Previous to 1919, Mr. A.B. Wertz operated a Ford car up Placerita Canyon, bringing in children of the Walker family.
The present system was begun in 1919 and operated for the first year by Mrs. Rube Thompson, who used a sedan and covered territory from the school south to a point near the present San Fernando Refinery, back to the school and then out to the Lassalle Ranch.
Mrs. Hattie V. Dill then operated the bus for the 1920 term, and in 1921 three various persons filled out the season, one of them being Mrs. Dill.
Since 1922, Mrs. Dill has carried out the service uninterruptedly.
It is supposed that at that time twenty pupils were being carried in the separate trips, using a seven passenger Dodge sedan.
In 1925, Mrs. Olive Kennedy began operating the Placerita Canyon route, also using a sedan and in 1930 was carrying as many as forty children, making extra trips. At present she is carrying approximately eight.
At that period (1932) with the more rigid State law requirements on school children’s transportation, a Chevrolet bus, with a seating capacity of thirty-one, was acquired, and is the vehicle now in use.
Mrs. Dill at present carries as many as seventy-five children, the number sometimes necessitating extra trips.
The route leads from the school south along U.S. Highway #6 to the viaduct or junction of Highways #99 and #6; a return is made to the school, after which Lyons Avenue is followed to Weldon Canyon; thence south to Highland Oaks Court; then back to Pico Road, following it for three miles up the Canyon. With the present closing of the Pico Oil field, this route will probably be curtailed one mile.
A splendid record is presented, in that there has never been an accident on either the Placerita Canyon or General route.
Sources of information (June 1940): Mrs. Mattie V. Dill, Mrs. Olive Kennedy.