Westminster School District

Westminster School District
Address
14121 Cedarwood Street
Westminster
, Orange County, California, 92683
United States
Coordinates33°45′27″N 117°59′40″W / 33.7574°N 117.9945°W / 33.7574; -117.9945 (District office)
District information
TypePublic
GradesPre-K through 8th
Established1872; 152 years ago (1872)
PresidentFrances Nguyen[1]
Vice-presidentJeremy Khalaf[1]
SuperintendentGunn Marie Hansen, Ph.D.[2]
Asst. superintendent(s)Rich Montgomery[4]
Business administratorManuel Cardoso Jr.[5]
Director of educationRichard J. Noblett, Ed.D.[6]
Schools17[3]
NCES District ID0642150[3]
Students and staff
Enrollment9,338 (2016-17)[3]
Teachers394.06 FTE[3]
Student–teacher ratio23.7[3]
Other information
Websitewww.wsdk8.us
MapLocation of district office (blue map pin) within Orange County (shown in orange)

The Westminster School District (WSD) is an elementary school district in Orange County, California, established in 1872 and headquartered in Westminster.[7] It operates schools in Westminster, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, and Midway City.[8]

It operates elementary and middle schools. High school students attend schools in the Huntington Beach Union High School District as well as in the Garden Grove Unified School District.[9]

Racial segregation and discrimination against Mexican-American students by the school district resulted in a 1947 federal court case, Mendez v. Westminster, which ordered desegregation of the district's schools, so that Mexican and non-Mexican children attended the same schools. The plaintiffs had argued that Mexican-Americans were white and therefore should be allowed to attend the schools reserved for white children. The courts ruled that even if the students were not white, public schools "must be open to all children by unified school association regardless of lineage", except when segregation was explicitly authorized by state law.[10]

List of schools

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Middle schools

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  • Stacey Middle (6–8, Huntington Beach)
  • Johnson Middle (6–8, Westminster)
  • Warner Middle (6–8, Westminster)

Child development schools

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  • John F. Land School (Westminster)

Closed schools

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  • 17th Street (Westminster)[11]
  • Hoover Elementary (Westminster)
  • Midway City Elementary (Midway City)
  • Virginia K. Boos / Barber City Elementary (Barber City)
  • Cook Elementary 14401 Willow Ln., Westminster, CA 92683
  • Gil Elementary 15252 Victoria Ln, Huntington Beach, CA 92647

Historic references

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An important precursor to the desegregation of schools across the nation, the Westminster School District was the defendant in the groundbreaking litigation Mendez v. Westminster. Five Mexican-American families sued on behalf of thousands of students who were forced to attend substandard schools within the district. Ultimately, the court ordered the school district to allow students of Mexican descent to attend schools that had been previously reserved for only white students.[12]

The case proved to be an important training-ground for Brown v. Board of Education. Thurgood Marshall authored an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the NAACP in favor of integration and later argued the merits before the Supreme Court in Brown. After the Mendez case, Governor Earl Warren led the call for full integration of California public schools. Additionally, the untimely death of Chief Justice Vinson during the Court's recess and the ascendancy of Earl Warren to the position of Chief Justice made the favorable ruling in Brown possible.

In 2015, Westminster School District became the first school district in the State of California to offer a Vietnamese-English Dual Immersion Program.[13][14] The program was first proposed in 2014 by Board Member Jamison Power, whose wife is Vietnamese-American.[15][16] The program was implemented by the district's first minority Superintendent, Dr. Marian Kim-Phelps[17] and the Director of the Office of Language Acquisition, Dr. Renae Bryant, after the board consisting of Jamison Power, Mary Mangold, Amy Walsh, Dave Bridgewaters, and Penny Loomer unanimously approved moving forward with implementing the program. In 2017, the program received the prestigious California School Boards Association Golden Bell award.[18]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Board Members – Board of Trustees". Westminster School District. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  2. ^ "Superintendent". Westminster School District. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Search for Public School Districts – District Detail for Westminster". National Center for Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved 2019-09-09.
  4. ^ "Human Resources". Westminster School District. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  5. ^ "Business Services". Westminster School District. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
  6. ^ "Educational Services". Westminster School District. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  7. ^ "Westminster School District". www.wsdk8.us. Retrieved 2019-09-10. 14121 Cedarwood Street, Westminster, CA 92683
  8. ^ "Directions – Schools". Westminster School District. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  9. ^ "Feeder Districts". Huntington Beach Union High School District. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
  10. ^ "Mendez et al. v. Westminster School District of Orange County, 64 F. Supp. 544 (1946), Conclusions of the Court". Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  11. ^ "History". Westminster, CA. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  12. ^ Candil, Caitlin Yoshiko (2016-04-17). "Mendez vs. segregation: 70 years later, famed case 'isn't just about Mexicans. It's about everybody coming together'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  13. ^ "First Vietnamese immersion program in California coming to Westminster school". Orange County Register. 2015-01-19. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  14. ^ "Westminster School District is First in State to Offer Vietnamese/English Dual Immersion Program". The Liberal OC. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  15. ^ Nelson, Vern. "Westminster beats Garden Grove to have first Viet-English Dual Immersion program in state". Orange Juice Blog. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  16. ^ "OC school district to offer Calif.'s 1st Vietnamese-English immersion program". Southern California Public Radio. 2014-12-16. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  17. ^ "San Diego administrator up for Westminster schools chief". Orange County Register. 2013-10-30. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  18. ^ "Golden Bell Awards". California School Boards Association - Golden Awards. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
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