St. Maria Goretti School was founded in 1957 at the request of James Francis Cardinal McIntyre, Archbishop of Los Angeles.  The school opened on February 4, 1957, staffed by five lay teachers with an enrollment of 276 in grades one to four. The following year, three Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet joined the staff as full time teachers and as administrator. An additional grade was added each year so that by 1960 there were eight grades with fourteen classrooms and a teaching staff is six sisters and eight lay yeachers. The enrollment increased proportionally and in 1964 reached 801.

Changes have been inevitable over the course of the years. When the St. Joseph sisters found it necessary to withdraw from staffing the school in 1974, the parish was fortunate to obtain Sisters from the Dominican Order of St. Catherine of Siena.  In September 1981, the school began a phasing out program in order to reduce the number of classrooms to one class per grade. The Dominican Sisters continued to work in the parsh until 1987. Illness, retirement and the vocation shortage eventually made it impossible for the odre to continue to staff the school. In 1987 Miss Sandra Brosnahan and an all lay faculty began a new era for the parish school, but the tradition of quality Catholic Edication has continued!! In September 1988, a Kindergarten class and a fully equipped Writing-to-Read lab were added. A childcare program was opened in 1997.