Santa Paula Unified School District The Santa Paula Unified School District was approved by the voters in November 2012, and began operation on July 1, 2013. The new District operates an early childhood education program, six K-5 elementary schools, one 6-8 middle school, one comprehensive high school and one continuation high school. Approximately 535 certificated and classified employees serve 5,500 students on a budget of $55 million. Santa Paula Unified is proud to be the home of the National MESA Champions, the Migrant Speech/Debate Winners, a CSBA Golden Bell Award recipient, two award winning academic academies, and a National Blue Ribbon School (Grace Thille Elementary). In addition, both high schools were recently awarded six year accreditations as well as a new track and field facility and a state of the art science/technology building on the campus of Santa Paula High School.