Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District

Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District (PVPUSD) is a school district headquartered in Palos Verdes Estates, California with facilities in all four cities of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

History

The Palos Verdes School District (PVSD) formed on January 26, 1925 as an elementary school district officially when unincorporated Palos Verdes withdrew from the Los Angeles City Elementary School District. The District began by serving 26 students from kindergarten through 8th grade in its first facility set up in two rooms above a drug store in Malaga Cove Plaza. High school students were sent out of the District to attend Los Angeles City schools in Redondo Beach. The first official school on the Peninsula, Malaga Cove School, opened in 1926 followed by Miraleste School in 1929. The school district continued to grow and, between 1955 and 1965, enrollment went from 2,285 to 13,204 students.

Attempts to form a unified school district on the Peninsula, which would provide an educational program for all K-12 students to attend school on the Peninsula failed to pass in 1953, 1954, and 1957. Finally, in October 1960, voters elected to form a unified school district. On July 1, 1961, PVSD officially unified and became the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District (PVPUSD). In September 1961 Palos Verdes High School, the first public high school on the Peninsula, opened with an enrollment of 2,043 students. In 1988, there were 9,800 students, with 3,900 of them in senior high school. In 1991, Miraleste High School and Palos Verdes High School were closed and all high school students on the Peninsula were funneled to the former Rolling Hills High School campus, re-named Peninsula High School.

As of October 2016, the PVPUSD serves the four cities on the Peninsula as well its unincorporated areas with enrollment of approximately 11,500 students. The District includes: two early childhood centers, ten elementary schools, three intermediate schools, two high schools and one continuation school.

In 1992 84.5% of relevant voters voted approved Proposition Z to move the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) portion of Rancho Palos Verdes to PVPUSD but Stephen E. O'Neil, a judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court, blocked the transfer.

In 2019 the district began admitting students whose grandparents live on the Peninsula. It did so after enrollment declined by 500 students over the previous five years, causing a 10% decline in revenue.

Governance

The district is headed by a superintendent - Dr. Devin Serrano - and governed by a five-person, publicly elected school board.

The current board members are:

Linda Kurt (term expires 2026) President
Sara Deen (term expires in 2026) Vice-President
Ami Ghandi (term expires in 2028) Member
Eric Alegria (term expires in 2028) Member
Linda Reid (term expires in 2026) Provisional Member

Attendance areas

The PVPUSD serves the cities of Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, and Rolling Hills Estates; most of Rancho Palos Verdes directly falls in PVPUSD.
Parts of the city of Rancho Palos Verdes, known as Eastview, are served both by the PVPUSD, and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Two LAUSD-owned schools fall within the city of Rancho Palos Verdes: Dodson Middle School and Crestwood Elementary School.
In 1999, an optional attendance boundary was agreed upon by the two school districts in which residents in Eastview could opt to either send their children to PVPUSD schools or LAUSD schools.

Demographics

As of the 2024-25 Census, the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District comprises 10,393 students from grades K - 12. The demographic breakdown is: White (38.6%), Asian (31.5%), Hispanic (15.4%), Multiracial (12%), African American (2.1%) and Native American (0.2%). Approximately 11% of the students were on free and reduced lunch programs.

In the 2020 Census, 1,365 students were born outside of the United States. 346 were from Japan, 214 were from Taiwan, 150 were from Korea, and others originated from several countries including Iran, Mexico, other countries in Latin America, and the Philippines.

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|+District Demographics Enrollment from 2020 Census

!Student group

!Total

!Percentage

|English Learners

|690

|6.3%

|Foster Youth

|0%

|Homeless

|0.1%

|Socioeconomically Disadvantaged

|914

|8.3%

|Students with Disabilities

|960

|8.7%

Schools

There are three high schools, Palos Verdes Peninsula High School (formerly called Rolling Hills High School), Palos Verdes High School (the latter located just a half block from the Pacific Ocean) and Rancho Del Mar High School (located on Crest Road in Rolling Hills). In the 1970s–1980s the high schools were: Palos Verdes High School, Rolling Hills High School, and Miraleste High School.

;Preschools

Miraleste Early Learning Academy
Valmonte Early Learning Academy

;Elementary schools

Cornerstone Elementary School
Dapplegray Elementary School
Lunada Bay Elementary School
Mira Catalina Elementary School
Montemalaga Elementary School
Point Vicente Elementary School
Rancho Vista Elementary School
Silver Spur Elementary School
Soleado Elementary School
Vista Grande Elementary School

;Intermediate schools

Miraleste Intermediate School
Palos Verdes Intermediate School
Ridgecrest Intermediate School

;High schools

Palos Verdes High School – grades 9–12
Palos Verdes Peninsula High School – grades 9–12
Rancho Del Mar High School – continuation

Former schools

Miraleste High School
Rolling Hills High School
The school had a Parent Teacher Association; in 1969 the association began allowing students to participate, and so it became the "Parent Teacher Student Association", with 40 students joining the organization. In 1970 the PTSA began organizing participation on a family basis, with $2 per family as a fee to join.
Dapplegray Intermediate School
The campus had of land. Dapplegray Intermediate School closed effective 1987; students in the 6th grade were moved to Mira Catalina and Rancho Vista elementary schools, while older students were moved to Miraleste High School, which began having middle school grades. Post-closing, individuals had damaged the campus via vandalism. By 1991 the district had only one entity seeking to purchase the property: a real estate concern. In April 1992 a Japanese private elementary and middle school, Nishiyamato Academy of California, began using space at the former Dapplegray. In 1993 a theater organization was using the campus, and there were plans to convert it into a community center. In 1994, the district leased additional classrooms to Nishiyamato.

References

External links