The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District (PYLUSD) is a public

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations. North America United States In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, whic ...

that serves Placentia,

Yorba Linda Yorba Linda is a suburban city in northeastern Orange County, California, United States, approximately southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. It is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and had a population of 68,336 at the 2020 census. Yor ...

, and parts of Anaheim, Brea, and Fullerton located in northeast

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...

and is rapidly developing county territory that reaches the Riverside County line. The school district covers and employs 2,000 people. Its student enrollment is approximately 24,000, and the District's 34 school sites include 20

elementary Elementary may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Elementary'' (Cindy Morgan album), 2001 * ''Elementary'' (The End album), 2007 * ''Elementary'', a Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin album, 1977 Other uses in arts, entertainment, an ...

schools, 5 middle schools, 1 K-8 school, 4

comprehensive high school Comprehensive high schools are the most popular form of public high schools around the world, designed to provide a well-rounded education to its students, as opposed to the practice in some places in which examinations are used to sort students in ...

s, 1 special education school, 1

continuation high school A continuation high school is an alternative to a comprehensive high school. In some countries it is primarily for students who are considered at risk of not graduating at the normal pace. The requirements to graduate are the same, but the sch ...

, 1 TK-12

home school Homeschooling or home schooling, also known as home education or elective home education (EHE), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or an onl ...

, and 1 K-12

online school An online school (virtual school or e-school or cyber-school) teaches students entirely or primarily online or through the Internet. It has been defined as "education that uses one or more technologies to deliver instruction to students who are se ...

, alongside 5 state

preschool A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary schoo ...

s. The Superintendent is Dr. James Elsasser, Ed.D., and the Board of Education includes Carrie Buck, Marilyn Anderson, Leandra Blades, Shawn Youngblood, and Karin Freeman. Twenty-five schools have been designated California Distinguished Schools, eight have been named National Blue Ribbon Schools, seventeen have been honored as California Gold Ribbon Schools, one has earned the title of California Model Continuation High School, and another has received California's Exemplary Independent Study recognition. The District has also been placed on the

College Board The College Board is an American nonprofit organization that was formed in December 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. While the College Board is not an association of colleges, it runs ...

’s AP District Honor Roll three times since the program's inception in 2011. The high schools featured are consistently named to "America's Best High Schools" rankings issued by

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

, U.S. News & World Report, and other news organizations.

Academics

Academically, the District's students excel on standardized tests, outpacing both state and county averages. Students have won high honors in the county, state, and national competitions, including

Academic Decathlon The Academic Decathlon (also called AcDec, AcaDeca or AcaDec) is an annual high school academic competition organized by the non-profit United States Academic Decathlon (USAD). The competition consists of seven objective multiple choice tests, tw ...

and

Science Olympiad Science Olympiad is an American team competition in which students compete in 23 events pertaining to various fields of science, including earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Over 7,800 middle school and high school team ...

tournaments,

Mock Trial A mock trial is an act or imitation trial. It is similar to a moot court, but mock trials simulate lower-court trials, while moot court simulates appellate court hearings. Attorneys preparing for a real trial might use a mock trial consisting ...

, and both

visual The visual system comprises the sensory organ (the eye) and parts of the central nervous system (the retina containing photoreceptor cells, the optic nerve, the optic tract and the visual cortex) which gives organisms the sense of sight (the a ...

and

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

competitions. The District averages 30

National Merit The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a privately funded, not-for-profit organizati ...

and Commended Scholars each year. Graduating classes traditionally earn millions of dollars in academic and

athletic scholarship An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport. Athletic scholarships are common in the United St ...

s. Graduates attend the most prestigious colleges and universities and often receive appointments to the

Air Force Academy An air force academy or air academy is a national institution that provides initial officer training, possibly including undergraduate level education, to air force officer cadets who are preparing to be commissioned officers in a national air forc ...

Annapolis Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east ...

and

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

. Notably, Olympic gold medal winners

Janet Evans Janet Beth Evans (born August 28, 1971) is an American former competition swimmer who specialized in distance freestyle events. Evans was a world champion and world record-holder, and won a total of four gold medals at the 1988 and the 1992 ...

and Michele Granger are among these graduates, as are former State Senator

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

, world-renowned opera soprano

Deborah Voigt Deborah Voigt (born August 4, 1960) is an American dramatic soprano who has sung roles in operas by Wagner and Richard Strauss. Biography and career Early life and education Debbie Joy Voigt was born into a religious Southern Baptist family ...

, nationally recognized physician Dr. William Schoolcraft,

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

stars

Dan Petry Daniel Joseph Petry ( ; born November 13, 1958) is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher for the Detroit Tigers (1979–87 and 1990–91), California Angels (1988–89), Atlanta Braves (1991) and Boston Red Sox (1991). He currently serv ...

Phil Nevin Phillip Joseph Nevin (born January 19, 1971) is an American professional baseball player, coach, and manager. He is the manager for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for 12 seasons, appearing in 1,217 games ...

, and

Brett Boone Bret Robert Boone (born April 6, 1969) is a former Major League Baseball second baseman. During his career Boone was a three-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glove winner, and two-time Silver Slugger Award winner. He is a third generation professio ...

, and NASA astronaut

Joe Acaba Joseph Michael "Joe" Acabá (born May 17, 1967) is a Puerto Rican Teacher, educator, Hydrogeology, hydrogeologist, and NASA astronaut. In May 2004 he became the first person of Puerto Ricans in the United States, Puerto Rican heritage to be name ...

History

The school district dates back to 1874 and has always maintained a rich, historical tradition. A portion of the 1912 Bradford schoolhouse still stands at one of our current high school sites, which opened in 1933. The remainder of the District's existing schools were built primarily in the 1960s and 1970s. Thanks to two community bond measures, four new schools opened between 2004 and 2009. The bonds also provided for the renovation of every school in the District and resulted in modernized classrooms equipped with the latest teaching technology tools, new libraries, new school offices, new science labs, computer pods between classrooms, expanded parking lots, new gyms, new playgrounds, new gyms, new training, and locker rooms, and much more. The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District obtained its name after the 1989 merger between the school districts serving the established community of Placentia and the growing area of

. In 2002 and 2008, the community expressed their support of schools by approving school bond measures to renovate existing schools and build new ones.

Schools and principals

Elementary schools

*Brookhaven: Julie Lucas *Bryant Ranch: Christopher Chiu *Fairmont: Cindy Rex *George Key: Kim Smith *Glenknoll: David Cammarato *Glenview: Alondra Ramos *Golden: Allison DeMark *Lakeview: Tamie Beeuwsaert *Linda Vista: Kristen Petrovacki *Mabel Paine: Melanie Carmona *Melrose: Cynthia Alvarez *Morse: Tonya Gordillo *Rio Vista: Jose Cabrera *Rose Drive: Kathleen Escaleras-Nappi *Ruby Drive: Diana McKibben *Sierra Vista: Jacque Bluemel *Topaz: Christa Borgese *Travis Ranch: Taylor Holloway *Tynes: Debra Silverman *Van Buren: Connie Roe *Wagner: Janice Weber *Woodsboro: George Lopez

Middle schools

*Bernardo Yorba: Ken Valburg *Kraemer: Keith Carmona *Travis Ranch: Taylor Holloway *Tuffree: Cindy Freeman *Valadez: Cuco Gracian *Yorba Linda: Greg Kemp

High schools

El Dorado El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or king ...

: Joey Davis * Esperanza: Jeff Giles *

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area also ...

: Chris Herzfeld *

: Dave Flynn

Alternative education schools

*El Camino Real (9–12

continuation In computer science, a continuation is an abstract representation of the control state of a computer program. A continuation implements ( reifies) the program control state, i.e. the continuation is a data structure that represents the computat ...

): Carey Cecil *La Entrada (9–12 independent study) – Director of Alternative Education: Carrie Bisgard *Parkview (K–12

/independent study): James Hardin

References

External links

* {{Fullerton, California School districts in Orange County, California Placentia, California Yorba Linda, California Education in Anaheim, California Fullerton, California