Downey Unified School District ("DUSD") is the
public school system in
Downey, California
Downey is a city located in Southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. It is considered part of the Gateway Cities. The city is the birthplace of the Apollo space program and Taco Bell. It is ...
, United States. It serves most of Downey and portions of
Bellflower,
Bell Gardens
Bell Gardens is a city in the U.S. state of California in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Located in Los Angeles County, the city's population was 39,501 at the 2020 census. Bell Gardens is part of the Gateway Cities Region, a largely urb ...
, and
South Gate.
The enrollment for 2009 is 22,500 divided among thirteen elementary, four middle, and three high schools.
Governance
Downey Unified School District is governed by a 7-member Board of Education, which appoints a superintendent, who runs the daily operations of the district. Members of the board are elected directly by voters from separate districts that encompass communities that the DUSD serves. The district's superintendent is John A.Garcia, Jr., Ph.D. The members of the Board of Education include Tod M. Corrin, Giovanna Perez-Saab, Donald E. LaPlante, D. Mark Morris, Barbara R. Samperi, Martha E. Sodetani, and Nancy A. Swenson. Every DUSD household or residential area is zoned to an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school.
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Demographics
In 2003, there were 22,298 students. In 2004, the number of students climbed to 22,523 and then to 22,800 by 2005. In 2006, the number declined to 22,584. In 2007, the number of students declined further to 22,456. In terms of the dropout rate, 1.8% of Downey Unified School District's students dropped out of school as opposed to 12.8% of students in the state.
In 2003, 74.6% of the teachers held a bachelor's degree while 25.0% held a master's degree. Only 0.5% held a doctorate degree. In 2007, the average class size for the district was 22.8 students per teacher; this is opposed to 20.8 students per teacher for the state.
In terms of race and ethnicity in 2007, Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
students made up the vast majority (79.5%) of the district's student population. In addition, white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
students were the largest minority; they made up 11.0% of the district's student population. Asian and black
Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...
students made up 4.7 and 3.8% of the district's student population respectively. The remaining 1.0% of the student population are mostly American Indian students. In addition, a majority of the school district's students (55.0%) were economically disadvantaged.
Schools
Public schools include within the DUSD include Alameda Elementary, Carpenter Elementary, Gallatin Elementary, Gauldin Elementary, Imperial Elementary, Lewis Elementary, Old River Elementary, Price Elementary, Rio Hondo Elementary, Rio San Gabriel Elementary, Unsworth Elementary, Ward Elementary, Williams Elementary, Doty Middle, Griffiths Middle, Sussman Middle, Stauffer Middle, Downey High, Warren High, and Columbus Continuation.[
]
Protections For Transgender Students
In 2014, the district signed an agreement with the Department of Education
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
to protect transgender students from abuse, allow them to use their preferred restroom and use their preferred name in school.[After Hideous Abuse, Calif. School District Agrees to Respect Trans Students; by Mitch Kellaway, 18 October 2014, The Advocate]
References
External links
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{{Education in Los Angeles County, California
School districts in Los Angeles County, California
Downey, California