Irvington High School (Fremont, California)

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Irvington High School
Home of the Vikings

School type	Public
Established	1961
Principal	Pete Murchison
Faculty	100
Students	2,000
Colors Mascot	Blue/White Vikings
Location	41800 Blacow Rd. Fremont, CA 94538
Information	Phone: (510) 656-5711 Fax: (510) 623-9805
Website	http://www.irvington.org/

Irvington High School is a high school located in Fremont, California. It opened in the fall of 1961 with a capacity of about 1,450 students. It is one of five 9-12 grade public high schools in the Fremont Unified School District. Major construction in 1968 resulted in the addition of a 350-seat theater, a second gymnasium, and twenty-two classrooms, which boosted school capacity to 2,150. To help cope with the closing of the campus in 2009, a second cafateria is currently being built.

The 44-acre campus is located in Irvington the south-central district of Fremont. The attendance area includes the Fremont neighborhoods of Irvington, Weibel, and Warm Springs. Students choosing to enter the school that live outside the district lines, may apply for a lottery, or a transfer into the Irvington Arts Magnet Program. Additionally, Center For The Creative Arts Program (CCA) is another art-oriented method of getting in the school if not in the boundaries. CCA has modified English and science classes that are grouped together in a family that include more artistic guidelines.

The school mascot is the Viking. The Viking represents a warrior like nature with a curiously intriguing exploring side.

1 Academics
- 1.1 Benchmarks
- 1.2 Awards Received
2 Extracurriculars
3 Sports
4 External links

[edit] Academics

[edit] Benchmarks

Also, Irvington High School's achievement ribbons also coincide with its start of three major benchmark projects: CHANGE for freshmen, U.N. for sophomores, and Q.U.E.S.T. for seniors. The start of each project resulted in the awarding of a ribbon the same year. The benchmark projects are specifically designed to include and incorporate all of the California State Standards for each grade level. The CHANGE project for allows students to become environmentally aware and enables them to seek out an environmental problem in the community and help to improve it. The Model U.N. project is designed so that students gain valuable knowledge on different UN resolutions and learn to practically apply it to different countries. Lastly, Q.U.E.S.T. stands for Question, Understand, Experience, Service and Testimony. Seniors must pass Q.U.E.S.T. or they will be unable to graduate. The project is designed so that students may pick a topic of interest, explore it and relate it back to community service. All three benchmark projects have been heavily praised by various organizations, such as Design Studio.

[edit] Awards Received

New American High Schools
The Bay Area Coalition of Essential Schools
CA Distinguished High School
National Blue Ribbon High School
Bay Area Strategic Reading Collaborative (BASRC)
Small Learning Communities (SLC)
Center for Creative Arts (CCA) Grant
National Service Learning Award
Digital High School Grant

[edit] Extracurriculars

[edit] Drama

Irvington houses a drama program named The Irvington Conservatory Theater in its theater dubbed "Valhalla". The school holds a partnership with the local community college, Ohlone College. Recent productions include: "Seussical" (Spring 2007), "Wind in the Willows" (Fall 2006), "Little Shop of Horrors" (Spring 2006), "A Christmas Carol" (Fall 2005), "Kiss Me Kate" (Spring 2005), "Cinderella" (Fall 2004), and "Once On this Island" (Spring 2004).

[edit] The Rune

The Rune is an annual literary arts magazine. In May of 2005, it returned after a six year hiatus.

The 2006-2007 edition of the Rune will be available in April 2007.

[edit] The Voice

Irvington's school newspaper is called The Voice (formerly The Viking Voice). The Voice has a history of excellency in journalism, and is advised by FUSD Teacher of the Year Alicia Pike-Green. The name of the paper was altered to reflect the school's desire to downplay what certain members of the faculty perceived to be a politically incorrect mascot.

[edit] We The People

Irvington boasts a We The People team composed of 24 students. During the 2004-2005 school year, the team won fourth place in the nation.

[edit] Sports

Irvington competes in the Mission Valley Athletic League (MVAL) against Fremont rivals, American High School, John F. Kennedy High School, Washington High School, Mission San Jose High School, and neighboring schools Newark Memorial High School and James Logan High School. In general, Irvington's athletics have showing in most sports in the Mission Valley Athletic League. The MVAL is one of 13 athletic leagues in the California North Coast Section (NCS) and appearances by Irvington teams in the NCS tournaments have been relatively rare. Irvington is still developing its talent in many sports, as it struggles to find skilled athletes to join the many athletics programs offered during the three athletic seasons.

The school "rival," so to speak would be Mission San Jose, also in the Fremont area. Although it is well known that many students between the two schools are good friends, they still seem to have a sort of additional competitive feel towards each other. If the two schools compete in coinciding competitions. i.e., if MSJ were to compete in a competition that includes IHS and other schools, MSJ and IHS would strive to defeat each other in the competition, with less regard as to whether or not they defeat the other schools.

[edit] Badminton

Irvington High School's badminton team took 2nd at NCS during the 2006 spring season.

[edit] Cross Country

Irvington's cross country team has a lot of young talent, especially on the girls team. During the 2005-2006 season, both the varsity and the j.v. girls were second place at MVALs. The boys varsity team took second place during the season as well.

[edit] Football

Irvington's varsity football team took first place in the Mission Valley Athletic League (MVAL) in 2005, beating out top competitor Logan High School in Union City. The football team made it through NCS finals, reaching the final game that took place at the Oakland Coliseum. Unfortunately, the Irvington football team lost.

[edit] Marching Band

Irvington's marching band won first place in the B division marching competition in 2005 at Lincoln High School in Stockton. The color guard, in addition to taking first place at Lincoln, also did as well at the 35th Annual Santa Cruz Band Review.

[edit] Softball

Irvington's softball team took 3rd in the Mission Valley Athletic League (MVAL) during the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 seasons.

[edit] Swimming

Irvington's varsity boys swim team won first place at MVAL championships in the spring 2006 season, beating long-time rival Mission San Jose High School. This was the first time Mission lost the MVAL champions title in 26 years.

[edit] Tennis

Irvington's tennis program has usually finished in the middle of the MVAL in both girls and boys seasons. 2006 highlights include the boys team defeating James Logan HS and Irvington's #1 girls' singles player capturing the MVAL singles championship and going onto the NCS tournament.