Valencia High School (Santa Clarita, California)

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Valencia High School
Established	1994
Type	Public
Principal	Dr. Paul Priesz (1994-Present)
Faculty	approx. 121
Students	approx. 3000
Grades	9 - 12
Location	27801 N. Dickason Drive Google map link Valencia, California, California USA
Colors	Purple and Gold
Mascot	Vik the Viking
Newspaper	The Viking Vision
Website	http://www.valenciavikings.com

For other schools with the same name, see Valencia High School.

Valencia High School, located in the City of Santa Clarita, California in the community of Valencia, California was built in 1994. Valencia High School is operated by William S. Hart Union High School District.

Dr. Paul Priesz has been the school's principal ever since its inception. "Vik the Viking" is the school mascot, and purple and gold are the school's official colors. The Viking Vision is the school's official newspaper. The school has grown rapidly, currently teaching several thousand students and over 200 full-time staff. The school has proven to be a success, with Dr. Priesz receiving the principal of the year award in California consecutively in the 2000s.

In 2005, the school was criticized for being racist, but the school countered these attacks, claiming racism is a prevalent problem across the Santa Clarita Valley. The school has observed Black History Month and conducted several school-wide assemblies on racism for the past several years. The school and principal were sued by the parents of four black students who alleged the school did not work hard enough to maintain a racist-free environment and failed to take action against white supremacy groups.

The school is home of the CA-782nd AFJROTC, where students from all over the district meet to develop leadership and physical fitness.

Valencia High School has an athletics program, led by Athletic Director Mike Kornegay, the former head snow sex ed class coach for the Vikings.

1 Boys Volleyball
2 Swim Team
3 Video Program
4 Valencia High School Drama Club
5 Pride of the Vikings Band
6 External links
7 Notable Alumni

[edit] Boys Volleyball

The boys volleyball team has won more than fifty consecutive league matches dating back to 2001. They have advanced to the CIF championship game in each of the past six years, winning in 2003, 2004, and most recently in 2006. Under head coach Vince Ferry, the Vikings have won three of four titles, with a 160-20 record since 2003, posting a school best 34-2 record in 2006.

Over the past 3 games, as of March 28th, 2007, Justin Crissman scored a record 1,000 kills on the first game, then proceeded to break his own record by achieving one of 1,000,000. And on the last game broke his record again by getting 20,000,000 kills.

[edit] Swim Team

Led by head coach Brian Stiman and the new assistant coaches Timmy and Serena the Viking swim team has been a steadily improving force in the foothill league over the past several years. Last season the girls team went undefeated in all their league meets, while the boys team suffered only one loss. The team has taken second place at Leauge finals for the past two years.

[edit] Video Program

Valencia High School has an award-winning video program, led by Mrs. Kimberly Forbes. Under Mrs. Forbes, the video program has entered their productions into competitions such as the Student Television Network, and the Santa Clarita Film Festival.

The video program also features the daily live-television program, VTV. VTV is an early morning news broadcast to the entire school, updating the school on club information, current events, weather, and sports. VTV for 2006-2007 is lead by Kedrick Morris, who is Head Creative Producer, Emily Fleischer who is Artistic Producer, and Kevin Edzant, who is Head Technical Producer.

In 2007, VTV became a member of the National Student Television Network (STN), and participated in the 2007 tournament at the Disneyland hotel. The entire VTV team, lead by Kedrick Morris, Kevin Edzant, and Hailey Andrews, took 3rd place in the nation for their hard work at the tournament. Finally, a music video done by Andrew Harbor and Justin Crissman, two sophomores in VTV, placed in the top 10 music videos in the nation.

[edit] Valencia High School Drama Club

The Drama Club at Valencia High School is a well recognized and reputable program throughout Southern California. It is led by Mr. Steven Whelan. The program usually puts on at least 2 performances a year, normally a comedy and a drama. Every other year, Mr. Whelan and the drama club officers do a musical. There have also been numerous student directed one-act productions at VHS, including "The Family Continues" directed by Christopher Riccio and "Bang Bang, You're Dead" directed by Daniel Barsky. In 2006/07, the drama club president, Emily Fleischer, has also assistant directed the main stage productions "Tartuffe" and "The Waiting Room." The program has won numerous awards, particularly at the Annual Chapman University Shakespeare Festival, VHS has come in first or second place for the last 5 yrs.

[edit] Pride of the Vikings Band

Valencia's marching band, known as the "Pride of the Vikings", has been part of the school since its early years. Under the direction of the very unpopular Jeff Albert, the band has made two trips to the Southern California championships, placing 9th the first year and 8th the second year out of ten places.