Mira Costa High School | |
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Location | |
United States | |
Coordinates | 33°52′25″N118°23′23″W / 33.87368°N 118.38976°W |
Information | |
Type | Public high school |
Motto | Home of the mustangs |
Established | 1950 |
School district | Manhattan Beach Unified School District (1993-) South Bay Union High School District (-1993) |
Principal | Jennifer Huynh [1] |
Teaching staff | 107.99 [2] |
Grades | 9 – 12 |
Enrollment | 2,568 (2023-2024) [2] |
Student to teacher ratio | 23.78 [2] |
Color(s) | Green and Gold |
Nickname | Mustangs |
Rival | Redondo Union High School |
Publication | La Vista (Newspaper) Reflections (student created work) Mustang Morning News (student-run newscast) |
Yearbook | Hoofprints |
Website | www |
Mira Costa High School (MCHS, "Costa") is a four-year public high school located in Manhattan Beach, California that first opened 1950. It is the only high school in the Manhattan Beach Unified School District. The school's athletic teams are known as the Mustangs and the school colors are green and gold. Mira Costa is located on the corner of Peck Avenue and Artesia Boulevard.
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Groundbreaking for the site of the school took place on May 24, 1949, for the first high school in Manhattan Beach. It was a forty-acre site that had belonged to a Japanese American landscaper who had been interned during World War II and was paid $60,000 for the land. Mira Costa High School opened on September 30, 1950. The school was dedicated by then-state superintendent of schools, Roy E. Simpson, with additional remarks made by the president of the board of trustees. [3] [4]
It was a part of the South Bay Union High School District until 1993, when this district was dissolved [5] and the Manhattan Beach Unified School District (MBUSD) was formed.
As of the 2016–17 school year, the school had an enrollment of 2,517 students and 98 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 26:1. There were 63 students (2.5% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 22 (0.9% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch. [2]
Race | Percentage |
---|---|
American Indian/Alaskan Native | 0.3% |
Asian/Pacific Islander | 10.8 % |
Hispanic | 14.9% |
Black | 5.4% |
White | 58.8% |
Multiple races | 9.7% |
Mira Costa is the only high school in the MBUSD. All residents of Manhattan Beach are eligible to attend. Residents of Hermosa Beach may choose to attend Redondo Union High School of the Redondo Beach Unified School District or Mira Costa. As of Fall 2006, Redondo Beach residents living in the 90278 zip code were allowed to attend Mira Costa. [6]
On June 11, 2020, hundreds of Mira Costa students and parents attended a march from Hermosa Beach to Manhattan Beach to celebrate their graduation in violation of CDC social distancing guidelines. Their actions attracted widespread negative attention from media and concerned citizens for putting others at risk during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. [7]
The Mira Costa Choir Program consists of three curricular choirs, Vocal Ensemble, Choral Union (an upper voice choir), and MC voices, which meet during the school day year-round, and two small ensembles, Coterie and Mira Costa Muscle, which meet after school. [8]
In the summer of 2010 Vocal Ensemble sang in the International Festival of the Aegean in Syros, Greece. They performed as part of the opera chorus in Carmen and were the closing choir in the Sunset Concert at St. Nicholas Cathedral on Sunday 18 July 2010. [9]
In the Spring of 2011, all four Mira Costa Choirs performed in Carnegie Hall as part of Carnegie Hall's WorldStrides National Choral Festival. The Vocal Ensembled had the honor of performing as the featured solo choir. [10]
In May 2016, the Mira Costa Bands traveled to Carnegie Hall in New York as part of a series outlining the best band programs in the country. [11] The band had previously performed at Carnegie Hall in 2011. [12] In 2014 the band received the Grammy Foundation Signature Schools 2014 Gold Award, which includes a grant of $5000. [13]
Mira Costa's student-run newspaper La Vista has been a perennial winner of silver and gold awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association since 1980. [14]
The Mustang Morning News is a student-run broadcast. [15]
Mira Costa Model United Nations is a debate team that takes part in mock debates of the United Nations. The team hosts the Los Angeles Invitational Model United Nations (LAIMUN) Conference, a novice and advanced conference held in docket-style debate. [16] Mira Costa's team has multiple Large School Delegation awards. [17]
Costa students team up with Redondo Union High School students to create Beach Cities Robotics. The team participates in the organization FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) as Team 294. Beach Cities Robotics has won numerous awards since starting in 1997, including 2 World Championship wins. They scored 1st place at the FRC finals in 2001 against more than 50 other teams at the event from around the country. In 2008 they won first place at the inaugural FTC World Championship. Beach Cities Robotics won the FRC finals again in 2010 as its "alliance" captain, against over 300 teams attending the World Championship, and over 1800 teams worldwide. [18]
Alix Klineman, who was named the 2005 and 2006 California Gatorade State Player of the Year for Volleyball, and the 2006 Gatorade National Player of the Year, led Mira Costa to three consecutive California State Championships, and three consecutive Southern Section California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Championships. [19] [20] The Boys' Volleyball team has won the Southern Section California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Championships in 1984, 1990, 1996, 2001, 2002, 2008 and 2012. [21]
Mira Costa was recognized as a Blue Ribbon school in 1996. [22] [23] It was named a California Distinguished School by the Board of Education in 2011 [24] and ranked #341 nationally by Newsweek in 2015. [25] [26]
In 2000, 12th grade English teacher Marilyn Jachetti Whirry was selected as the National Teacher of the Year. [27] Whirry had taught at Mira Costa in the 1958–59 academic year and then from 1967 through 2000.
In September 2010, U.S. history teacher Bill Fauver was selected as one of Los Angeles County's 16 Teachers of the Year. He was once named MBUSD Teacher of the Year. [28] [29]
Mira Costa High School was a common filming location for the popular television series The O.C. [48] In 2006, a portion of the quad was used as a scene in The O.C. In 1981 portions of the film "Midnight Offerings" starring Melissa Sue Anderson were filmed on the campus.[ citation needed ] In 1979, many members of the football and cheerleading squads, attired in their green and gold uniforms, were included as extras in the film Rock 'n' Roll High School . The administration building of Mira Costa High School was used as the high school for the Disney Channel TV shows A.N.T Farm and Hannah Montana. In 2008, an episode of CSI: Miami was filmed on campus, using the pool and members of the varsity swim team as extras. In 2011, much of rapper Snoop Dogg's Mac & Devin Go to High School was filmed on campus, sparking a controversy over the characters' use of marijuana on school property and administration officials demanded that the footage not be used in the final movie. [49]
Hermosa Beach is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California, United States. Its population was 19,728 at the 2020 U.S. Census. The city is located in the South Bay region of the Greater Los Angeles area; it is one of the three Beach Cities. Hermosa Beach is bordered by the other two, Manhattan Beach to the north and Redondo Beach to the south and east.
Manhattan Beach is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, on the Pacific coast south of El Segundo, west of Hawthorne and Redondo Beach, and north of Hermosa Beach. As of the 2020 census, the population was 35,506.
Redondo Beach is a coastal city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located in the South Bay region of the Greater Los Angeles area. It is one of three adjacent beach cities along the southern portion of Santa Monica Bay. The population was 71,576 at the 2020 census, up from 66,748 in 2010.
Holly McPeak is an American retired indoor and beach volleyball player. McPeak was three-times an Olympian in beach volleyball. In the professional circuit, she garnered 72 career beach volleyball titles, with career earnings of US$1.4 million. She is ranked third in titles won and second in career earnings for female professional beach volleyball players. She won a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics with partner Elaine Youngs. Though McPeak was considered short for a beach volleyball player at 5 feet 7 inches in height, she was one of the toughest players to beat on the tour.
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District is responsible for public education in the city of Manhattan Beach, California. It oversees one preschool, five elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school.
Redondo Union High School (RUHS) is a public high school in Redondo Beach, California.
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Jennifer "Jen" Anne Kessy is a retired American professional beach volleyball player on the AVP Tour. She currently is the coach of April Ross and Alix Klineman.
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Other distinguished Mira Costa alumni include screenwriter Roger Avary, who co-wrote Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Seventies actress and The Price Is Right spokesmodel Anitra Ford, and a whole slew of future SoCal punk luminaries, members of the Descendents, Red Cross (who would become Redd Kross), Pennywise and, of course, Black Flag.