Whitney High School (Cerritos, California)

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Gretchen Whitney High School
Image:WhitneyHSSeal1.gif
Established 1976
Type Public Secondary
Principal Patricia Hager
Students 1,020
Grades 7-12
Location 16800 Shoemaker Avenue
Cerritos, California, USA 90703
Campus Suburban
Colors Brown █, White █, and Gold █
Mascot Wildcat
Newspaper Aspects
Website Whitney High Website

Gretchen Whitney High School, often simply abbreviated as Whitney High School, is a public school serving grades 7-12. It is in the ABC Unified School District. It has a population of 1,020 and its current principal is Patricia Hager.

Contents

[edit] History

Whitney High School admits its students based on their performance on the state exams and a special writing test administered in the sixth grade. This high school is open to any applicants entering seventh to twelfth grade in the ABC Unified School District. This allows Whitney to admit students willing to strive for excellence from other middle schools and high schools.

Whitney High School was founded on September 25, 1976 (under the name Gretchen A. Whitney Learning Center) as a community academic learning center and as an alternative magnet school. (It should be noted that Whitney High School is not an official "magnet" school.)

Whitney HS is the brainchild of former ABC superintendent Charles Hutchison, who originally envisioned Whitney to be a vocational school. Unfortunately, Whitney had a shaky beginning and was forced to pursue a new direction as an academic prep school. As a tribute to Hutchison, the current cafeteria is named the Hutch.

On September 25, 1991, President George H.W. Bush recognized Whitney as one of the best high schools in the United States, presenting its principal, Dr. Pauline B. Ferris, with the Department of Education's National Recognition Award as a Blue Ribbon School.[1] Whitney is 1 of only 19 secondary schools to win this award twice, winning it twice in four years.

In 1997, half of Whitney’s parking lot was purchased by a housing contractor to build a gated community adjacent to Whitney. In exchange, Whitney received funds to construct the long-awaited gymnasium.

President George W. Bush's brother Neil, co-founder of an educational software company, has visited the campus several times, as he put it, "because of the respect the staff has for students. I’ve never seen anything like it. Every school should be this way."[2] Mr. Bush has received some criticism for a comment about calculus he made during a 2002 visit to the campus, in which he stated that students shouldn't be "forced to study something a kid thinks is terribly useless and obscure." The comment was widely repeated as though Bush had said simply that "calculus was useless".[3]

[edit] Media coverage

Whitney High received some media attention after a lockdown following the discovery of stolen bank notes from a just-robbed nearby bank in the parking lot. On December 1, 2004, at around 4:15pm, several bank robbers entered the campus after hiding out in a nearby home. In an attempt to evade the police, they began to move toward the students, hoping to hide amongst the crowd. Several staff members blocked the entrance to Whitney and former teacher Chris Williams, as well as several of the SIA's (Student Intervention Assistants) successfully tackled one of the suspects.

In 2005, the Associated Press rated Whitney High the best high school in California,[4] based on its API score. Whitney's SAT scores are nearly one hundred points higher than the second place school in California. Furthermore, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) rated Whitney's Advanced Placement Physics and Calculus BC programs as the best in the world based on the number of students enrolled in the classes compared to the number that pass the Advanced Placement (AP) test.

Whitney High has been featured in a special report done by FOX News in 2005. The report on mentoring featured Whitney's "Big Buddy/Little Buddy" system. Furthermore, CBS News's "Weekend Journal" also reported on Whitney, focusing on the public high school's incredible academic achievements.

More recently, Whitney High School has been featured in Newsweek’s "America’s Best High School" edition, dated May 8, 2006. Whitney was not included in the top 100 high schools because "so many of [Whitney's] students score well above average on the SAT and ACT". However, Newsweek did include Whitney in "The Public Elites" section, and labeled Whitney as "a comprehensive school for high performers".

[edit] Extracurricular

[edit] Clubs

Whitney High is home to 47 clubs. Several of these clubs are representations of the numerous ethnic backgrounds present at Whitney. However these clubs do not require having their respective ethnic background to join.

Some educational clubs participate in various competitions in the United States or internationally (Spaceset and Robotics). Others are involved in discussions and activities of their subject (Physics Club, History Club, Math Club)

Some clubs at Whitney are part of larger networks of clubs. Junior State of America (grades 9-12) is a politics-oriented organization that is part of the nationwide Junior State of America organization. Students attend conventions in which they participate in debates about national issues. Key Club (grades 9-12) and Builders Club (grades 7-8) are part of the larger Kiwanis Family. These clubs do community services to the local area with other Key Clubs.

The rest of the clubs consist of recreational activities (Guitar Club, Racket Club, Chess Club, Club Flash, Mahjong Club). These clubs are open to anyone with interest in the subject.

In addition, the Journalism Club publishes a monthly newsletter that can be considered an alternative publication to the official school newspaper. However, the club's name is somewhat of a misnomer as the newsletter is more of an "alternative" rather than a newspaper.[citation needed]

The partial list of Whitney clubs can be found here (please note that several clubs are no longer active and others have not been added).

[edit] Athletics

The "undefeated" football team
The "undefeated" football team

Whitney High athletics league status is CIF Division IV and the mascot is the Whitney Wildcat.

Fall Sports Winter Sports Spring Sports
Girls Tennis Girls Basketball Boys Volleyball
Girls Volleyball Boys Basketball Girls Softball
Co-ed Water Polo Boys Soccer Boys Baseball
Co-ed Cross Country Girls Soccer Boys Tennis
Girls Swimming
Boys Swimming
Co-ed Track and Field
Co-ed Golf

Whitney does not have a football team. A running joke among Whitneyites is that the nonexistent football team is "undefeated in the league".

[edit] Publications

WHS's 2005 Yearbook
WHS's 2005 Yearbook
  • Aspects – Whitney’s official bimonthly school wide newspaper.
  • Kaleidoscope – Whitney’s annual yearbook.
  • Oris - Published by the Journalism Club. Whitney's unofficial monthly newsletter.

[edit] Activities

  • Big Buddy/Little Buddy - Older participating students are paired with the younger participants. These pairs get to know one another through activities spaced throughout the year.
  • Marching Band - The school marching band (for grades 9-12) participates in various marching band reviews during the fall. Occasionally they also get invited to perform at Disneyland. The band has also participated in festivals outside of California, such as the Annual Strawberry Festival in West Virginia and band reviews in Disneyworld.
  • Model United Nations (MUN) - Model United Nations is an example of student leadership ability at WHS. Recently upgraded to a four-year program from club status for purposes of competition, WHSMUN has gone on to win several awards for its performances at conferences such as West Coast Invitational, Mission Viejo, and UCLA MUN. The school also hosts a MUN conference every May which has grown tremendously popular due to its nature as a specialized conference. WHSMUN has been active since 1989 after it was founded by its current adviser, social science teacher Steve Rosenberg.

[edit] Other Events

  • Talent Show - Previously held at Knott's Berry Farm, Whitney's talent show has been relocated to La Mirada Performing Arts Theatre (as of 2006). It showcases a variety of cultural performances created by Whitney club members, as well as other interesting talents.
  • School Plays - Previous plays included Grease, To Kill a Mockingbird, and others.
  • International Day - Classes ends early at 11:30, with the rest of the day is dedicated to multi-cultural performances and food provided by Whitney clubs.
  • Western Day - Lunch is an hour long affair with the school ASB "sheriffs" that arrest others for "crimes" using "warrants" that are bought, filled out and turned in by students.
  • Faculty Follies - An hour long lunch show that features the staff either making fools of themselves or showing off their talents through skits, songs, and dances. All profits go towards paying for senior scholarships.

[edit] Its Finally Friday

"Its Finally Friday" (a.k.a. "IFF") is a televised show broadcasted over the school's television network every Friday. IFF premiered in September 2004 and aired until June 2005. The show was canceled for the 2005 – 2006 school year due difficultly creating a new episode every week. However, IFF was renewed for the 2006 – 2007 school year due to support from both the teachers and students. IFF is naturally on hiatus during summer break.

In the years before the 05 – 06 cancellation, IFF was a short 10 minute show used to publicize school events. After the return of IFF, the show was extended to accommodate several two or three minute episodes of student-run shows. The school's Contemporary Media class tapes and edits the shows, employing students from drama class as actor/actresses.

[edit] Statistics

Student Enrollment by Ethnic Group
Ethnic Group Percentage
African-American
1.9%
American Indian or Alaska Native
0.1%
Asian-American
74.9%
Filipino-American
8.7%
Hispanic-American or Latino
6.8%
Pacific Islander
0.4%
White (Not Hispanic)
7.3%
Multiple or No Response
0%


[edit] Alma Mater

Whitney High School is our pride
Our hopes and dreams abound
Whitney's family by our side
With friendships we have found.
Strive for nothing but the best
For here we'll surely find
Memories to last a lifetime
Hail to Whitney High!

[edit] Notable Alumni

  • Steven Weinstein, Class of 1985, Attorney and Vice-President of New York Life.
  • Ernest Navarro, Class of 1995, journalist for the San Francisco Bee.

[edit] School of Dreams

School of Dreams (Paperback Edition)
School of Dreams (Paperback Edition)

Whitney High is the subject of School of Dreams, a book written by the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Edward Humes[5] and published in September 2004. Humes spent the 2001-2002 school year at Whitney teaching a writing work shop, and used his case study of Whitney High to bring national attention to the pressures endured by the students of America's selective schools. Many students that read the book believe it creates an inaccurate stereotype of the school.

Neither the hardback cover photo nor the paperback cover photo are pictures of Whitney.

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ IN RECOGNITION OF WHITNEY HIGH SCHOOL (HTML). The Library of Congress (September 18, 1991). Retrieved on October 14, 2006.
  2. ^ Lighthouse School Profile: Gretchen Whitney High School (HTML). Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence, Inc.. Retrieved on March 5, 2007.
  3. ^ Neil Bush (HTML). NNDB. Retrieved on October 14, 2006.
  4. ^ Academic Performance Index, California High Schools (HTML). Associated Press. Retrieved on October 14, 2006.
  5. ^ Dirda, Michael (September 7, 2003). School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American High School (HTML). The Washington Post. Retrieved on October 14, 2006.
  • Humes, Edward School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American High School. Harcourt, 2003. ISBN 0-15-100703-9

[edit] External links

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