...Mira Mesa is situated in an area once inhabited by Indian tribes, the relics and bones of which can still be found in Penasquitos canyons.  When the Spaniards came, the area was part of a large land grant that became known as Rancho Penasquitos.  Because much of the land was wasteland, it was not put to much use for years until developers in the early 1960's saw its potential to relieve the housing shortage San Diego was suffering.

 

When families started moving in, however, they realized there weren't any schools for their children.  Some elementary schools were set up in homes loaned by the construction companies, but junior and senior high school students had to be bused out to different schools miles away at great expense.  A school bond issue in 1970 that might have paid for schools in Mira Mesa was put on the ballot and failed.  Two more bond issues were subsequently put to the vote and they, too, were rejected.

 

Yet the construction companies kept on building more houses, creating an ever larger problem for Mira Mesans.  Having no other recourse, mothers finally organized and started picketing in front of model homes, which drew city-wide attention.  Their group, called the North City Concerned Taxpayers, took its message to the Chambers of the City Council and to the School Board, asking for a general moratorium on building until a solution could be found.  In reaction to this move, the construction companies let off 3000 workers for a day in order to protest by marching in their hard hats down Broadway to the city offices.

 

After a long debate, a compromise was reached.  Developers all over San Diego contributed to school building funds.  The School District issued availability letters, and the City Council started issuing building permits.  City buses, instead of privately chartered ones, were put to use transporting the older students to their distant schools.

 

A new group was formed, Mira Mesans for Schools, which wanted Mira Mesa to be de-annexed from the San Diego Unified School District and become the Mira Mesa Unified School District.  A petition was presented to the County Board of Education, and the San Diego City Schools strongly objected to it.  The petition was then rejected by the State Department of Education because of technical discrepancies.  A new petition, containing the signatures of EIGHTY percent of Mira Mesa's registered voters, gained nationwide publicity, but when it was finally brought before the State Board of Education, it, too, was defeated.

 

The only hope seemed to lie in the school bond issues.  Since 1965 no such bond issue had passed that would help Mira Mesa, partly because some voters were not willing to pay taxes for a new set of schools in such a rapidly-developed, far-away part of the city.  Concerned Mira Mesans, however, kept working to get voters' support of their cause.  After a school bond issue failed in the spring of 1974, another one in November of that year finally passed.  Sufficient funds were now available to start serious construction of schools.

 

A seventh grade school, consisting of portable bungalows, started operations in February, 1975.  From this nucleus, a larger school was developed.  On September 13, 1976, Mira Mesa Jr./Sr. High School proudly opened its doors to its first students, even though some of the buildings were not yet completed.  After so much work for so many years, secondary schools in Mira Mesa had finally become a reality...