A few months back, a staff member who was nearing retirement approached us and asked if we were interested in a big box full of old photos. Heck yeah, we declared, even before learning they were old photos of the Irvine Unified School District. That employee, who is now probably sitting on a tropical beach somewhere, said she was pleased to find a new steward for the snapshots that she's held onto for so many years, and we were more than happy to take possession, especially since this year marks the 40th anniversary of IUSD. But then we encountered a small problem: Most of our newly acquired photos came without captions indicating where and when they were taken, let alone the names of the subjects. Still, we’ve been sorting through them to pick out the good ones, and we decided it might be fun to honor the past four decades by posting one historic picture every week during the 2012-13 school year. Then we got to wondering if maybe parents, staff, former students and community members had some IUSD photos of their own they’d like to share. So here’s the deal: If you have an interesting picture that captures some aspect of the school district’s past, we encourage you to email it to ianhanigan@iusd.org. Also, to cut down on the head-scratching over here, we ask that you please include a brief caption to explain who’s in the picture, as well as where and (roughly) when it was taken. We’re calling this the "IUSD at 40" project, and we'll post one shot every Thursday through June 2013, assuming we have enough to make it that far. Pictures can be from any era, but we’re especially looking for older ones -- like the above shot of Uni High, circa 1970 -- because, well, we don't want to get flooded with images from 2011. Oh, and do let us know if we can use your name. Now then, let's see how this goes, and thanks for playing. Update: Uni grad Lee Fredrickson from the class of '78 dropped us a line to let us know that the photo above is not from 1970 -- see what we mean about the importance of captions? -- though it could be from the late '70s. Here's more:
Three things standout for me in the photo -- one, the condos at the bottom of the picture weren't built until the mid-'70s. I remember them being built while I was attending UHS from '74 to '78. Two, Harvard St, at the upper right corner of the photo wasn't built yet. I don't even remember it being there when I graduated in '78. And three, the buildings/development at the top of the photo weren't there while I was attending Uni in those years. While I was at Uni, the only thing out in that direction was Albertsons and the old Irvine Police Department building.
Thanks, Lee, for helping set the record straight. We hope you'll also send us a picture to share.