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La Joya ISD centennial committee presents historical overview of district, 1945–1965
Summary
Committee members Amancio Chapa and Ivan Silva presented the second installment of a centennial series covering the district's postwar growth, veterans, school openings, athletic history and the 1963 name change from Tabasco Consolidated ISD to La Jolla ISD.
Members of La Joya ISD's centennial committee presented a historical overview of the district’s post–World War II era at the board meeting on Feb. 26, tracing local school growth, leadership and athletics between about 1945 and 1965.
Blanca Gomez Perez introduced the presentation and said the committee's "decades of excellence" series is documenting the district's history. Committee member Amancio Chapa noted that many La Joya graduates served in World War II and that the class of 1945 dedicated a multi-page section of their yearbook to veterans.
Chapa highlighted several local figures who served the district: H. Norris, a high-school principal who left to serve in the Army Air Corps; longtime trustee Eliberto (Ebi) Reyna, who served on the board from 1942 to 1964 and 13 years as board president; and coach Johnny E. Langerhans, who returned after wartime service to rebuild athletics. Chapa said Memorial Elementary opened in 1954 and that John F. Kennedy Elementary opened in 1960. He noted that Memorial Elementary was later renamed Ebi Reyna Elementary and then returned to the Memorial name after a board change; the committee said the minute book shows a formal change documented in 1963 when the district name was changed from Tabasco Consolidated Independent School District to La Jolla Independent School District after a tie vote that was broken by board chairman Frank Eckrode.
The presentation also covered student activism: Chapa described a student petition and walkout in 1963 after a teacher's contract was not renewed; he said students were granted a hearing but the board did not reverse its decision. The display included athletic highlights and alumni notables: Max Diaz (an agriculture teacher and former baseball player who later had a school named Diaz Villareal), star athletes Mauricio Huichu Salinas and Reynaldo Nanno Farias, and band director Clay Diemer, who wrote the district alma mater in the late 1950s.
Amancio Chapa and Ivan Silva closed by thanking district leaders and committee members for supporting the centennial series. Board members complimented the presentation and said they look forward to future installments.
