Schools

Santee Schools to Celebrate 50th Anniversaries

Carlton Hills School and Sycamore Canyon School are hosting open house events this week.

Two Santee schools will celebrate their 50th anniversaries this week. is holding an on Thursday and is holding an on Friday.

“Carlton Hills has had 50 excellent years, and the best is yet to come,” said Carlton Hills Principal Terry Heck. “We’re very proud of our school.”

Sycamore Canyon Principal Debra Simpson said: “It would be a good time for anyone in the community to come back and visit and say, ‘Hello’ to people who have been here for a long time and see how we’ve grown and changed, but also to share some memories of the past 50 years,” said Sycamore Canyon Principal Debra Simpson.

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Both schools invite students and their families, alumni and community members to visit. Attendees will be able to check out the modernized campuses and see pictures of the last five decades.

“A lot of those people have never seen the modernized campus, so it’s quite exciting,” said Heck, who has been the principal for three years.

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Both principals agree some of the biggest changes to the campuses have been modernization.

Sycamore Canyon was modernized three years ago, and Carlton Hills was modernized two years ago. New cabinets, carpet, ceilings, heating and cooling systems, lightning and teacher walls—which are sliding white boards with storage space—were installed in classrooms at both campuses. Landscaping was also revamped at both schools.

At Sycamore Canyon, the main office was relocated from the middle of the campus to the front of the school. The media center was remodeled and two classrooms were transformed into a science lab and an art/music room, Simpson said.

“They really needed it,” said Louise Jones, a secretary at Sycamore Canyon. “It’s a beautiful campus.”

A new junior high building was constructed at Carlton Hills. The two-story building has 10 classrooms, a fitness lab and a computer room, Heck said.

“It’s so beautiful,” Heck said about the modernized campus. “We love it!”

Jones said Sycamore Canyon’s shift to technology is another change she has witnessed during her 23 years at the school.

Every class has computers. Intermediate grades have four to six computers and primary grades have three, Simpson explained. The media center has two computers, and there is also a class set of Netbooks that teachers can check out for their students to use.

“I’ve seen it grow very rapidly,” Jones said.

Carlton Hills has had similar changes. In addition to classroom computers, two computer labs and a laptop cart, six classes have student responders, which are handheld devices used to answer questions electronically. Two classrooms also have interactive white boards, Heck said.

“It increases student engagement very much, so we’re very excited about that,” Heck said.

The numbers of students who have attended the campuses have also fluctuated throughout the years.

There are currently 538 Carlton Hills students, Heck said. He added that the school has had as many as 700 students in the past. Sycamore Canyon currently has 398 students, Simpson said. The school has had more than 600 students in the past, but its numbers decreased after the school no longer enrolled middle school students in the late 1980s, she added.

While both campuses have changed in looks and size, both principals said the sense of community has remained the same.

So far this year, volunteers have logged 3,000 hours at Sycamore Canyon, Jones said.

“That says a lot about this community—they give the school 100 percent support,” she said. “Year after year, they come back.”

During Sycamore Canyon’s open house, volunteers will plant a tree in the school’s garden to commemorate the occasion, said Simpson, who has been the principal for two years. Volunteers originally created the Cougar Garden.

There will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Carlton Hills’ new during the school’s open house. The outdoor space was made possible by grants, donations and volunteer hours.

Carlton Hills’ open house will take place from 5:45-7 p.m. on Thursday, and Sycamore Canyon’s open house will take place from noon-1 p.m. on Friday.

“We want the surrounding neighborhoods to feel like they’re a part of our school,” Simpson said. “It’s a way to bring the community together. Anyone is welcome to come and help us celebrate and share with us the past and the present.”


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