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Register of the Stockton (Calif.) School District Truancy
& Absence Records,
1912-1917
Mss160
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Table of contents
Title: Stockton (Calif.) School District Truancy &
Absence Records,
Date (inclusive): 1912-1917
Collection number: Mss160
Creator:
Extent: 0.25 linear ft.
Repository:
University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of
Special Collections
Stockton, CA 95211
Shelf location: For current information on the location of
these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language: English.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], Stockton (Calif.) School District Truancy
& Absence Records, Mss160, Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections,
University of the Pacific Library
The public school system of Stockton (California) was organized
officially by an act of the Common Council in the fall of 1852. Nearly fifty
years later, Stockton voters approved formation of a separate high school
district encompassing an area larger than the existing Stockton School District
(1900). As a result of enabling legislation passed in 1935, the two systems
were automatically unified in July 1936 creating the present Stockton Unified
School District.
The elementary school attendance officer, J. A. "Gus" Workings, (ca.
1863-1944) kept written attendance and truancy records and also served as a
custodian in the Stockton schools for 27 years. Schools listed in Workings'
records include: Franklin; Annex North Stockton (later Woodrow Wilson);
Jefferson; South; Jackson; Monroe; Lafayette; Washington Grammar; El Dorado;
Fremont; Fair Oaks; Lincoln; Weber Grammar; Hazelton; and Pre-vocational (at
Jefferson). Other schools mentioned include: Convent; Brothers; McGowen
Primary; Garretson and Banta Primary.
Ledger entries include: dates (from January 1912 through March 1917),
name of student, address, school, and cause of absence. A compendium of
excuses--absences range from childhood illnesses, truancy, illnesses of
parents, accidents, toothaches, out for the circus, has no shoes, gone to the
City, and so on. Family names of ethnic and religious groups can be sometimes
ascertained from absences on special holidays. The collection includes some
additional notes tallying records and listing truancies.