Vineland School District
Operator Identification
May 1890 to present
United States of America
TYPE: Educational organization
IATA/ICAO CODES: Nil
HEADQUARTERS: Bakersfield, CA
OTHER NAMES: Nil
Operator History
The Vineland School District encompasses 33 square miles in rural/agricultural southeast Kern County.
Between April 1935 and December 1936, the federal government’s New Deal Resettlement Administration had relocated many struggling rural and urban families to planned communities. In 1936, the Works Progress Administration under the auspices of the Farm Security Administration constructed the Weedpatch Camp to provide affordable housing to thousands of families during the time of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. These migrants, many of them coming from Oklahoma, were refered to as “Okies”.
In September of 1940 the Arvin Federal Emergency School was created to serve the children from a large migrant labor camp that had been established in the area. Located between Arvin and Weedpatch and situated on Weedpatch Highway, it was more commonly referred to as “Weedpatch Camp” by the families who lived there. The “Okie” children from the camp were not given a warm welcome in the nearby public schools and, in fact, were often poorly treated there. In order to provide for the special needs of these children, 10 acres were leased adjacent to the labor camp and, using the two old condemned buildings on the property to house the “fifty poorly clad, undernourished, and skeptical youngsters,” the federal migratory school was started. It came to be called the Weedpatch School. Renovation of the two buildings and construction of additional facilities was accomplished exclusively by the children and their teachers. They learned the art of making adobe bricks and also how to make shelves, chairs, and even desks. The students dug ditches for water lines and even dug a swimming pool, which was the first public pool in Kern County. Once it became operational, students at the Weedpatch School were offered a curriculum far different from that of other public schools in the area. They learned everything from the practical aspects of agriculture and animal husbandry to airplane mechanics and the cobbling of shoes. During its first year of operation, from September of 1940 to May 1941, approximately 200 students attended Weedpatch School. Its success, due largely to the unique curriculum and a dedicated staff, gained a great deal of favorable attention and before much time had passed, once-hostile members of the community began to express interest in having their own children attend Weedpatch.
The declared emergency that had given birth to the Weedpatch School could, by law, last no more than five years, and so it was forced out of existence in 1944 and was absorbed by the Vineland School District, thus swelling the district’s enrollment to over 600 students. The earthquake of 1952 destroyed the one story brick building at Vineland School and all but one of the original buildings on the Weedpatch site. Between 1952-1957 the district reconstructed the two schools’ buildings and renamed Weedpatch School as Sunset School. Today, between 700-900 students attend these schools.
Commando Operations
1947* to February 1951
In 1947, the Vineland school district acquired 2 Commandos from the RFC at a discounted price. These airframes were to be used as stationnary ground training facilities for the school's airplane mechanic classes.
Last edited: 22/12/2019