District History

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District History

The history of the Caliente Union School District spans one hundred ten years.  Formed in 1875, the original Caliente district served the boom town of Caliente, which was established as a base camp for the construction of the Southern Pacific Railroad over the Tehachapis.  The average attendance in1875 was eighteen pupils.  In the early days, a flood carried the school away, and, according to an old-timer, mules were hitched to the building to drag it back to its original location.  The Twin Oaks School District was originally formed in 1894 as the Agua Caliente School District to serve children in the ranching and mining community of Twin Oaks.  Twenty one children attended the school in 1894.  It's name was changed in 1936 to avoid confusion with the Caliente School District.

The Walker's Basin School District was formed on May 10, 1877 and operated a small, one-room school.  The building was built on skids so that it could be easily moved to be near the greatest number of pupils.  The district lapsed in 1932 and the area was annexed to the Vaughn School District in Bodfish.  In 1947, the territory was transferred to the Twin Oaks district, and in 1949 it became part of the Caliente School District.  The Caliente and Twin Oaks school districts were merged by area voters in 1962 to form what is now Caliente Union School District.

The Caliente Union School District was formed effective July 1, 1962.  It covers a large, sparsely populated territory which includes the foothills, canyons, and southern slopes of two of Kern County's highest peaks, Breckenridge Mountain and Piute Peak.  The Caliente and Twin Oaks school districts joined due to a declining enrollment in both schools.  There was 100 percent signup in both communities asking for unionization and the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the union.  The Caliente Union School is situated on a mesa just above the little railroad community of Caliente.  Caliente School was built in 1950.