Tulare Western High School

Tulare Western High School is a public school for secondary education in Tulare, California, USA. The school's mascot is the Mustangs.^[1] This high school is part of the Tulare Joint Union High School District, along with Tulare Union High School and Mission Oak High School, headquartered in Tulare, with Sarah Koligian as District Superintendent.^[2]

Tulare Western was established in 1959. Its principal is Lucy Van Scyoc, who was appointed in May 2009. Campus capacity for students is just over 2,000. Before the opening of Tulare's newest high school (Mission Oak high school), Western's enrollment was as high as 2,700. Its current enrollment is approximately 1,675.

School colors are red, white and navy blue. Its athletic teams compete in the six-team East Yosemite League, and are nicknamed the Mustangs.The Mustangs fight for the Bell against rival Tulare Union.In 2004,2006,and 2013 are the recent years when the Mustangs defeated its rival Tulare Union for the bell.

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History of Tulare Western "In the 20 years between 1930 and 1950, Tulare’s population went from 6,207 to 12,445 residents, creating the need for a second high school. Where would the money come from for such a costly venture?

Fortunately, Tulare has a history of people working together to make things happen, and the development of Tulare Western High School was no exception.

The land where Tulare Western High School stands was all agricultural in the late 1950’s and owned by Mr. Frank C. & Madeline Vieira, who sold most of it to the district for the new high school and donated Palm Lane, a dirt road with silos at the end, to the school district.

Voters also passed a bond, which I’m told took 20 to 30 years to pay off.

The new school site was near a varsity sports field owned by the city and had three baseball fields that Tulare Union High School already was using. Union and Western continued using the sports area into the 1980’s, when Live Oak Park and Lombardi Field were constructed on North Laspina Street.

Many students knew they were to be pioneers at a new high school, which was to open its doors in the fall of 1959 with freshmen and sophomores only.

Consequently, a group of Freshmen, known as the “Committee of Five,” met with faculty member Race Kent and began to talk over preliminary ideas for the future.

This committee – Ledford “Lefty” Richardson, Terry Reeder, Bettie Todd, Genevieve Gong and Tony Moreno – and many Alice Mulcahy Junior High School students, destined to become members of Tulare Western’s first freshman class, discussed possible school names, colors, and mascots.

Eventually, with the approval of the Board of Trustees, the name Tulare Western was chosen. The school colors were deemed red, white and blue and the Mustang became the mascot.

The trustees, the Committee of Five and other community minded citizens worked and did everything in their power to make this dream of another high school become a reality, and without this pulling together, Tulare Western would have had a slim chance of coming into existence.

On September 8, 1959, Tulare Western High School opened its doors for the first time to 300 freshmen and sophomores.

To say life was different 50 years ago in Tulare is an understatement.

The house where Ethel Vieira Martin, Mary Vieira Nunes and their late brother Frankie were born was located on what is now school property. Mary, her sister Alice Vieira Silviera, and brother Joey, remember driving the tractors to the end of the lane, leaving the keys in them and walking across into the schoolyard. Amazingly, no one ever touched the vehicles!

Here are just a few facts about the beginning years at TWHS:

The first faculty consisted of William Ny, Race Kent, Alice Magill, Glen Lewis, Prudence Oleson, Beatrice Myers, Beth Smith, Robert Schilpp, Norma Kemper, Keith Adams, Don Marks, Floy Gilbert, Robert Moule and Kyde Sale. The first year the school’s administrative office was a military – style Quonset hut. There were only three buildings overall. The original entryway into the campus was originally meant to come through the row of palm trees. Not all of the classroom furniture arrived in time for the start of school. Classes had to “make do” in various ways, such as meeting outside under the palm trees, or placing typewriters on the floor and having students type while lying on their stomachs. There was no bell system for a long period of time; electricity was not on for several days. The ground was plowed up but not landscaped, which meant students, faculty and visitors were a dusty bunch of people. Teachers would water down the dust and wash off the sidewalks daily to keep dirt and mud out of their classrooms. Madeline Cochran, principal at Alice G. Mulcahy School and her students gave Tulare Western its very first tree, which was planted by Lefty Richardson. Genevieve Gong, asked her father, Gerald Gong, to donate meat for a fundraiser for the new school. Jerry Gong put the Associated Student Body in business in March 1960, when he gave 500 of his nicest steaks, and dinner at Tulare’s Memorial Building generated $1,000. Winning the first-ever sports championship for Tulare Western was the 1963 baseball team coached by Lew Gentry. Tulare Western’s first gym wasn’t built until February 1963. The first basketball game played inside was against Coalinga High School and Western won. The only sports program for the young women were tennis and swimming. They also had the Girls’ Athletic League, which provided inter mural competition. Most every day at lunch, the food cart that sold food also played music, and the one song they played every day was “Running Bear!” In January 1962, the campus was covered with snow as was the rest of the city. Much has changed on the Tulare Western campus, where over the years additional classroom wings were built and amenities such as a swimming pool were added.

The Leo Barker Center was built in 1980 and now houses the cafeteria, choir room, Mustang room and teacher’s break room.

A major construction project in 1994 gave the school a new administration building and counseling office with the result that for the first time, the school had an official front entrance. A mini gym also was built during that modernization project.

In 2007, the existing swimming pool was replaced with one that met CIF size and depth regulations and the main gym was remodeled.

Because of the growth, graduations that use to be held on campus in the Race Kent Greek Theater are now held at Bob Mathias Stadium adjacent to Tulare Union.

The Tulare Historical Museum celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Tulare Western in October with a special program. Displayed were many artifacts and memorabilia from those early years.

We were so proud that all past principals were in attendance, except Bill Ny, who recently passed away at the age of 91. Mr. Ny was represented by his son, Steve.

Tulare Western held its own celebration on October 29 & 30, when it honored graduates Gerald Benton, a former principal who later became superintendent of the Tulare Joint Union High School District, and Alan Wiechman, a pioneer in stealth aircraft and ship design, as the first inductees into the school’s new Wall of Fame.

My husband, Richard, graduated in the class of 1966, and he gave me lots of insight into this article. I’m sure many of you have watched as Tulare Western has grown into a wonderful high school of which our community is proud. Our son, Greg, graduated from the school in 1991, and our daughter, Christy, in 1997." credit goes to Linda Ruminer

Archivist-Historian

Tulare Historical Museum