Time for a Little Hill Middle School Nostalgia

It was 56 years ago — March 22, 1955 — when the ribbon was cut at the new Hill School on Diablo Avenue in Novato, culminating several years of construction. It became the third school in the , joining Marion School and Olive School, and offered kindergarten through sixth grades.

Who remembers that day? There must be folks still living in Novato who recall the gala affair and what it was like to have a spanking new school in town. Novato Patch would love to receive some e-mails with fond memories to share.

Novato is nostalgic and even emotional about , which was changed to an intermediate school in the fall of 1958. It is being shut down — for the second time in its history — after Wednesday's abbreviated schedule. The district decided in January to close the site as a middle school because of declining enrollment and skyrocketing costs. Sixth- and seventh-graders at Hill, along with incoming fifth-grade graduates from surrounding elementary schools, will be sent off to either San Jose Middle School or Sinaloa Middle School. A few dozen middle schoolers will be at Hamilton Meadow Park, the district’s southernmost school, which is adding eighth grade for the 2011-12 school for the first time.

When Hill first opened, it was a K-6 school with about 700 students overseen by Principal Charles Laveroni, according to records at the Novato History Museum. The northernmost wing of the school was built between January 1953 and September 1953 for $80,800. The main building group was built between June 1954 and April 1955 for $125,000. The total costs were $294,573.

Information about the school passed to prospective parents in 1956 included a welcome letter from Laveroni, a bus schedule and a faculty list that included home addresses and home phone numbers of teachers. All the teachers lived in Novato.

A cafeteria price list included hamburgers (15 cents), tuna burgers (20 cents), hot dogs (15 cents), and bologna sandwiches (10 cents) and grilled cheese sandwiches (15 cents) and small cartons of milk (5 cents). Modern-day nutrition experts would gasp to see about half the cafeteria menu as junk food (doughnuts, potato chips, corn chips, turnover pies, cup cakes, ice cream cups, ice cream bars, cookies).

In January 1957, the school district told the trustees that it was in need of seventh and eighth grade classrooms, and Hill was designated to become a middle school. In 1958, Robert Patterson became principal of Hill Intermediate School, receiving seventh and eighth graders for the first time. The school nickname became the Thunderbirds.

It became Hill Junior High in 1967 as eight portables placed on the campus to handle a student population of 1,300. The nickname was changed to the Spartans.

In 1975, a fire intentionally started in a locker did $30,000 damage to the school. After a police investigation, the parents of two students were ordered to pay $10,000 each toward the repair costs.

Citing declining enrollment, uncertain financing and rising costs, Hill closed at the end of the 1982-83 school year when the campus was needed to serve as a district administration building during the construction of the new NUSD headquarters at Seventh Street and Grant Avenue. The closing was to represent a savings of about $350,000 annually.

The plan was to sell the site to the city to establish a cultural and recreation center on the site. Hill students were mostly sent to San Jose because Sinaloa was at capacity.

In September 1983, the school district sold part of the campus to the city for $818,537. The deal included 12 acres, the gym and half an acre of land under the gym. Today the Hill site is a key component of the city’s parks department.

The campus was reopened as a middle school in the fall of 1993. On the adjacent land, the Margaret Todd Senior Center was built in 1991 and the Hill Gymnasium was added in 1995.

So Wednesday is the last day of school at Hill. Here is the schedule of events:

8 a.m. — Eighth grade breakfast and awards ceremony

10 a.m. — Eighth grade dismissal

11:10 a.m. — Sixth/Seventh grade dismissal

Noon: Eighth grade promotion ceremony

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