The San Joaquin County Schools Collection consists of general and individual school histories, scrapbooks, textbooks, and scattered county-wide administrative, student, trustee, and parent association records. The latter include county school district manuals (1918, 1923); county school directories (1929-1930, 1997-1998); a Brandt School District (Lockeford) register (1885-1891); a Lafayette School District (Lodi) register (1876-1878) and Parents' Club minutebook (1958-1962); an Emerson School (Lodi) Parent-Teacher Association minutebook (1924-1934); Ray School District Trustee Minutes (1942-1951), and various records from Stockton's Washington School (1866-1888). The collection also contains Lodi High School Associated Student records, including by-laws and constitution (ca. 1940), student council minutebooks (1903-1963), and a student handbook (1965). Included also are scrapbooks and other material related to a number of San Joaquin County parochial schools and institutions of higher education.

In 1851, the first public school in San Joaquin County, known as Stockton Academy, was established in the four-year-old city of Stockton. One year later, the California State Legislature enacted legislation that organized county-level public education administration throughout the state. At that time, there were three school districts in San Joaquin County with a total student population of slightly more than two hundred. The State of California required the newly created superintendents of schools to draw warrants on their county treasuries on behalf of creditors and to visit each school in their jurisdiction at least once a year. However, it did not require teachers to be credentialed or plan school curricula. In 1860, the California State Legislature passed another, related act. This one created county boards of examination, each comprised of the county superintendent and three licensed teachers, and empowered them to issue teaching certificates. By then, San Joaquin County had grown to twenty-one school districts with a total student population of six hundred. Minority students in Stockton, at that time the only incorporated city in San Joaquin County, attended separate schools for almost twenty years (1859-1879). Stockton High School, the first public secondary school in San Joaquin County, graduated its first class in 1872. By 2010, the number of incorporated cities in San Joaquin County had grown to seven, and it contained fourteen public school districts, as well as an array of private schools. The County also hosted five professional schools and institutions of higher education: the University of the Pacific; California State University, Stanislaus-Stockton Center; Humphreys College and School of Law; National University; and San Joaquin Delta Community College.

3 linear feet

The library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claimants of literary property.

Collection is open for research by appointment.