By Bruce Auld News Review Contributor–
Captain Burroughs was not an educator, yet he created this unique K-12 partnership – A federally funded new elementary school district, the K-8 China Lake Elementary School District, and a high school operated by the Kern Union High School District. Despite heavy lobbying by the Indian Wells Valley School District to operate the new high school, on January 22, 1945, the NOTS PTA adopted a resolution to annex the high school educational offerings to the Kern Union High School District. China Lake’s recruitment and retention of essential workforce was greatly enhanced by joining the Kern Union High School District. The Kern High School District had a highly effective faculty recruitment system. That, coupled with the economic advantages of Navy housing and commissary privileges, attracted very high quality faculty to Burroughs. High-quality federal school facilities and faculty greatly enhanced China Lake’s recruitment and retention of critical scientists, engineers, and support staff.
Dr. William Haseltine (1962): “Many years after leaving China Lake, I came to appreciate what strengths my life in the desert gave me. By then, I had taught hundreds of Harvard graduates and Harvard Medical School students, many of whom were alumni of elite East Coast boarding schools. I could appreciate that the informal education I received at home, coupled with all that I learned from many remarkable (Burroughs) high school teachers, prepared me for high-level college, graduate, and post-graduate studies as well as any East Coast private boarding schools would have.
“Kitts Street was the shortest street on Station, just two blocks. Dibb was the second shortest street, just three blocks. I could walk directly south from our old duplex and in three blocks and be at school. The original Burroughs was built to be ‘nuke’ proof during the Cold War, pretty much concrete. There was a bomb shelter beneath the classrooms, which also served as the air handling system for heating and cooling. The cooling system was huge fans blowing air through equally huge copper honeycomb drums rotating in a water bath. Last I looked, they were still there. On occasion, students would drop from the classroom registers into the tunnels, only to be captured by Assistant Principal Bill Stokes and be suspended for a day. When they got home, they had ‘double trouble’ from their parents.
“While serving as Sierra Sands’ superintendent in the 1990s, I was frequently asked why James Monroe had a gym but not (the old) Murray. Growing up on Station, I knew the answer. The Station gym and indoor pool were just a few yards away from Burroughs, and during school days, Dibb Road was closed to allow students safe foot travel to physical education.
“The elementary students attending Burroughs were called ‘Burroettes.’ In Kindergarten in 1952-53, I was a ‘Burroette.’”
Grant Pinney, father of Sgt. John Pinney” was one of five individuals that created the National Association of Federally Funded Schools (NAFIS). NAFIS funded all of the China Lake schools and much of BHS. In the late 1970s, Mr. Pinney secured a $5M NAFIS grant to build a new continuation high school at the corner of Downs and Drummond. “Not in my backyard” complaints killed the project, reducing the project from $5M to $500,000 to build the current Mesquite campus on Drummond. A lost opportunity. The DoD funded 80% of the nearly completed new Richmond School on Richmond Road. The 2019 earthquakes destroyed Richmond School, which has been housed on the 70-year-old Vieweg campus. The DoD will fund 80% of a new Vieweg School. The difference between the existing 70-year-old Vieweg School and the new Richmond School is stunning. Pending the acquisition of the essential electrical switch gear (worldwide shortage), the new Richmond is under budget and ahead of schedule. Well worth a drive-by look by turning left from Ridgecrest Boulevard onto Richmond Road. The new Richmond campus will serve well into the next century, as would a new Vieweg School.
Next Up: The 1940s-Burroughs Becomes a Comprehensive High School.
