About Alice Birney Elementary
On July 28, 1921 the precursor of the present San Diego State University, the San Diego State Normal School, was granted college status by the California State Legislature. Renamed the San Diego State Teachers College, its curriculum would expand from a two-year preparatory school for teacher training to a four-year liberal arts college by 1923. Founded on March 13, 1897, the campus occupied seventeen acres of land in the heart of the suburban community of University Heights. The campus buildings consisted of the 1899 Beaux-Arts main building, a 1910 a two-story Italian Renaissance inspired teacher training building, and several smaller auxiliary buildings.
By 1922 the campus had become seriously overcrowded. Because the original buildings were designed to accommodate only six hundred students, Dr. Edward L. Hardy, the college's second president (1910-1935), petitioned the State Budgetary Committee to appropriate funds for the construction of eight to nine new buildings by 1929. They would help to house approximately 1000 college students and 500 children attending classes in the training school building. The issue was delayed by the Committee until 1925; by that time enrollment reached 1300-plus. Dr. Hardy realized that, even with the completion of the new buildings, they would be inadequate. Prohibitive land costs precluded seeking the expansion of the campus out into the surrounding neighborhood.
By a five-to-one majority, the voters of San Diego approved the bond issue to purchase the old Normal School site, in May of 1928. Three hundred twenty-five thousand dollars, plus an additional $650,000 state appropriation, would be made available for the construction and relocation of the college onto the donated Mission Palisades site. The former teachers college in University Heights would be converted into a grammar school. Renamed in honor of Alice Birney, founder of the Parent-Teacher's movement in 1897, it would offer classes from kindergarten to the sixth grade.
The Alice Birney Elementary PTA records go back to 1931, when the PTA was formed. PTA duties and activities were very similar to those of today. In honoring Alice Birney's name, the Birney PTA and the school staff worked in partnership to enhance and promote the education the children in attendance. The Birney PTA was strong throughout the 20th century up until the period of dense overcrowding during the early 1990s, when the PTA virtually disappeared at the school. Thanks to the dedication of staff and parents in 2003, the PTA was resurrected and has been growing stronger since.
In response to overcrowding at many urban campuses during the 1990s, in 1998 the voters passed the bond called Proposition MM. As a result of this proposition, at Birney a new library and two-story classroom building were built to replace temporary bungalow structures. The beautiful new building was the foundation of a renaissance of the school, which had become somewhat downtrodden. Classrooms were cleaned out, teachers relocated, and new programs introduced. Staff received additional training, and redefined the school';s mission statement. At that time, a proposal was submitted to the school board to become an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme school.
In fall, 2007, the school became Alice Birney Academy of International Studies, a SDUSD magnet school. We accepted our first class of magnet students in the fall from a list of over 150 students.