Harry Baker, original board president;  Bill McCabe, district superintendent;  and Kenneth Savage, original  superintendent.

By Harry Baker as told to Earlene Ward Note: Harry Baker was the first president of the Yosemite Union High School Board of Trustees and was instrumental in the formation of the new district.

 There was a lot of interest in a high school in Eastern Madera County for decades before we got the school. It was too long, burdensome and tiring of a ride to Sierra High School for our students. Some students went the equivalent of four times around the world riding the bus back and forth. My first involvement in trying to generate a higher level of public interest was in 1963 when I was president of the Oakhurst Chamber of Commerce (which is now the Eastern Madera County Chamber of Commerce).

 The chamber had not taken much of a proactive role in pushing for a high school. In my acceptance speech when I was installed as president, I said if people wanted positive growth they needed things that make a community attractive, such as schools, hospitals and so forth.

 I approached my good friend Fred Topham and asked him to be a catalyst to get some discussion started in the chamber by attending a meeting and, from the floor, asking this question: "Is the chamber going to get active pushing for a high school in Eastern Madera County and if not, why not?" The question was timely because work toward a high school was gaining a little momentum. I don't mean to suggest that I should be given any undue credit but I think those who were here and involved at that time would agree things picked up a little.

 Shortly after that, in 1965, I ran for the Sierra High School Board. I was defeated even though I had an overwhelming vote from Eastern Madera County. We ended up again with only two members on a five-member board who supported the second campus. We could have been four years further along if we had been successful then. In 1969 we vowed that wouldn't happen again. If there were three seats on the board, there were going to be three pro-candidates from Eastern Madera County on that ballot.

 Jess Love was already on the board and we wanted two more to get a majority. We didn't get two, we got three, making a total of four trustees who were favorable to the idea of a high school in Eastern Madera County. In the early 1960s, the high school had bought property where Yosemite High School was ultimately established and in those years, the Sierra Board would repeatedly promise to build a second campus in Oakhurst when the total enrollment of Sierra reached some pre-determined number. That's about 35 years ago and a little hazy in my memory, but my best recollection is that we were promised that when we could open a campus over here with an enrollment of 200, they would open it. My recollection is that the number was raised to 300 and then to 400 and I believe that when I and the other newly elected trustees took office in 1969 we were not that far from 400. So, after a couple of years, we started the initial steps to build a second high school campus in Oakhurst.

 One part of this may be puzzling to you: I'm not mentioning funding and I'll tell you why. Sierra High School, at that time, was the second wealthiest high school in the state of California. Why was it the wealthiest? Because under the formulas in existence then, the assessed properties within the school district were available to be taxed by that school district and no other. There are very substantial hydro-electric properties belonging to Southern California Edison in the Sierra High School District. Those properties include Florence Lake and the dam, the Ward Tunnel from Florence Lake to Huntington Lake, Huntington Lake and the dam on that lake, Shaver Lake and its dam, the penstocks from Shaver Lake to the powerhouses at Big Creek, the powerhouses and a substantial number of high voltage transmission lines. At that time, five cents on the tax rate raised about $600,000 a year. We believed we could build a fine high school for about $3 million; it would only have taken five cents on the tax rate for five years to fully fund the construction of the new high school. There would have been no necessity for a bond, no necessity for state aid and the local taxpayers wouldn't have felt the five-cent tax.

We have just completed paying for the new Madera County Jail that started at a three-cent tax rate but the Board of Supervisors was able to reduce that to two and a half cents and it's been virtually painless to the taxpayers of Madera County and building the high school would have been just as easy. Easier really, because almost all of the burden would have fallen on Southern California Edison and for them that would have been no burden at all. The total tax rate for Sierra High School at that time was 60-cents.

After we took the initial steps to start the campus in Oakhurst, there was a great uproar of opposition from North Fork, O'Neals and Fresno County and a recall effort was initiated. You have to remember that this was 25 years ago, in 1972, and that area of Eastern Madera County that wanted the new high school campus was not as developed nor as populated as it is today. The five elementary districts ultimately to compose Yosemite High School voted overwhelmingly, it seems more than 90 percent, in opposition to the recall but even then, we didn't have the votes to defeat it. Fresno County, North Fork and O'Neals were successful in the recall and Ida Baker (no relation) and I were recalled. While that was disappointing to us, it clearly was the catalyst and the action that made us realize that we could not depend on Sierra to keep their promises and build a second campus.

 Paul Pitman and Martha Pitman knew schools and school districts and had a luxury that not all of us had, they had "time". With the backing and blessing of others of us, they led the successful effort in Sacramento to persuade the State Board of Education to permit us to vote to pull out of the Sierra High School District. This was immediately opposed by Sierra High School who argued that the balance of the district should be permitted to vote also. They were denied and the five elementary school districts voted almost 90 percent "yes" to pull out of Sierra High School. You know what the little dog says when he catches the train?: "Oh, what do I do now?"

 Norman Gould, then Madera County Superintendent of Schools, had lunch with me at the Holiday Village in Oakhurst and asked me my thoughts on who might make good appointees to serve as trustees for the as-yet unnamed high school, and he asked me if I would serve on that board. I said I would. Together, we came up with four other names: Russell Clutter from Bass Lake, Fritz Konklin from Coarsegold, Regina Harlow from Raymond and Herman Neufeld from Ahwahnee. We composed the initial board. We had no place to meet, no paper and no pencils. We met upstairs in the Pamplin Building for several months. We hired Paul Pitman as our first administrator and we moved aggressively forward to get the new high school constructed. We had to put a bond on the ballot and my recollection is that it passed by about 86 or 88 percent. We had some state aid in an amount I do not recall and we moved forward with retention of an architect and awarded a contract and built the school. I believe we laid the cornerstone in May 1976 and opened classes in September 1976.

Jumping back to 1973 when we pulled away from Sierra and passed the bond, in October of 1973 I was out of town on business and the board elected me Yosemite High School's first president. I was very honored by that and I guess the message is "don't leave town, because if you do, you'll be appointed to something." There was a serious question of how to provide for our students in the interim until we got a campus constructed. Sierra was willing to keep them but only if we paid an amount we thought was exorbitant. But even with the high price they wanted, we gave the juniors and seniors the opportunity to stay at Sierra High School to graduate with their classes and many of them did. Of the others, a few went to Mariposa and we had arranged for the balance to attend in Fresno until, finally, a more equitable arrangement was worked out with Sierra and the students continued to go there until the new school was built.

A little side light that some people don't understand is that the five board members were appointed by Norman Gould and, according to the education code, we all had to stand for election at the next appropriate time which was in 1975. Only Fritz Konklin had opposition and it was only token opposition. All five were re-elected to a four-year term. That introduced a complexity in that every four years everyone would be up for reelection and could go off the board. We solved that by putting five pieces of paper in a coffee can; three had the numeral four and two had the numeral two on them. Thus, by drawing lots, we solved the problem of needing staggered terms. I and one other (Russ Clutter I believe) drew two-year terms. At the end of my two-year term, I ran again and was defeated. I don't think Russ Clutter ran again, but my memory is hazy.

Since that time, I have kept a very active interest in the school. Every year I assist with scholarships and I had the honor of having the gymnasium named after me.

 A great many people were involved in the effort for a high school. I hope my comments don't make it sound as if I thought I was solely or principally responsible for the high school coming into being because that's certainly not true, but I do think some of the things I did served as a catalyst at a critical time.

 These 28 years have gone by so fast; I was 41 when I was elected to the Sierra High School Board and I will be 70 my next birthday. Would I do it again? Absolutely, without hesitation. I'm hoping that a similar effort will bear fruit and we will have a community college in Eastern Madera County. I hope I live to see a community college up here - that would make me feel real good.