 The name "Rio Mesa", conceived by OUHSD board member Bob Matthews at the time of the school's founding, is derived from the two original school districts that fed the school in 1965 — Rio and Mesa Union — though it also receives students from the Pleasant Valley and Oxnard Elementary districts.Rio Mesa High School is surrounded on all four sides by agricultural fields; as such, the campus is subject to pesticide exposure.Rio Mesa has been at the center of a Title VI Civil Rights Act complaint since 1999, covering three generations.