It draws students from all six elementary (K-4) schools in the "Point Loma Cluster", as well as accepting students on a space-available basis from throughout the district under the District's Volunteer Enrollment Exchange Program (VEEP) and Open Enrollment Program.

In 1983, the school was closed as part of sweeping changes occasioned by declining enrollment.

Prior to the realignment, two area junior high schools (Dana and Collier) served grades 7-9, and fed Point Loma High School which served grades 10-12.

The district sought to lease or divest the Dana site; community activists, led by Ann Tripp Jackson (then president of the Point Loma Association), lobbied for its reopening as a school.

Jackson's efforts led, among other victories, to the school site's being permanently rezoned for educational use.

It is named for Major League pitcher David Wells, a PLHS alumnus.