History
Garces Memorial High School traces its origins back to the earliest days of Catholic education in Kern County. In 1910, the Sisters of Mercy founded St. Francis Elementary School in the basement of St. Francis Church, located on Truxtun Avenue. As the years passed, the parish began to make plans to add a high school.
St. Francis High School
In September 1940, the Sisters added a ninth grade. Eight girls made up the first freshman class. In 1941, a tenth grade was added and in 1942, an eleventh grade was added and the first boys enrolled in St. Francis High School. In September 1943, the Dominican Sisters' Congregation of St. Thomas Aquinas replaced the Sisters of Mercy as administrators of the school.
The Garces Genesis
In October of 1944, Monsignor Culleton, Chancellor of the Monterey-Fresno Diocese, visited the Sisters and spoke of the need for a central Catholic high school serving all of Bakersfield. On April 4, 1945, Bishop Scher conducted an all-parish meeting at St. Francis. It was decided to build and conduct a high school along the lines of San Joaquin Memorial High School in Fresno. The Sisters would teach the girls and the Brothers of the Christian Schools would teach the boys.
In the spring of 1947, ground was broken for a new 32-acre central Catholic high school located in the northeastern section of the city in a newly created residential area called La Cresta.
Garces Memorial High School
On September 7, 1947, the public was invited to an open house for the new Catholic high school. Three days later, on September 10, Garces Memorial High School opened as a co-educational, inter-parochial high school with an enrollment of 150 students. The school was named for Padre Francisco Garces, a Franciscan missionary and the first European to cross the Kern River and enter the area known today as Bakersfield.
During the first year, the Christian Brothers were placed in charge of the boys division, teaching grades seven, eight and nine, while planning to add an additional grade each year. The girls division, plus the tenth, eleventh and twelfth grade boys, were taught by the Dominican Sisters.
Garces' first graduating class, consisting of nineteen girls and seven boys, participated in ceremonies conducted June 6, 1948 at St. Francis Church. The Christian Brothers held an eighth grade graduation on June 7 in the all-purpose building (the A.P.B.).
In the 1950-51 school year, the Christian Brothers began teaching all the boys in grades seven through twelve.
The physical plant continued to grow. By September 1952, the seventh classroom unit was in place and the middle section of the football stadium was completed, enabling the facility to be used for the first time. In 1953, lights were added to the finished stadium, enabling the Rams to play night games, and the gymnasium opened its doors for the first time.
The student population expanded during the 1950s to over 400. Along with this increase in students came an expanded faculty with an increasing proportion of lay staff.
In the early 60s, enrollment leveled off at a little more than 400 students. The staff numbered 25 including 15 nuns and Brothers. In 1963, the Garces Junior High School for Boys was closed in order to free more Brothers to handle the teaching load required by the growing enrollment in the high school.
The school came under the direct supervision of the Fresno Diocesan Office of Education in July 1968.
In February of 1970, the Christian Brothers announced that due to a drastic decrease of vocations in their order they would be compelled to withdraw their members from the Garces staff. Due to the anticipated cost of filling this void with lay staff, it appeared that the diocese would be forced to close the school.
However, a committee of concerned parents and other members of the Catholic community committed themselves to keeping the school open. A local board of education was formed to deal with issues of finances and staffing.
With the Christian Brothers recalled to teach in schools owned by their own community in June 1970, the 1970-71 school year saw a change in administrative structure. Garces became co-educational with one faculty, one program of studies, and one set of policies for the entire school. The school was administered by the Dominican Sisters until the beginning of the 1978-79 school year when lay administrators began governing the school.
Our Recent Past
In 1991, the school once again saw several changes in its administrative structure. The school's first president/principal was hired and began working with the board on implementing an organizational restructuring. A business manager was hired, several administrative and classified office positions were consolidated, the budgetary process was revamped and a director of development was hired.
In early 1995, the Garces Board of Directors and Bishop John Steinbock approved GARCES 2010, the school's 15-year strategic plan. Crafted by a group of dedicated supporters in consultation with school staff and administrators, the plan lays out a blueprint for the future. It's a future that will continue the Garces tradition of top quality, student centered education while guiding a dramatic transformation of the physical plant.
Completed 2010 projects include the refurbishment of five classroom wings, the westside athletic field, a new concession stand, refurbishment of the gymnasium, a new administration building, a new chapel and our state-of-the-art library and technology center. Future projects being considered include a new fine arts complex, a new gymnasium and stadium, and a new main classroom building at the heart of the campus.
Garces Memorial High School stands today as a living testament to the hard work and enthusiasm of the people, pastors, Sisters and Brothers who built the school. In 1776, Father Garces dreamed of establishing a mission in this area -- the reality was not far from that dream. Out of 32 acres of barren soil has come one of the finest educational institutions in the Central Valley. Today, the school looks towards a future as rich and exciting as its past.