Esperanza High School

1830 Kellogg Drive

School District

Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified
Grade

9-12
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:24
Type

public

School Map for Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by parent on January 11, 2024

Overall this is a great school. The sports program is great and the education my son receives in amazing. His grades have improved since starting at Esperanza high school. I highly recommend this school. The staff and coaches are caring and know what they are doing.
Submitted by parent on August 30, 2023

My daughter was not excited about High School going in. Then she was accepted into the Medical Academy and played softball. Now she loves going to school, her friends and their events. She volunteers at the school while in AP classes. I'm happy she's doing so well there.
Submitted by parent on May 10, 2021

Very supportive and engaged teachers. Administration cares about the students. Friendly atmosphere.
Submitted by other on March 22, 2019

If students needs special resources/ services 0 but everyday mainstream student 8. As mentioned above. Again this was few years back. Granddaughter now in the mist but elementary level. Recently moved to different district where she can get properly educated and not be a burden by low test scores in PLUSD future.
Submitted by other on March 12, 2018

With todays climate its incredible that this place does not provide a social worker to work with students that need to be referred to potentially life saving support, teachers dont have a clear path to properly refer and report potentially life threatening conditions, and students complaints and fears are completely ignored. This place has proven to is run be inept administration. Dont let the 9 fool you, and do yourselves a favor stay away, and report your complaints until someone listens.
Submitted by parent on June 28, 2017

This school is plagued with weak leadership starting at the top and thats Dr. Fox. He has created an adverse environment with the community. He did this by not listening to students and involved parents as suggestions and complaints go unnoticed. If you read the reviews they keep getting worse and worse and thats the community giving their feedback that falls on deaf ears. When is the District going to step in and make leadership changes and turn things around at this once great school? If you notice, while Esperanza is in a decline while El Dorado and YL high are on the rise. Its not due to a shift in demographics as YL is a very involved and affluent neighborhood, its the leadership of this school. A principal couldn't ask for a better community for its student and parent base. The answer seems so simple; replace the ineffective leadership with new staff that care and are open to the wants and needs of the community.
Submitted by student on April 22, 2017

Most teachers are great and really want to see the students succeed in life and reach their goals. However, other teachers are quite obviously there to get (not earn) a paycheck. The food could definitely be improved. As a student with blood sugar issues, I think it would be helpful if they sold healthier food in the vending machines and lunch line. For the most part, the teachers and administrators are accepting and supportive of LGBTQ students, but they could do a better job of preventing orientation based bullying so more of us can attend school without fear. There are a variety of clubs at our school, so there is at least one thing each student is a part of. There are two academies at our school, the medical sciences program and the engineering academy. The school does a wonderful job advertising and providing funds for the med academy, and they are very successful. Students in this academy can have an internship at a medical site during high school. However, the school could do a WAY better job advertising and fundraising for the engineering academy. I feel as though this academy is overshadowed, which is disappointing because this academy benefits many more students than the med academy because more people are a part of it. Our machine shop and welding equipment needs repairs, but the school does not provide us enough funds to fix our equipment. The benefits of the engineering academy are that students can learn solidworks and earn a certification they can use to get a job our if high school. Another benefit is that students can learn drafting and basics of many different careers in engineering to get an idea of what career they would like. Benefits of the welding and machine shop are learning how to use many different machines used in industry, and learning how to MIG, TIG, and acydeline weld. Students can get well paying jobs out of high school. Personally, my main complaint would be that the welding equipment and machines are in need of repair, and the school has not fixed them for 3 years.-Sophomore student
Submitted by parent on May 23, 2016

The issues start and end with the Principal. The Principal's job is to ensure the safety of students during school hours. Students from other campus' are entering the EHS campus at will and when the principal was advised of this, via phone calls and email messages, he chose to ignore it. In fact, he stated that he must have deleted the messages all together. This is not how a leader should have handled a situation. This "leader" of EHS does not take the time to listen to the parents concerns regarding the safety and well being of the students. I would like to see the PYLUSD step in and handle this situation for the well being and safety of the students and to ease the minds of the parents who choose to send their kids to EHS.Parents, students, community members of Yorba Linda, let's stand together to make changes for our students.
Submitted by other on May 22, 2016

The school rating of a 9 is grossly overrated. The teachers do a great job with the students and the sports programs are excellent but its the leadership starting with the Principal Dr. Fox that is the issue. The Principal is responsible for the students safety. On more than two occasions Dr. Fox was notified about students from other schools and non-students that were expelled from this school coming onto the campus at lunchtime and after school. He choose to ignore this major concern and misplace emails to this effect however the problem still lingered. The PYLUSD is a fantastic district but Dr. Fox needs to go and run the campus where he listens to parents and is truly concerned about the students safety from kids outside of the campus. Until this issue is resolved by replacing him with a great leader, I would only give this school a rating of 7. Please voice your opinion and lets make change where change is needed and that's student safety.
Submitted by parent on August 21, 2013

The Good: World History teacher is phenomenal. His standards, expectations, and methods of composition are unmatched. The Bad: D = Diploma! EHS focuses on the 40% of students that push themselves hard enough to gain University admission upon graduation AND their overall school rating. News Flash: those students would achieve regardless; EHS cannot take credit for that. EHS needs to focus on the average kids and stop pushing them off onto community colleges (other 60% of graduates). I would like to see how many of those 60% actually completed a university program. Community colleges are a great gateway to a university, however, most students are underprepared. The 60% of unsuccessful non-CSU qualified students outweighs the 40% that are university bound and creates a negative. This is not just an EHS problem, it is a State problem. I realize that EHS is just a player in the political game but unfortunately, if you are not a part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Don't worry though, in the State of California, and Esperanza, you can graduate high school with all D's. Hopefully parents will expect more from their children and will pierce the veil.
Submitted by other on June 01, 2013

the principal at this school is unwilling to listen to any concerns or issues brought on by student or parent. He does his "investigating" of his staff & has his mind made up that there automatically right. all he cares about is the reputation of the school. And thats just wrong! Its about the kids but when someone doesnt listen to a clear concern,,makes me wonder y your a principal, and makes u think wait if the principal is like that, do i really want my kids going to that school with that type of "leadership?"
Submitted by parent on December 22, 2012

The Principal/school leadership is rude and unwilling to listen to legitimate parental concerns, the Theatre Arts department is a complete disappointment. These two major flaws made it hard to fairly evaluate other aspects of the schools programs
Submitted by student on June 10, 2012

Regarding the post made during January 2012, I am also a student taking multiple AP classes including AP Language Arts. I would like to point out the fallacious nature of that previous post. I have seen and know for a fact that our AP Language Arts (APLA) teacher was in the classroom teaching for more than a quarter and a half, whereupon she had to leave for health reasons. A very apt substitute was chosen to take her place, who has long term subbed for another APLA teacher before. The administration of Esperanza High School has done an exemplary job of dealing with these unforeseen crises. If you are reading this, please do not take into consideration this extenuating circumstance in your holistic consideration of whether Esperanza is the right high school for your child. Thank you.
Submitted by student on January 30, 2012

I am a student at Esperanza High School taking AP English and several other rigorous courses, and although I have been at Esperanza for a short duration of time, I am still extremely disappointed in the quality of Esperanza's Language Arts program. For any student or parent, regardless the circumstance, it is a terrible disappointment to know that the teacher has been in the class less than 5% of the Semester. Since my attendance, I have met my teacher TWO times. Other students have told me that she is rarely in the classroom. With such an array of substitutes, (and I must say that I do give credit to the substitutes), there has been actually very little teaching done! It is incredulously absurd! For approximately 20 minutes, we do Silent Sustained Reading of a book of our choice, then complete fill-in-the-blank worksheets, fill out precis, vocabulary, etc. Although we are assigned a book every quarter, we do not discuss the book. Absolute. You must understand that there is absolutely VERY LITTLE student-teacher interaction regarding the academics and course fundamentals! In point blank, WE DO NOT LEARN ANYTHING. Something must be done!!!