Los Altos High School (Los Altos, California) Totally Explained

Everything about Los Altos High School Los Altos California totally explained

Los Altos High School, established in 1954, is located in suburban Los Altos, California, which is situated between the cities of San Francisco and San Jose in the northwest corner of Silicon Valley within four miles of Stanford University. Due to its placement within a rich, yet small community, Los Altos High School is able to achieve at a higher rate. The teacher-student ratios in Los Altos High School is considerably lower than the state average.
It is one of the three MVLA School District public high schools, the other schools being Mountain View High School and Alta Vista High School. The main feeder schools are Egan Junior High School and Crittenden Middle School. Since 2005, the school principal is Wynne Satterwhite. The previous principal, George Perez, left in 2004.

History

The school was established in 1954 on the site of an orchard. Initially, Los Altos High School served the mostly white, middle to upper class populations of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills. During 1982 redistricting efforts, the district closed its oldest high school, Mountain View High, which was located on Castro Street in downtown Mountain View. Awalt High School was then renamed Mountain View High. The valley community of Mountain View to the San Francisco Bay in the east. The two remaining district high schools now draw equally from professional and working-class families and have a similar demographic population. In more recent history, Los Altos High underwent a large renovation over the past few years, which has significantly enhanced the campus environment, including a science and art building and a FieldTurf athletic field.
During the El Niño storms of 1998, a tornado ripped through the athletic fields behind the school. The tornado touched down at 5:05PM on May 4, 1998, near the intersection of El Monte Road and Almond Avenue. It was rated F1 on the Fujita Scale, and was one of two that touched down in the area. The tornado uprooted trees, picked up dumpsters, damaged the tennis court fences, and destroyed the baseball diamond dugout. Damages were estimated at $25,000.

Statistics and demographics

As of the 2003-2004 school year, the enrollment was approximately 1600 students; in the last few years each incoming class has been significantly larger than the outgoing class.
In 2005, Los Altos High School was ranked 446th nationally by Newsweek on High-Achievement High Schools, while in 2006, Los Altos High School rose to become the 9th best High School in California, with an API of 797. However, Newsweek grades schools on weighted data and teacher:student ratios, while City-Data merely uses API as a standard. In 2006, 83% of students participate in academic, extracurricular and community service clubs. Over 50% of the students participate in an athletic team.

Education

Los Altos High School boasted one of the highest scores in the nation. However, beginning in 1982, the school's scores and national ranking began to fall, until it could only be ranked as a national standard.
In 2005, Los Altos High School received an API score of 786, considerably lower than that of the local Intermediate School and Elementary Schools. Despite this drop in in educational standards, Los Altos remains one of the highest schools in the district, with Hispanic, African American, Asian, and White all scoring considerably higher than the state average.

Programs and Highlights

Los Altos High School boasts a strong music department, athletic department, and a host of student-run clubs. Among these, the most influential one was the creation of the non-profit organization, One Dollar For Life.

Athletic Department

Los Altos sports teams participate in the regional SCVAL League. The Track and Field team, especially, has made it to State championships numerous times, most notably first place in 1985.

Season	Sport	Season	Sport
Autumn	Football	Spring	Track and Field
	Boys Water Polo		Baseball
	Girls Water Polo		Badminton
	Volleyball		Boys Tennis
	Girls Tennis		Gymnastics
	Girls Field Hockey		Golf
	Cross Country		Softball
			Swimming and Diving
Winter	Boys Basketball	Summer
	Girls Basketball
	Wrestling
	Boys Soccer
	Girls Soccer

Performing Arts Department

Los Altos High holds quite a large music department, with a state of the art music room equipped with re verb devices. The musical ensembles included are Auxiliary Units (also known as Color Guard), Marching Band, Jazz Band, Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, and Symphonic Band. Los Altos High School also includes Concert Choir and the world renown Main Street Singers. The school also hosts a Drama branch, called Broken Box Office hosted in the school's theater.
   The school's world-traveling singing repertoire, known as the Main Street Singers, travel around the world on tour every year. In 2008, that'll travel to Belgium, France, The Netherlands, and Switzerland.
   The High School's Marching Band is part of the Western Band Association, based in California. In the 2007 season, they scored last place out of 11 participating bands. However, in 1997, the LAHS Marching Band received six awards at the state festival.
   The year 1998 was the "Golden Year" for the Los Altos Instrumental Music Department. Three students were selected for the Santa Clara County Honor Band, while the Jazz Band and Orchestra received a unanimous "Superior" rating at the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival and CMEA Orchestra Festival respectively. In addition, one band and two orchestra students were accepted into the California Music Educator's Association All-State Honor Band and Orchestra, respectively.

Student Clubs

The students in Los Altos High School has independently started club list of over 50 different clubs, most notably One Dollar For Life. These clubs impact the entire Los Altos community as a whole, and in the case of One Dollar For Life, they impact regions in rural Africa. Recently, the Los Altos Green Team, with the help of Sierra Club officials, urged citizens to sign petitions and presented them to the City Council. This helped create the grassroots for a Los Altos "Cool Cities" campaign to aide the city in becoming more Green.

Notable Alumni

Alice Wu, an American film director and screenwriter, class of 1991.
Andrew Arnold Tink BA LLB MP (b. 13 July 1953) is an Australian politician, serving as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1988 to 2007. He was a member of the class of 1971.
Billy Rush Masters, (September 15, 1950 – July 2, 1981) was an American composer, and rock guitarist. He was best known as a songwriter. Class of 1968.
Lorrie Fair, US National Soccer (World Cup Title), UNC Soccer (National Title), class of 1996.
Raj Mathai, NBC 11 Sports Anchor.
Theodore Olson, 42nd United States Solicitor General, lawyer for Bush-Cheney in Bush v. Gore, class of 1958.
Sergeant William M. Sigua (1985-2007), killed by small-arms fire in Baiji, Iraq. He was from the 82nd Airborne Division, and received a Purple Heart Medal for his services. Class of 2003.
Willie Howard, Stanford Rose Bowl, Minnesota Vikings, class of 1996.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Los Altos High School Los Altos California'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://los_altos_high_school__los_altos__california.totallyexplained.com">Los Altos High School (Los Altos, California) Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.