Former teacher recalls school’s humble origins

Back when President Dwight D. Eisenhower still walked the halls of the White House and Elvis rocked record players, a school was built; it had beige-colored walls, gray doors and only half the current student population. It would eventually morph into one of the most academically successful schools in the country: Saratoga High School.

Dr. Hugh Roberts, a retired lawyer who is now the Mock Trial coach, began teaching at the school in 1959, the very year it opened. He had been asked by the principal of the time, Dr. Vernon E. Trimble, to come from Alaska, where he was then teaching and fishing salmon commercially. Trimble had been Roberts’s senior English teacher back when Roberts was a student of Los Gatos High School in 1950.

Roberts helped Trimble open the school as the head of the Social Studies Department and taught here until retiring into his own law practice in 1989. He spent 30 years teaching before entering law.

Though the school was so small in 1959 that it provided education for only 600 freshmen and sophomores, Roberts said the attitudes of the students back then are comparable to the ones held today.

“From the beginning there was a high achievement motivation: high expectations and excellent performance,” Roberts said.

While the school’s work ethic back then was similar to today’s, he pointed to several key differences. For one, Roberts found that the ethnic and religious diversity was next to nonexistent.

“[Saratoga] was a classic all WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) community,” Roberts said. “[However, it was full of] wonderful students from parents who cared.”

In fact, the ethnic transformation the school has undergone is such that Roberts says it’s the biggest change from 1959.

The school has also gained more extracurricular activity options over the years.

“Mock Trial didn’t exist until 1983, but [SHS has] always been active in national programs from speech and debate to various history-oriented programs,” Roberts said. “You have many more options now.”

As the current Mock trial coach, Roberts agrees with the administration that the students ought to relax more often.

“The desire to achieve is even higher [even though] you do not have IB programs,” Roberts said. “I would encourage students to go for a hike; smell the roses; feel the sunshine; take in life as a fantastic experience — and [don’t worry about] the test scores. Originally we encouraged individual creativity, wherever that led. I don’t see that now, but it may still be there. You decide.”