At the end of the 1960s, prior to the construction of Casa Grande High, the Petaluma City Schools District suffered from an exploding student population without the resources to keep up.

At the time, the district was already short 3,147 square feet of state mandated building space for students.

County Supervisor George DeLong believed that the vote would fail without a record voter turnout, and he noted that if the vote failed and, "we have to cram our children into double and triple sessions, we must be prepared to pay a much heavier bill than that for schools.

Superintendent Meyer attributed the success to strong support from the local community, including newspapers and radio stations.

He and his students started what is now an organization for monitoring the endangered steelhead trout, a native species found in Adobe Creek, the raising of rainbow trout and chinook salmon into the Russian River, and to educate the public.