The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District (PYLUSD) is a public
school district that serves
Placentia,
Yorba Linda, and parts of
Anaheim,
Brea, and
Fullerton located in northeast
Orange County, California and is rapidly developing county territory that reaches the Riverside County line. The school district covers 45 square miles (120 km2) and employs 2,000 people. Its student enrollment is approximately 24,000, and the District's 34 school sites include 20
elementary schools, 5
middle schools, 1 K-8 school, 4
comprehensive high schools, 1
special education school, 1
continuation high school, 1 TK-12
home school, and 1 K-12
online school, alongside 5 state
preschools.[1] 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.[4] 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’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,
U.S. News & World Report, and other news organizations.[1]
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.[1]
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
Yorba Linda. In 2002 and 2008, the community expressed their support of schools by approving school bond measures to renovate existing schools and build new ones.[1]