Oak Park High School (California)

Oak Park High School is the main secondary school in the Oak Park Unified School District, taking ninth through twelfth grade students. It is a National Blue Ribbon School and a 2013 California Distinguished School, with 2016-2017 enrollment of 1550 students. The 2012 Academic Performance Index (API) was 929, which is among the highest in California. In 2015 the school was awarded the California Gold Ribbon School Award from the California Department of Education. The 2016 Newsweek Ranking of America's Top Schools ranked Oak Park High as #51 in the nation and #7 in CAHistoryAs the construction of subdivisions proceeded in Oak Park during the 1970s and the population increased, schooling arrangements became increasingly frustrating for residents. Students had to be bused to high schools in Simi Valley, 23 miles away by road, and back again each day - this despite the fact that the schools of the nearby Las Virgenes Unified School District stood in proximity. With Oak Park lying in Ventura County, California and Las Virgenes in Los Angeles County, though, Oak Park students were not allowed to attend.Seeking to deal with the problem, Oak Park residents petitioned for annexation to Las Virgenes but were rejected in 1974. In 1977 they created the Oak Park Unified School District and broke ground for the high school in 1978. Students were housed in trailers from 1979 to 1980 until the school began admitting students at its present site in 1981. It functioned as both middle and high school until 1992, when nearby Medea Creek Middle School began educating sixth through eighth grade students.