Kinoshita Elementary is the newest part of a three-school complex near the San Juan Capistrano Community Center, Sports Park and Boys and Girls Club. It's next to Marco Forster Middle School and Del Obispo Elementary.
Its student make-up is about 97 percent Hispanic. It has won county and state recognition for the Kinoshita Family Project, a 5th-grade multimedia creation.
The logo is the bonsai tree and the mascot is the comets. The students wear uniforms.
The school serves as a professional developmental site with California State University, Fullerton. Staff members serve as mentors, seminar leaders and trainers for Capistrano Unified School District and California State University, Fullerton.
It was named a California Distinguished School in 2001-02.