1957: Experts Selected New School Site

Editor's Note: This was one in a series of stories that appeared in The Yuma Daily Sun to impress on Yumans the urgency of a need for a second high school (which was named Kofa), and to explain why the site was selected.

Yuma Union High School District officials sought the best professional advice money can buy in planning their second school.

Stanford Research Institute recommended the school should be located on the 80-acre site on County 11th Street donated by the federal government. Dr. Irving R. Melbo, noted school planning expert, concurred with Stanford.

The proposed plant will be constructed to handle 1,000 students. The bond issue will finance a complete new plant except for an auditorium. Even so, unless authoritative predictions for Yuma's continued growth are wrong, both school plants will be filled by the time the new one is completed.

The 11th Street site was chosen because:

1) Its central location in relation to the entire district will shorten the bus time for valley and mesa students.

2) It has good soil for athletic fields and landscaping.

3) Few space restrictions will allow ample parking for most occasions.

4) It affords room for an on-school farm for the agriculture department of 20 acres or more.

5) Size of the site and type of surroundings will allow a controlled or closed campus.

6) Near absence of traffic hazards.

7) Site is not in the flight pattern of Vincent Air Force Base.

8) It will allow transferring athletic fields for use next fall.

9) Ample parking and additional seating would allow many more Yumans to attend sports events. And controlled inside parking would eliminate the worry of vehicle damage or theft during athletic events.

Many of these advantages would not be realized if the school were to be built on the 62-acre site near Gila Vista School.

Students living in the area surrounding the new plant will attend that school. However, juniors and seniors in this area will be allowed to complete their high school educations at the present school.

This story originally appeared Jan. 15, 1957, in The Yuma Daily Sun.