Oak Park High School

Oak Park High School (abbreviated OPHS) is the main high school in the Oak Park Unified School District, taking ninth through twelfth grade students. It is a National Blue Ribbon School and a 2019 California Distinguished School, and received an Exemplary Distinction Award from the California of Education for its Career and Technical Education program which includes career pathways in Engineering Design, Media Arts, Production Management, and construction technologies. 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 CA. History As 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, despite the fact that 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. Campus expansion has continued in recent years with the addition of a library, a performing arts center, an updated gym including a new floor, a new rubberized track, a turf football field, a stadium sound system, science labs, a student services building, modernized art classrooms, and computer labs. Additional work, to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, improved access to the baseball and softball fields. Five drinking fountains were installed in the summer of 2013.