History

The school's formal opening, May 4, 1928, was celebrated with a dinner at which the late Susan Dorsey, superintendent of city schools, was guest of honor.
A three-story concrete building with 30 classrooms was the first unit constructed on the site Cabrillo ave. between Fourteenth and Seventeenth sts. Built to accommodate the students overflowing San Pedro high school classrooms, which housed junior high school grades; the new school started with an enrollment of 625 pupils. The staff included 23 teachers. First principal was Roy Porter; Vice principal was Beatrice Whittlesey. Cedric Stannard, counsellor, became vice principal in 1930 when enrollment reached the 1500 mark.
Two wings have been added to the original unit, increasing classrooms by 16; six bungalows were set on the grounds, and a girls gymnasium has been constructed. Enrollment today stands at 1,567 students. Staff members stand at 67, with instructors, the principal, Colin Donohoe, and four vice principals: Ms. Brown, Ms. Boller, Ms Fosnaugh and Mr. Schiappa-Gobee.


Richard Henry Dana (1815-1882)

Pedro Murals . . . Working People's Art
Two murals at Dana cover walls at the north and south ends of the school's cafeteria. Both bear the signature of the artist Adrien Machefert and the date 1939. The Dana murals portray early San Pedro and its harbor activity. Is that Richard Henry Dana, Jr. who balances the hides on his shoulders? Early San Pedro residents, including a sizable Native American population, work beside sailors at the waterfront.
Former cafeteria manager Shirley Guff, who had been at the school sixteen years, feels that many of the faces on the figures in Machefert's paintings resemble those of students she has seen at Dana. The art work casts a spell of its own, she points out. The murals are the first thing former students want to look at when they return to visit the school.
Today these San Pedro murals remain for an audience of students and passers-by a people's art elevating the role of labor and public employment and serving as a reminder of an earlier time of economic hardship.

