The primary mission of our educational system is to facilitate learning.  Our goal is for our students to become well-educated, responsible and productive citizens.  Our mission is to build self-esteem and an appreciation of cultural diversity by providing a safe learning environment, encouraging parental involvement and utilizing community support.

Coming soon!

Los Padres Elementary School is located in the beautiful Lompoc Valley of Santa Barbara County, California. We are a K-5 school situated on Vandenberg Air Force Base. We have approximately 240 students during the 2006-2007 school year. Also located on the Los Padres campus are two Santa Barbara County classes, one LUSD special education class, and the California Children Services Therapy Program.

     Our school mascot is the bulldog, tough and full of determination. With the same determination, our staff and students are living the Los Padres motto of being Learners for Life.

Lompoc is located on the Central Coast of California.  It is found along scenic Highway 1, an hour's drive north of Santa Barbara.  Situated on Point Conception, California's western-most promontory, Lompoc boasts temperate climates year round.

  Lompoc (pronounced Lom - poke) was a name given to the area by its earliest inhabitants, the Chumash Indians.  The name meant swamp or stagnant waters, probably for the marshy wetlands created by the Santa Ynez river flowing into the ocean. The Chumash and their predecessors lived in areas around the Lompoc valley for nearly 10,000 years before any European settlement.  Because of the huge Chumash population, in 1787 Spanish padres selected Lompoc as the site for Mission La Purisima Concepción de Maria Santisima, the eleventh of twenty-one Spanish missions in California.  For the next 100 years the Lompoc valley was settled by the mission and by Spanish land grants.

  In 1874 the Lompoc Valley Land Company was created, and began establishment of a temperance colony.  In subsequent years the valley's rich, fertile soil, combined with the region's temperate climate enabled it to become one of the prime agricultural areas of California.  In the early 1900s it was discovered by the flower seed industry, and Lompoc valley became the "Flower Seed Capital of the World."  At one time between 50 to 75% of the world's flower seeds were grown in Lompoc valley, hence the name Lompoc, Valley of the Flowers.

  During World War II the hills along the coast to the west and north of Lompoc became an Army training facility called Camp Cooke.  Today it is now Vandenberg Air Force Base, one of the nation's most important military and space installations.  Its location on the tip of Point Conception gives VAFB unique status as a polar launch facility.  VAFB is also a leader in opening space frontiers to commercial use.