The Modern Era of Diamond Bar Schools Takes Shape

This is the last of a on the history of Diamond Bar's two school districts.

In the mid-1970s, a second attempt to unify the children of Diamond Bar under one comprehensive school district pushed on. As all had a stake in the decision, the voters of Walnut, Pomona and Diamond Bar went to the polls.

Just a year before his local political legacy took root, former Walnut Valley Unified School Board member and Diamond Bar Councilman John Forbing said the voters in the incorporated cities of Pomona and Walnut outvoted the approximately 12,000 voters living in the unincorporated community of Diamond Bar.

Forbing said he had no memory of a specific campaign waged against the unification measure, just “a whispering undercurrent of rumors and innuendo.”

“Voters in Walnut were concerned there would be tax ramifications and the voters in Pomona were concerned about the potential impact on test scores districtwide without the Diamond Bar students,” Forbing said.

However, the needs of the growing school population had changed as the region transitioned from an agricultural to residential character.

The WVUSD began its official operation just years before with the merger of grades K-12 within defined district boundaries in 1970. In 1971, Superintendent David L. Brown sought Federal funding to remodel the Walnut Elementary campus to change its purpose to serve high school students not succeeding in the traditional classroom setting.

After significant remodeling, Del Paso High School is now known as the Ron Hockwalt Academies, renamed in honor of the late WVUSD Superintendent.

Walnut High School was then bursting at the seams with nearly 1,300 more students than it was built to hold. And in 1982, provided relief by opening her doors to 1,100 Diamond Bar freshman through juniors.

It would be a few more years before north Diamond Bar could prove to the State its need for a campus to serve its North Diamond Bar high school students.

WVUSD Superintendent Brown said in 1982 that “DBHS is the only known opening of a comprehensive high school.”

Ellen Wyse, a board member at the time, said that once the school district proved to the State that it had the students to support DBHS, “Superintendent David Brown brought in Walt Holmes as its principal a full year early. The principal was a specialist in starting new schools.”

During that year, Holmes met individually with each student.

Current Diamond Bar Councilwoman Carol Herrera was also a school board member at the time and had a daughter, Lisa Marie, in the school's first graduating class.

"Before school opened, Holmes had the students set up in groups working on (things like) selecting the logo, mascot and colors," Herrera said.

When the controversial school color combination of purple with touches of gold and white was questioned, Holmes was known to quip that “It is good enough for the Minnesota Vikings.”

And on opening day, Walt Holmes established his reputation as the school's cheerleader-in-chief, wearing a purple suit and shoes.

But there was no mistaking that Holmes took education seriously, Wyse said.

In the days long before Diamond Ranch High School and before the school had its own field, the first football season opened with a game against Ganesha High School held on Brea's field. Ganesha High School's boundaries then crossed into north Diamond Bar.

Ellen and husband Don said they do not remember who won, but they do remember the goosebumps and feeling of pride as the school presented itself as an established contender with the full compliment of a band and cheerleaders.

The Brahmas met with their first major hurdle when Principal Holmes did not show up for school in his signature purple Buick Riviera with gold-trim.

"He was never late," Wyse said. "He was never absent."

A counselor went to Holmes's house to find that unexpectedly, after his morning run, the principal had died in his home.

Holmes's passing marked the end of the beginning Diamond Bar High School's history.

There's more to come in another series exploring the history of the Pomona Unified School District in Diamond Bar.