Sequoia Middle School (Pleasant Hill, California)

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This article is about the Sequoia Middle School in Pleasant Hill, California. For other uses, see Sequoia Middle School (disambiguation).

Sequoia Middle School
Address
265 Boyd Road Pleasant Hill, California, 94523, United States
Website
http://www.mdusd.k12.ca.us/sequoiamiddle/
Information
Superintendent	Gary McHenry
Principal	Hellena Postrk
Vice principal	Brent Brinkerhoff
School type	Public school
Grades	6-8
Motto	Sequoia spirit: A Tradition of Pride and Excellence
Team name	The Giants
Colors	Blue & Silver
Founded	1978

Sequoia Middle School is a public school located in Pleasant Hill, California which educates students from sixth to eighth grade. It is part of the Mount Diablo Unified School District. As of 2006, the school principal is Ms. Hellena Postrk.

Sequoia originally opened in the fall of 1977 as a primary school, offering classes from kindergarten to seventh grade. In 1978 the program was expanded to include an eighth grade, and the school was separated into two adjoining campuses: an elementary school (K-5) and middle school (6-8).

[edit] "Academics Plus" school

Sequoia Middle School operates on the Academics Plus Program, a forerunner of the charter school concept. It is based on the belief that the first responsibility of a public school is to give its students the skills they need to achieve academically. The school stressed a "back to basics" educational approach and a standards-based curriculum, in direct response to some of the experimental teaching methods being attempted in California at the time.

The school quickly became so popular with parents in the district that in the early 1980s, parents would queue overnight outside the school's main office to place their children on a waiting list for admission to the elementary and middle schools. This practice has since been discontinued in favor of a lottery-style admission process.