HUNTINGTON BEACH High School is one of six comprehensive high schools in the HBUHSD and the oldest, having been established in 1906 (OC Tribune photo).

Students will be returning to class in the Huntington Beach Union High School District Wednesday as the school system starts its 110th year serving several communities in western and coastal Orange County.

An estimated 16,000 students will be enrolled at the district’s six comprehensive high schools – Edison, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Marina, Ocean View and Westminster. Additionally, the HBUHSD operates an independent study operation – Coast High School – and Valley Vista Continuation School.

As the 2016-17 school year starts, the district is involved in a search for a new superintendent. Greg Plutko, the superintendent for 11 years, stepped down at end of May to become head of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District.

ALAN RASMUSSEN, interim superintendent of the district (HBUHSD photo).

Serving as interim superintendent is Alan Rasmussen, who was superintendent for the Ocean View School District, one of the “feeder” elementary districts which send their students to the HBUHSD. The others are the Westminster School District, Fountain Valley School District and the Huntington Beach City School District.

In addition to a new superintendent, other personnel changes this fall include Matthew White as a new assistant principal at Edison High School and Angela Harding, the new principal at Coast High.

Athletes and coaches will be experiencing new, synthetic practice surfaces at Edison, Fountain Valley, Marina and Ocean View at a cost of $3.5 million. The stadiums at Huntington Beach and Westminster high schools received the artificial turf during renovations in 2009.

The district made news earlier this month when the Newsweek magazine listed Huntington Beach and Marina high schools as among the 500 best public high schools in the nation.

The HBUHSD serves most of Huntington Beach and portions of Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Midway City and Westminster.

For more on the district, go to: http://www.hbuhsd.edu .