Vignette 255 > Edna Maguire School

In May 1954, Edna Maguire was honored for her 34-year teaching career in Mill Valley by announcement from the Mill Valley School District board of trustees that a new upper grade school named for her would be built in Alto. In June, final approval for the new Edna Maguire School was given by the State Allocation board at a meeting in Los Angeles attended by Mill Valley school district superintendent, Dr. Roy M. Laugesen. The board approved a building of 29,840 square feet with an estimated cost of $533,858. In September 1956, Mill Valley elementary schools opened their doors to about 2,700 children in seven schools. The Edna Maguire School accommodated the seventh and eighth grades, formerly taught at Alto school, which would be used for kindergarten through the sixth grade. Park school was the largest in the district with 512 students enrolled, while Edna Maguire school had 477. The average class size in the district was 30 pupils. There were 87 teachers. In 1946, the school district had acquired a five-acre site, part of a government-operated Alto trailer court with 38 trailers. In 1948, Alto school opened with more than 300 pupils in grades one through seven.