Sequoia Adult School goes way back Sequoia Adult School goes way back (January 26, 2005)

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

Adult education concerns are as old as California. At the 1849 constitutional convention, a delegate named Mr. Botts said that "grown-up men wanted education as much as children," according to a 2004 report by the California Research Bureau. And they still do, as do grown-up women.

The state Department of Education lists 365 adult schools in California. For 2001-02 school year, the report shows $587 million -- 91 percent of the adult school budget -- coming from the state, with another $60 million in federal money. Schools can also apply for federal and local grants.

A school's funding is based on an attendance formula. Property tax revenues paid to local school districts do not fund adult schools, district officials say.

The Sequoia Adult School -- operated by the Sequoia Union High School District -- celebrated its 84th birthday this month. School secretary Rosemary Alvarez and Carolynn Chase, a vocational education specialist, prepared a brief history of the school that notes the high points of each decade.

The school opened in 1921 with 75 students and a catalog of free evening courses that included woodworking, domestic arts, English for foreigners, public speaking, first aid, interior decorating and choir.

During the Great Depression years, with some 900 students, the curriculum grew to include painting, machine shop, ornamental iron working, typing and shorthand.

In the 1940s, with enrollment at 2,300 and a world at war, the course offerings reflected the times with classes in ship construction, welding, aerial navigation and backyard gardening -- referred to at the time as Victory gardening.

In 1954, the school graduated a class of 15 students earning general equivalency diplomas, or GEDs. Today, between 500 and 600 students take GED classes annually at Sequoia, and some 4,000 study English as a second language. About 80 percent of these students live in Redwood City, East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, with 10 percent living in Portola Valley and Woodside.

This spring, the school is in line to be accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Plans are also under way to provide child-care internships for Canada College students and vocation-specific literacy classes at Opportunities Industrialization Center West in Menlo Park.

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