The Hollywood Reporter – August 14, 2019

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 53 AUGUST 14, 2019

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curriculum with 18 AP classes,

foreign-language courses in

Spanish, French and Hebrew and

a new partnership with West

L.A. College for university-level

classes. “My kids have thought-

ful teachers who really engage

with them,” says former Saban

Capital CFO Fred Gluckman.

Not as diverse as most of the

schools on this list, Beverly Hills

High is 73 percent white, 8 per-

cent Latinx, 3 percent African

American and 13 percent Asian.

CLEVELAND HUMANITIES MAGNET

8140 Vanalden Ave., Reseda

The magnet school referred

to as Core focuses on writing

and cross-disciplinary stud-

ies around themes like world

cultures and American studies

seen through the lens of race,

class and gender. The program,

which includes about two dozen

AP classes, encompasses 880

students, a subset of around 3,100

at mother school Grover Cleveland

Charter. Says voice actor Nickie

Bryar (Family Guy): “With Core,

my child is able to broaden her

understanding of the world.” The

student body is 39 percent white,

28 percent Latinx, 4 percent

African American and 25 percent

Asian, and the 2019 senior class

had acceptances to Columbia,

Harvard, Princeton and Yale.

CULVER CITY HIGH SCHOOL

4401 Elenda St., Culver City

Supported by a partnership with

Sony since 1993, the Culver City

Unified School District high

school is known for its after-

school Academy of Visual and

Performing Arts. “Film stu-

dents do their spring screening

series in the fanciest theater at

Sony,” says director Dan Mirvish,

whose kid graduated and is at

UC Berkeley. The 2,230 student

body is 26 percent white, 38 per-

cent Latinx, 17 percent African

American and 10 percent Asian.

The well-rounded school has 21

sports teams, 19 AP courses, tech-

nical courses in sports medicine,

architectural design and I.T., and

more than 80 student clubs.

DA VINCI SCHOOLS

201 N. Douglas St., El Segundo

Da Vinci’s main campus

comprises three charter high

schools, each with about

525 students focusing on

architecture and graphic design,

communications, and science.

The project-based, career-focused

school has partnerships with such

nearby companies as YouTube,

Chevron and SpaceX, and links

with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo,

UCLA and Loyola Marymount for

college-level courses. “Last year,

Da Vinci’s robotics team won the

championships,” says Raleigh

Enterprises executive Robert

Schubert. The student population

is 17 percent white, 54 percent

Latinx, 14 percent African

American and 4 percent Asian.

GIRLS ACADEMIC

LEADERSHIP ACADEMY

1067 West Blvd., Mid-Wilshire

Girls Academic Leadership

Academy (GALA) is the only all-

girls STEM (science, technology,

engineering and math) school

in LAUSD and the state. “Only

7 percent of women and 4 per-

cent of women of color go into

STEM fields,” says actress Susan

Leslie, who has a daughter at the

school, which covers grades 6 to

12 (with 585 students total) and

will graduate its first senior class

next year. “After our principal,

Dr. Elizabeth Hicks, two chil-

dren at private all-girls school

Marlborough, she thought, ‘Why

don’t we have a public school like

this?’ ” GALA, on the Los Angeles

High School campus, is 30 per-

cent white, 32 percent Latinx,

25 percent black and 10 percent

Asian. The college-prep school

has 17 AP classes, a rocketry club,

flight simulators and an after-

school Shakespeare program.

GRANADA HILLS CHARTER

10535 Zelzah Ave., Granada Hills

One of the largest independent

charter schools in the U.S., with

5,000 students, this school

offers 60-plus clubs, 21 sports

teams, 29 AP courses and an

International Baccalaureate

program on its 34-acre campus

in the north Valley. A public

school that converted to charter,

Granada sees more than 2,000

applicants for about 400 seats. TV

producer Lisa Bacon (who has two

kids at the school and two who

graduated) says, “It’s fantastic

how many different ethnicities

there are.” Demographics are

24 percent white, 38 percent

Latinx, 4 percent African

American and 17 percent Asian.

The 2019 senior class won spots at

seven out of eight Ivies.

JOHN MARSHALL HIGH SCHOOL

3939 Tracy St., Los Feliz

John Marshall stands out among

LAUSD’s many comprehensive

high schools. Known for its

Gothic building, which appeared

in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it

enrolls 2,380 students and houses

a highly gifted magnet school,

a school of advanced studies

and environmental studies.

It provides 20 AP classes, 16

sports teams, an award-winning

Academic Decathlon team, and

excels in music offerings. “You

really get that big high school

experience, the baseball team

playing in the city finals at

Dodger Stadium,” says writer-

editor Sophia Nardin. She and her

husband, Beats by Dre president

Luke Wood, have a daughter there

who attended a private middle

school. The student body is 16 per-

cent white, 58 percent Latinx, less

than 1 percent African American

and 13 percent Asian. One gripe:

the large class sizes. “The teach-

ers may have less time to give to

each student, but they are every

bit as dedicated, knowledgeable

and caring,” counters Nardin.

LACES

5931 W. 18th St., Mid-City

LAUSD’s first magnet, Los

Angeles Center for Enriched

Studies, is a pro at college-prep

education. The 1,600-student,

6th-to-12th-grade school offers

a very rigorous environment

where the average student com-

pletes seven AP courses, with a

total of 26 APs on offer — just

two fewer than private school

Harvard-Westlake. The students

A 9th grade science class at GALA.