User:Anonymous2324/Palisades Charter High School

Palisades Charter High School (usually abbreviated as "Pali High,"or "Pali," uncommonly as "PCHS" / "PHS" ) is a secondary school in Los Angeles, California, United States. The public high school serves the neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades, Palisades Highlands, Kenter Canyon and portions of Brentwood (including Brentwood Circle). Residents in Topanga, an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County, may attend Palisades or Taft High School.

The school serves grades 9 through 12. Formerly directly administered by the Los Angeles Unified School District school, with the land still owned by the district, the school is now an independent charter school, no longer administered by LAUSD. Its current enrollment numbers 2742 students, and many of them endure long bus rides to attend one of the most highly ranked public high schools in the Los Angeles area. In 2005, Palisades was recognized as a California Distinguished School.

The school is located at 15777 Bowdoin Street, Pacific Palisades, California, 90272.

Paul Revere Charter Middle School feeds into Palisades.

History
The school was founded in 1961. It was built for $6,000,000. The founding principal was Herbert L. Aigner (died in 2000). The Class of 2012 was the 50th graduating class.

Prior to the founding, the property was called All Hallows Farm and for many years was owned by the Conway family: Hollywood film director Jack Conway; his wife, actress Virginia Conway — daughter of silent screen star Francis X. Bushman — and their two sons, one of whom, Pat Conway became an actor as well. This property was subsequently rented to actress Debbie Reynolds and her husband, singer Eddie Fisher. It was then taken, some years later, by the State by eminent domain to build the high school.

Several members of the class of 1965 were profiled in a Time magazine article, which led to a best-selling 1976 book by class members David Wallechinsky and Michael Medved, What Really Happened to the Class of '65?. The book featured interviews with several members of the class, whose experiences were recounted both individually and in groupings around shared themes such as the Vietnam War and the draft, drug experimentation, and sex. Various teachers from the school also were interviewed, among them English teachers Miss Jean O'Brien, history teacher Mr. Johnson, and Mrs. Rose "Mama G" Gilbert, who retired during 2012-2013 after 63 years of teaching. At age 94, Mrs. Gilbert was the oldest active teacher in the LAUSD. The success of the book later inspired a short-lived television dramatic anthology series of the same title, which ran from December 1977 to July 1978 on NBC.

In 1989 20/20 aired an episode about the students of Palisades High School. Howard Rosenberg of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "Palisades High School is characterized here as both an institution of high academic performance and high drug and alcohol use. What "20/20" doesn't ask tonight is how both are possible at the same school."

In 1993 the school, along with three feeder elementary schools, received approval from the Los Angeles Board of Education to become a charter school. This was the first time a group of schools in California became charter schools.

This school was the focus of a false email chain letter started around 2002. The message falsely claimed that a satiric message to parents about student truancies and homework problems was actually on the school's answering machine. The message was originally written in response to parent outrage that students who skipped class more than ten days per 90-schoolday semester (not counting legitimate absences, like sickness) could receive a failing grade in that class. This was reported on several web sites, including TruthOrFiction.com, Snopes, and BreakTheChain.org.

Disregarding a majority vote of the parents and students, which came down 1740–1010 against, the board of directors voted in 2006 to change the starting date of school for the 2007–2008 school year, which upset the student body, many of whom took action by skipping class in protest. After much disagreement among the principal, the Board, teachers, parents, and students, the school finally announced on Tuesday, May 8, that the calendar change would not be enacted, mostly due to ongoing contract discussions with United Teachers Los Angeles which reminded administrators of a clause which prevented schedule changes without teacher approval.

Campus


The campus is bounded by Temescal Canyon Road to the east, Sunset Boulevard to the north, El Medio Street to the west, and Temescal Academy (formerly known as first Temescal Canyon Continuation School and later Temescal High School) to the south. It is bisected by Bowdoin Street, which runs between the school's football field and the academic center of the school. Located only a mile from Will Rogers State Beach, the football stadium is called "Stadium by the Sea."

Many movies have been filmed at Palisades. One of the first major motion pictures to be shot at Pali High was Carrie. Directors George Lucas and Brian De Palma held a joint audition for Carrie and Lucas's Star Wars (1977) on the Palisades campus. Other movies filmed on site include Popular (1999), Crazy/Beautiful (2001), The Glass House (2001), Old School (2003), Freaky Friday (2003), Havoc (2005), and Project X (2012). The TV series Modern Family (2013) and Teen Wolf (2011) were also filmed at the school.

Pali High was also used for the Sweet Valley High book, Party Weekend.

As of 2010, approximately 43% of the student body, 1,180 out of 2,742 students, were bused to Palisades Charter High School from more than 100 Los Angeles zip codes. In 1994, approximately 70% of the student body, 1,176 out of 1,680 students, were bused from South-Central and East Los Angeles.

Curriculum
As of 2002 Palisades High School offers a surfing class that can be taken for physical education credit. It was established around 1998 by Ray Millette, a marine biology teacher and surfer.

Student body
The school's ethnic composition is 47.0% White, 24.3% Hispanic, 18.2% African-American, 8.6% Asian, and 1.8% "other". The school's demographics have changed since becoming a charter school. In 1994, 70% of the students were minorities and 30% were White/Caucasian.

Notable alumni
Pali is the alma mater of many notable individuals, including:
 * J. J. Abrams '84 – screenwriter and television show creator
 * Alex Alben '76 – author, columnist, Internet executive
 * David Baerwald '78 – composer, songwriter, musician, producer
 * Scott Alexander – screenwriter
 * A. Scott Berg '67 – Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer
 * Jeff Bridges – actor
 * Christie Brinkley '72 – supermodel and spokeswoman
 * Jeanie Buss '79 – president and co-owner of Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association; also serves on NBA's board of governors
 * Peter DeLuise – actor
 * Roy Fegan '79 – actor, Hollywood Shuffle and The Five Heartbeats
 * Chris Ferguson – poker player
 * Alex Greenwald – actor and musician
 * Susanna Hoffs '76 – member of The Bangles
 * Raffi Hovannisian, '77 – first Foreign Minister of the independent Republic of Armenia
 * Willa Holland – actress
 * Elizabeth Keifer '79 – actress
 * Steve Kerr – 5-time NBA champion, coach of Golden State Warriors
 * Jennifer Jason Leigh – actress and director
 * Ahmad Ali Lewis - hip-hop artist, member of 4th Avenue Jones
 * Daniel S. Loeb – hedge fund manager
 * Lauren London- actress
 * Jeff Madsen – poker player, former youngest winner of a World Series of Poker bracelet
 * Ron Mael and Russell Mael - musicians (the band Sparks)
 * Michael Medved '65 – film critic, radio host, commentator
 * Penelope Ann Miller – actress
 * Matthew Nelson and Gunnar Nelson – musicians, formerly of chart-topping early '90s band Nelson
 * David Newman – film score composer '71
 * Michael Newman – former lifeguard and firefighter, Baywatch actor
 * Thomas Newman – film score composer
 * Philip Price (musician) '78 – musician, lead singer of the band Winterpills
 * David Roback – musician, Rain Parade, Opal, Mazzy Star.
 * Stephen Rosenbaum '83 – two-time Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor
 * Katey Sagal – Married with Children and Sons of Anarchy actress
 * Jean Sagal and Liz Sagal – former Doublemint Twins and sisters of Katey Sagal
 * Michael Sandel '71 – professor at Harvard
 * Jay Schroeder – football, Los Angeles Raiders
 * Geoff Schwartz – football, Kansas City Chiefs
 * Mitchell Schwartz – football, Cleveland Browns
 * Amy Smart – actress
 * Alan Smolinisky - entrepreneur, real estate investor, Owner of Palisadian-Post newspaper
 * Arnie Spanier – sports talk radio host
 * Kent Steffes – Olympic gold medalist, beach volleyball (1996), professional beach volleyball player
 * Ted Stryker '89 – KROQ-FM DJ
 * Syd tha Kyd – DJ producer and singer
 * Hallie Todd '79 – actress (maiden name: Hallie Eckstein)
 * Michael Trope '69 – trial lawyer, co-founder of Trope and Decarolis in Los Angeles; previous sports "super" agent; as a lawyer won the largest settlement of back child support in U. S. history in 2010 against Las Vegas magnate Kirk Kerkorian
 * Kiki Vandeweghe – 1976, NBA forward and then general manager Denver Nuggets
 * David Wallechinsky '65 – author and essayist
 * will.i.am (William James Adams Jr.) – musician, member of The Black Eyed Peas
 * Stephen Silberkraus Nevada State Assemblyman District 29
 * Redfoo (Stefan Kendal Gordy) -musician, member of LMFAO

Sending schools
As some LAUSD zoned high schools do not have enough space to educate all residents in their attendance boundaries, some schools send excess students to Palisades.

They were, as of spring 2007:


 * Belmont
 * Crenshaw
 * Dorsey
 * Fairfax
 * Fremont
 * Hamilton
 * Hollywood
 * Jefferson
 * Los Angeles
 * Manual Arts
 * Santee Education Complex
 * Van Nuys
 * Washington Preparatory

Additional references

 * SportsLine.com on Geoff McArthur Retrieved August 6, 2005.
 * collegesports.com Player Bio: David Koral :: Football Retrieved August 6, 2005.
 * CLASS Speaker: Jay Schroeder  Retrieved August 6, 2005.