The Los Alamitos school board election of 1956 was certainly one of the most significant votes in the history of the community.
Just days before the election, developer Ross Cortese had officially filed tract maps for his new Rossmoor subdivision of 2,400 new homes. (Rumors and confirmation of the new subdivision had been circulating for over a year, and Cortese had been talking with the school district and utility companies for quite some time.) So the town and the school administrators were very aware of the challenges that they would soon be facing. Bulldozers were already on the property and had begun tearing out trees along Los Alamitos Boulevard to make it possible for heavy equipment to move in and start the building.
The bottom line is within five years the school district would be almost ten times its present size, and the new school board would have to make the key decisions that would set the stage for that transition. Also on the ballot for Los Alamitos was a $150,000 bond election.
Candidates for the election were:
- R.H. Moore (incumbent) – Electrician
- Tom Harris (incumbent) – Steel Company manager
- W.B. Harville – carpenter
- Earl Scholl — Navy Stationkeeper
- Chas. (Chuck) Tyler – Douglas Engineer
- Kenneth P. Williams – a toolmaker
The subsequent Enterprise – May 24, 1956 – reported that the Bond Election was approved by a 10-1 margin with 331 voting in favor and only 34 opposed.
In the school board election, only seven votes separated the top three contenders . Chas (Chuck) Tyler was tops with 148, followed by Tom Harris with 143 and W.B. (Brat) Harville with 141. R.H. Moore had 105, Kenneth P. Williams 95, Earl Scholl 59, and Clayton Hosea getting one write-in.