Los Angeles City High School District facts for kids
The Los Angeles City High School District was a group of schools that taught high school students. It was active in western Los Angeles County, California from 1890 to 1962. In its final year, it was called the West County Union High School District. This district sometimes included areas like Beverly Hills, Culver City, and Torrance.
History of the School District
The Los Angeles City High School District started in 1890. It was created to serve students attending Los Angeles High School. At that time, other school districts handled younger students in elementary and junior high schools.
Over the years, the high school district grew bigger. It added more areas and other high school districts. For example, in 1906, the Jewell Union High School District joined. In 1909, the Hollywood Union High School District and the San Pedro City High School District became part of it.
More areas joined in the following years:
- In 1910, the Wilmington Union High School District joined.
- In 1913, the Van Nuys High School District became part of the district.
- In 1914, the San Fernando Union High School District was added.
- In 1916, the Owensmouth Union High School District also joined.
On August 18, 1921, many grade school districts were added to the Los Angeles City High School District. These included Beverly Hills, Culver City, and others. In 1925, the Venice Union High School District also joined. Later, in 1929, the Oak Flat area moved from another district to this one.
In 1932, the Huntington Park School District became part of the high school district. However, some areas later left. On March 23, 1936, Beverly Hills left to form its own high school district. This new district later became the Beverly Hills Unified School District.
In 1942, the Bee School District was transferred to the Los Angeles City High School District. Then, on January 25, 1945, Culver City also left to form its own district, similar to Beverly Hills. A few days later, on January 30, 1945, a new district called the Santa Clarita Union High School District (now William S. Hart Union High School District) took over some areas like Bee and Newhall.
In 1947, Torrance High School moved to the Redondo Union High School District. The elementary schools in Torrance then formed the Torrance City School District. This district later became the Torrance Unified School District and took over Torrance High School.
How the District Became Unified
On June 7, 1960, people in the Los Angeles City School District voted for a big change. They decided to become a "unified school district." This means one district would manage all schools, from elementary to high school.
On July 1, 1961, the Los Angeles City School District merged with the Palos Verdes School District. This created the new Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).
What was left of the old high school district was renamed the West County Union High School District. It only had two areas left: the Las Vergenes Union School District and the Topanga School District. It didn't have any high schools of its own. The new LAUSD was only required to provide high school services to this remaining district for three years.
On October 3, the Topanga School District also voted to join LAUSD. This meant the West County Union High School District was left with only the Las Virgenes area. Because of a state law from 1935, this small district automatically became unified on July 1, 1962. It was then named the Las Virgenes Unified School District.
The people in the new Las Virgenes district approved a plan to build a high school in April 1963. This led to the opening of Agoura High School. This happened about three years after the original Los Angeles City High School District ended.
Schools That Were Part of the District
Most of these schools joined the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1961.
- Phineas Banning High School
- Bell High School
- Belmont High School
- Beverly Hills High School (until 1936)
- Birmingham High School
- Cleveland High School
- Susan Miller Dorsey High School
- Eagle Rock High School
- John H. Francis Polytechnic High School
- Franklin High School
- Gardena High School
- Garfield High School
- Granada Hills High School
- Grant High School
- Alexander Hamilton High School
- Hollywood High School
- Huntington Park High School
- Jefferson High School
- Jordan High School
- Abraham Lincoln High School
- Los Angeles High School
- James Monroe High School
- Manual Arts High School
- John Marshall High School
- North Hollywood High School
- Reseda High School
- San Fernando High School
- San Pedro High School
- South Gate High School
- William Howard Taft High School
- Torrance High School (until 1947)
- This included the Main Building
- University High School
- Van Nuys High School
- Venice High School
- Verdugo Hills High School
- Washington Preparatory High School
- Woodrow Wilson High School
