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Groundbreaking for the site of the school took place on May 24, 1949, for the first high school in Manhattan Beach. It was a forty-acre site that had belonged to a Japanese American landscaper who had beeninterned during World War II and was paid $60,000 for the land. Mira Costa High School opened on September 30, 1950. The school was dedicated by then-state superintendent of schools, Roy E. Simpson, with additional remarks made by the president of the board of trustees.[3][4]
As of the 2023–24 school year, the school had an enrollment of 2,568 students and 108 classroom teachers (on anFTE basis), for astudent–teacher ratio of 24:1. There were 175 students (6.8% of enrollment) eligible forfree lunch and 2 (0.07% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[2]
Mira Costa is the only high school in the MBUSD. All residents of Manhattan Beach are eligible to attend. Residents ofHermosa Beach may choose to attendRedondo Union High School of theRedondo Beach Unified School District or Mira Costa. As of Fall 2006, Redondo Beach residents living in the 90278 zip code were allowed to attend Mira Costa.[6]
On June 11, 2020, hundreds of Mira Costa students and parents attended a march fromHermosa Beach to Manhattan Beach to celebrate their graduation in violation of CDCsocial distancing guidelines. Their actions attracted widespread negative attention from media and concerned citizens for putting others at risk during the 2020COVID-19 pandemic.[7]
The Mira Costa Choir Program consists of three curricular choirs, Vocal Ensemble, Choral Union (an upper voice choir), and MC voices, which meet during the school day year-round, and two small ensembles, Coterie and Mira Costa Muscle, which meet after school.[8]
In the summer of 2010 Vocal Ensemble sang in the International Festival of the Aegean in Syros, Greece. They performed as part of the opera chorus inCarmen and were the closing choir in the Sunset Concert at St. Nicholas Cathedral on Sunday, 18 July 2010.[9]
In the Spring of 2011, all four Mira Costa Choirs performed in Carnegie Hall as part of Carnegie Hall's WorldStrides National Choral Festival. The Vocal Ensemble had the honor of performing as the featured solo choir.[10]
In May 2016, the Mira Costa Bands traveled toCarnegie Hall in New York as part of a series outlining the best band programs in the country.[11] The band had previously performed at Carnegie Hall in 2011.[12] In 2014, the band received the Grammy Foundation Signature Schools 2014 Gold Award, which includes a grant of $5000.[13]
Mira CostaModel United Nations is a debate team that takes part in mock debates of theUnited Nations. The team hosts the Los Angeles Invitational Model United Nations (LAIMUN) Conference, a novice and advanced conference held in docket-style debate.[16] Mira Costa's team has multiple Large School Delegation awards.[17]
Costa students team up with Redondo Union High School students to createBeach Cities Robotics. The team participates in the organization FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) as Team 294. Beach Cities Robotics has won numerous awards since starting in 1997, including 2 World Championship wins. They scored 1st place at the FRC finals in 2001 against more than 50 other teams at the event from around the country. In 2008, they won first place at the inaugural FTC World Championship. Beach Cities Robotics won the FRC finals again in 2010 as its "alliance" captain, against over 300 teams attending the World Championship, and over 1800 teams worldwide.[18]
In 2000, 12th-grade English teacher Marilyn Jachetti Whirry was selected as theNational Teacher of the Year.[27] Whirry had taught at Mira Costa in the 1958–59 academic year and then from 1967 through 2000.
In September 2010, U.S. history teacher Bill Fauver was selected as one of Los Angeles County's 16 Teachers of the Year. He was once named MBUSD Teacher of the Year.[28][29]
Mira Costa High School was a common filming location for the popular television seriesThe O.C.[48] In 2006, a portion of the quad was used as a scene in The O.C. In 1981 portions of the film "Midnight Offerings" starringMelissa Sue Anderson were filmed on the campus.[citation needed] In 1979, many members of the football and cheerleading squads, attired in their green and gold uniforms, were included as extras in the filmRock 'n' Roll High School. The administration building of Mira Costa High School was used as the high school for theDisney Channel TV showsA.N.T Farm andHannah Montana. In 2008, an episode ofCSI: Miami was filmed on campus, using the pool and members of the varsity swim team as extras. In 2011, much of rapper Snoop Dogg'sMac & Devin Go to High School was filmed on campus, sparking a controversy over the characters' use of marijuana on school property and administration officials demanded that the footage not be used in the final movie.[49]
^"Session XXII"(PDF).laimun.org. Los Angeles Invitational Model United Nation. December 20, 2017. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on December 22, 2017. RetrievedJanuary 31, 2023.
^Seaton, Carolyn. "Mira Costa High School TeacherBill FauverArchived 2012-03-26 at theWayback Machine Honored as One of L.A. County’s “Sweet Sixteen” Teachers of the Year." Press Release,Manhattan Beach Unified School District. 21 Sept. 2010. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
^Chick, Stevie (2011).Spray Paint the Walls: The Story of Black Flag. PM Press. p. 10.ISBN9781604865844.Other distinguished Mira Costa alumni include screenwriter Roger Avary, who co-wrote Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Seventies actress and The Price Is Right spokesmodel Anitra Ford, and a whole slew of future SoCal punk luminaries, members of the Descendents, Red Cross (who would become Redd Kross), Pennywise and, of course, Black Flag.
^Peterson, Lauren."Resemblance is striking; Stanford-bound 6-foot-5 hitter Klineman has a Walsh-like effect on top-ranked Mira Costa",Los Angeles Times, December 2, 2006. Accessed January 6. 2008. "'When you see somebody like [Alix Klineman], where she's built like [Kerri Walsh] and she kind of looks like Kerri, who happens to be one of the best volleyball players on the beach or indoors to ever play the game -- and Alix has two inches on her -- I think it's exciting,' said Holly McPeak, a 1987 Mira Costa graduate and AVP tour veteran."
^Smith, Michelle."LB Okwo trying to spark Stanford",San Francisco Chronicle, September 27, 2006. Accessed January 10, 2008. "Okwo, a Redondo Beach native who attended Mira Costa High, would very much like to go home to Southern California and get a win against UCLA on Saturday night."
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