Centinela Valley Union High School District, (CVUHSD) is a public union high school district located in southern California that serves about 6,800 students in grades 9–12 from all of Lawndale and Lennox, most of

Hawthorne Hawthorne often refers to the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne may also refer to: Places Australia *Hawthorne, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane Canada * Hawthorne Village, Ontario, a suburb of Milton, Ontario United States * Hawt ...

and Alondra Park (a.k.a. El Camino Village), and a small portion of

Inglewood Inglewood may refer to: Places Australia *Inglewood, Queensland * Shire of Inglewood, Queensland, a former local government area *Inglewood, South Australia *Inglewood, Victoria *Inglewood, Western Australia Canada * Inglewood, Ontario *Inglewoo ...

. The district's three associated elementary

feeder school A college-preparatory school (often shortened to prep school, preparatory school, college prep school or college prep academy) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily design ...

districts are Hawthorne School District, Lawndale Elementary School District, and Lennox School District. - Note that since 2020 the Wiseburn USD distric
expanded in size to cover the rest of Del Aire
Compare the 2020 map to th
current Wiseburn USD map
and it shows the affected areas of Measure A (2021) are part
of Del Aire CDP
Also
See text list indicating Wiseburn USD as a unified school district
and compare to the Wiseburn district's status in 2010. Previously Wiseburn Unified School District, now a unified district, fed into CVUSD.Wiseburn School District, "Unification Update - October 14, 2009"
, accessed 12/23/2010 The Centinela Valley district also offers

adult education Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained educating activities in order to gain new knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. Merriam, Sharan B. & Brockett, Ralph G. ''The Pr ...

classes. Students attend Hawthorne High School,

Lawndale High School Lawndale High School is one of three high schools in Lawndale, California, United States. The school was closed in 1981, and reopened in 1998. It is one of three schools in the Centinela Valley Union High School District. In 2009, Lawndale Hi ...

Leuzinger High School Leuzinger High School is a public high school (9th through 12th grades) in Lawndale, California, United States. It opened on January 27, 1931, with an enrollment of 268. It was named after Adolph Leuzinger in recognition of his 25 years of serv ...

, or the

continuation school A continuation high school is an alternative to a comprehensive high school. In some countries it is primarily for students who are considered at risk of not graduating at the normal pace. The requirements to graduate are the same, but the sch ...

, Lloyde Continuation High School.

History

The district has as its basis the 1905 formation of the Inglewood Union High School District, which included at the outset the territories of

, Lennox, and Wiseburn school districts. In 1912 the El Segundo school district formed out of territory in the Wiseburn district and was a part of the Inglewood high school district. El Segundo withdrew from CVUHSD on November 22, 1925, when the

El Segundo Unified School District El Segundo Unified School District is a school district headquartered in El Segundo, California, United States. The district serves all residents living in El Segundo and covers the western part of the city; the portion of the Wiseburn School ...

was formed.''History of School District Organization,'' Los Angeles County Department of Education (1975), quoted in the CVUHSD website
/ref> The high school district was named Centinela Valley Union High School District on November 1, 1944. On July 1, 1954, Inglewood, with its

and Morningside high schools, withdrew to form the

Inglewood Unified School District Inglewood Unified School District abbreviated (IUSD) is a public school system district headquartered in and serving Inglewood, California (USA). IUSD serves most of the city of Inglewood and much of the unincorporated Los Angeles County c ...

. In 2004 the areas in the

Wiseburn School District The Wiseburn Unified School District is a school district in Los Angeles County, California operating elementary and middle schools, and hosting charter high schools. Its headquarters are on the grounds of the Da Vinci charter schools facility i ...

had made a proposal to break away from Centinela Valley Union.Merl, Jean. "A Bid to Drop Out of High School District." ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

''. September 6, 2004. p
1
Retrieved on April 4, 2014. Cheryl M. White became the superintendent in 2004. Jose Fernandez became the superintendent in 2008. He received $663,000 in total compensation in 2013. This fact was revealed in a 2014 newspaper investigation. The superintendent of the

Los Angeles Unified School District Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a State school, public school district in Los Angeles County, California, United States of America. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the List ...

, John Deasy, had an annual salary of $390,000. ''

KCAL-TV KCAL-TV (channel 9) is an independent television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS West Coast flagship KCBS-TV (channel 2). The two stations share studios at the ...

'' stated that a crowd appeared asking for Fernandez to resign. Fernandez stated that he had made improvements to CVUSD. The board later put Fernandez on paid leave and selected Bob Cox as the interim superintendent. The District Attorney of Los Angeles County began investigating the district. In 2014 the ''

Daily Breeze The ''Daily Breeze'' is a 57,000-circulation daily newspaper published in Hermosa Beach, California, United States. It serves the South Bay cities of Los Angeles County. Its slogan is "LAX to LA Harbor". Early history The paper was found ...

'' reported that

TELACU The East Los Angeles Community Union (TELACU) is a nonprofit community development corporation (CDC) founded in 1968 for the purpose of servicing disadvantaged communities in Eastside, Los Angeles through economic development. Over the years t ...

, a company which received building contracts worth millions of US dollars from the high school district, had bankrolled election campaigns of board members. In 2014 the Wiseburn Elementary School district unified and became the Wiseburn USD, and so its area left the Centinela Valley high school district. In 2021 a block of unincorporated areas that was in the Lawndale School District and Centinela Valley USD voted on a proposal on whether it should move to Wiseburn USD; previously students living in the block living in Wiseburn would have had to get permission from their zoned school districts to attend Wiseburn. According to Hunter Lee the ''

'', "few" people voted in the election. The vote to transfer the area to Wiseburn was approved.

Administration

In the 2011-2012 school year the district spent $6,900,000 on district administration. Salaries and benefits made up slightly over 50% of the spending. Conferences, financial consulting services, legal fees, and travel made up the remainder. In the 2011-2012 school year the district spent $1,150 per student on districtwide administrative costs. During that school year, the average administrative cost per student of the California school districts was $468. CVUHSD's administrative per pupil cost was the second highest in Los Angeles County after that of the Gorman Elementary School District.

Academic performance

As of 2004 the district average

Academic Performance Index The Academic Performance Index (API) was a measurement of academic performance and progress of individual schools in California, United States. The API was one of the main components of the Public Schools Accountability Act passed by the California ...

(API) was 549. The California average at the time was 693, and the Los Angeles County average was 676. In a two-year period ending in 2004 the district did not make the progress mandated by the

No Child Left Behind Act The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was a 2002 United States Act of Congress promoted by the presidential administration of George W. Bush. It reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and included Title I provisio ...

(NCLB). Jean Merl of the ''

'' stated that some residents of the Hawthorne School District and Lennox School District had created

charter schools A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...

which had "signaled their continuing dissatisfaction" with the Centinela Valley district.

District service area

Aerial Mattel Headquarters El Segundo May 2012

As of 2023 the district includes all of Lawndale and Lennox, most of

and Alondra Park (a.k.a. El Camino Village), and a small portion of

. The CVUSD district formerly covered portions of El Segundo,
See index map
an
see text list indicating Wiseburn as an elementary school district
and

Del Aire Del Aire (; Spanish for "Of the Air") is an unincorporated community and census designated place (CDP) in the inland South Bay, Los Angeles County, California, United States, between El Segundo and Hawthorne. The population was 10,338 at the ...

. The area within the

area as a whole, as of 2002, generated about 40% of the assessed property value of the entire Centinela Valley district.Murillo, Sandra.
Wiseburn Schools Secession Plan Clears a Hurdle, but There's a Catch
" ''

''. May 2, 2002. Retrieved on April 4, 2014. Jean Merl of the ''

'' wrote in 2004 that Wiseburn "provides by far the largest portion of /nowiki>the Centinela Valley Union High School District/nowiki>'s assessed property tax valuation."Merl, Jean.
School District Breakup On Hold
" ''

''. December 11, 2004. Retrieved on April 5, 2014. As of 2014, most students within the Wiseburn School District do not matriculate to Centinela Valley after leaving the 8th grade. In November 2013 the voters in the Wiseburn school district voted to separate from Centinela Valley and establish a high school for the Wiseburn district.Kuznia, Rob.
Aerospace business corridor in El Segundo a cash cow for Centinela Valley school district

Archive
. ''

''. February 19, 2014. Retrieved on April 19, 2014. In 2014 the CVUSD district included a portion of eastern El Segundo with a high concentration of businesses and no residents. This area, also within the Wiseburn School District, houses operations of various companies, including

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...

Raytheon Technologies RTX Corporation, formerly Raytheon Technologies Corporation, is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by reve ...

, and

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...

. As of 2014 the concentration of businesses gives about 33% of the funds towards any approved school bond. CVUSD had passed two bonds, each worth almost $100 million, from 2008 to 2014.

Schools

* Hawthorne High School *

; Former: * Lennox High School

References

External links

*
Articles about an investigation of the district
from ''

The Daily Breeze The ''Daily Breeze'' is a 57,000-circulation daily newspaper published in Hermosa Beach, California, United States. It serves the South Bay cities of Los Angeles County. Its slogan is "LAX to LA Harbor". Early history The paper was found ...

'' {{Education in Los Angeles County, California School districts in Los Angeles County, California Lawndale, California Hawthorne, California 1905 establishments in California School districts established in 1905