Palisades Charter High School - History

History

The school was founded in 1961. 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 recently retired 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.

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.