records. During the first year, we completed and occupied seven elementary schools and one high school. When we began construction on those schools there were 4,500 pupils on double session. After the schools were occupied, there were 5,000 pupils on double session. That is how fast we were growing.

I am sure you realize that when a school is built it must be built on land that is owned by the School District. It was a part of my responsibility to buy the land needed for new schools. In this endeavor, we were competing with sub-dividers who wanted every lot they could get and would pay almost any price for it. The only advantage we had was that the School District had the power of "Eminent Domain" which means that we could actually take land that was required for the "Public Good" provided we paid the "fair market value." When we selected a school site we immediately filed a claim on it and hired professional appraisers to determine the "fair market value." We then negotiated with the owner or owners but they were aware that we could not exceed the price that was