Mira Costa High School

outstanding music dept..great ap classes.great sports ,very safe neighborhood. great and numerous vice principals, dedicated and vibrant teachers...
—Submitted by a parent

Love the School, love Teachers, Great Principle learship. best public school in Los Angeles county that you can find.
—Submitted by a parent

I have two daughters attending Mira Costa right now. I am so pleased with the quality and well rounded education they are receiving. They are both on accelerated academic tracks, and playing on a Mira Costa sports team. Their classes have been challenging and rigorous. I have been very impressed with the teachers and their willingness to offer extra help when needed. I have been very impressed with the English, Science and Math departments. The Model UN program is fantastic! My daughters' coaches, for the little that they are paid, are producing nationally ranked teams. I am also impressed with the parent and community involvement. Normally at the high school level the parent involvement wanes. Not so at Mira Costa. The parent booster clubs for the sports teams are amazingly strong, but so are the boosters for the arts and academics. Mira Costa PTA and the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation raise an unbelievable amount of money that is funding so many programs that private schools is the area don't even provide. Mira Costa is offering excellence for those who choose to take advantage.
—Submitted by a parent

Mira costa is a wonderful High school my daughter came from a small school. I was very concern how she can handel the change with the help of great teachers and friendly student and support of stuff she has had a great start. In MBH the support of community the best. AP and test score with so many electives will open the door to best collages in USA. We love it.
—Submitted by a parent

Great school that offers a lot. Does everyone get everything ... no. This would be common sense despite some of the very high maintenance self absorbed people who stalk the corridors of many schools. MC greatest strength are its faculty who teach great core academics ( see AP & test scores) plus electives. Their faculty teaches our kids, gets them into so many universities and one could say protect our property values.
—Submitted by a parent

Mira Costa is an amazing public school in part because of the tremendous support it receives from the community.
—Submitted by a parent

Mira Costa has the best teachers, from math and sciences, to the choir department, they excel at what they teach and the students and parents love them.
—Submitted by a parent

My daughter is an incoming freshman. When we were deciding between a small charter school (DaVinci) and Costa, Ms. Ruisinger responded to my questions IMMEDIATELY! I am also a substitute teacher at Mira Costa and have found the students, teachers, and other staff to be wonderful. There will always be kids who feel left out, but as I tell my daughter, you have to initiate a friendship and go beyond yourself if you feel out of place. She has plenty of friends from MBMS, but they have diff't interests and may go their own ways. As for affluence- not everyone in MB are 'rich'. Many of us chose to live here specifically b/c of the great schools. I lived in an 850 sf home just to send my daughter to superb schools. We don't all drive Ferari's. I have a Jeep with 160,000 miles on it. So please don't generalize.
—Submitted by a parent

i want to say that you should not rate a school badly because of your child's 'awkwardness' this is Manhattan Beach, we are who we are spoiled brats(sorry to say) if you want your child to not be influenced and have nice caring friends you should home school her. This school is exceptional in its academics, which is what a school is for, to learn. I love Mira Costa and every staff member. If you want your child to succeed look at the ratings not many students don't succeed. And possibly if you yourself got involved a little more you would see this school/community is very intimate.

I love this school. they have great programs and staff.
—Submitted by a parent

My daughter was able to get into this school and knew she was lucky to be there. She is smart and she works very hard in all her classes. Most of her classes are honors classes, a couple are not. She did not know anyone going into M.C. but she went to all the football games and became involved in activities, where she could. She knew she had to work hard academically (sp?) this year to be able to get into M. C. next year. She got in! She also got all her teachers this year to recommend her for the yearbook committee, and she made it! What I am trying to say is that you have to be focused. She has a big social life, too, but she knows what is important.
—Submitted by a parent

Community and parent involvement are critical in the success of any local school and at Mira Costa, those are front and center.
—Submitted by a parent

As an honors student, I was given the attention and opportunity to take classes that I needed, as long as I was willing to seek it out. With the recent administration and staff changes, it's hard to say that they do the best job they could all the time, but comparatively, Costa offers students who are motivated all the resources they need to succeed. If you don't seem like you WANT attention or help.. then teachers aren't going to watch over your shoulder until you care. Duh. Don't blame them for that. I believe that our special needs program is pretty good as well.. if that's a concern. The bottom line is people who want attention can get it easily. People who don't will barely get any.
—Submitted by a student

Especially happy with the assistance given to student with educational needs.
—Submitted by a parent

I was a student at mira costa this last year. I was miserable, to many clicks, the kids made me feel very uncomfortable not to mention unwelcome. If you didn't grow up with all the kids since you were 3 years old you can kiss the 'great high school experience' goodbye. There aren't any pep rallies, or student cheering sections everyone is to busy in their own world to care about anyone else but themselves. On the other hand, the classes and school work are still challenging and you can get a great education. But when in an environment where you feel you just don't want to be there... it is very hard to focus on learning.
—Submitted by a student

freshman tend to det loss in the overall and their LINKS program has not had been effective oversight and supervision?
—Submitted by a parent

My daughter is a freshman girl and it is her first year at Mira Costa. We came from an affluent community to obviously another community with money. She is miserable, the attitude and clicks are just too much for an honest, caring girl, like her. She is popular because she chooses to do the right thing by her friends and peers but she can't help noticing that the quality of friends is just not there. The kids are very experimental and not all that nice to one another. The other issue is that the kids would rather party than get involved in school activities, no pep rallies, no dress up days, just not enough school spirit. The school size makes too many kids get lost. Needless to say, we are looking for a smaller, more intimate community with some heart. very sad because we love the city of Manhattan
—Submitted by a parent

Mira Costa offers various extracurricular activites and has outstanding academics, which is obvious from its standardized test scores. However, many students at this school--and sometimes even some staff members--can be very snobbish, probably due to the fact that the school is in such an affluent area. You can hear students bragging about what their parents do for a living and how high their family incomes are; as a result, students who aren't as affluent as others are looked down upon and made fun of. Mira Costa should really discourage this kind of behavior.

Mrs. Ruisinger is an extremely hard-working principal. She provides the best for her students and consistently goes above the call of duty for her school community.
—Submitted by a parent

This school is all about who has the most money and who is taking AP classes. The teachers are okay...they really do not care about you unless your family is wealthy or you are advanced in school work.
—Submitted by a former student