Albany High School (Albany, California)

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Location
Albany High School
603 Key Route Blvd. Albany, California, USA
Coordinates	37°53′45″N 122°17′33″W / 37.895890, -122.292421
Information
School district	Albany Unified School District
Principal	Ted Barone
Type	Public secondary
Grades	9-12
Campus	Semi-urban
Mascot	cougar
Color(s)	red and white
Newspaper	The Cougar
Homepage	Albany High School Official Website

For other schools of a similar name, see Albany High School.

Albany High School (AHS) is a comprehensive secondary school located in Albany, California. Educating students in grades 9–12, the school has an enrollment of 1293 students and a diverse student body. The school mascot is a cougar and the school colors are red and white. Ronald Rosenbaum was the school principal beginning during the 2004-2005 school year, until he announced his retirement after the 2006-2007 school year. Ted Barone is currently the principal.

1 Achievements
2 Recent events
3 Academics
4 Block schedule
5 Substance abuse issues
6 Notable people
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
- 9.1 Extracurricular activities

[edit] Achievements

In 2001, Albany was accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges for the maximum term of six years. Albany has one of the highest standardized test scores in the state of California. For 2005, the average SAT I reasoning verbal score was 566; average math score was 616. 95% of the class of 2005 passed the California High School Exit Exam.

The school is well known for its wrestling, Dungeons and Dragons, science, and math teams. The science team won the 1993 national Department of Energy science bowl competition^[1]. In 2005-06, both Albany's girls varsity cross country team and their softball team won league championship over rival Piedmont High School and tied with Alameda High School.^{[citation needed]}

As part of the Albany Unified School District, Albany High School can claim credit for the high and rising property value in the city of Albany.^{[citation needed]} Citizens generally agree that the high demand stems mostly from incoming families seeking strong educational opportunities for their children, for which Albany has earned a reputation.

U.S. News & World Report, in their recent survey of public high schools, awarded Albany High with a silver medal, placing it in the top 500 in the country.

[edit] Recent events

Albany High School's new building.

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In 1997, the old main building and gymnasium, WPA structures which opened in 1934, were torn down for either earthquake or asbestos safety issues, discovering the other in the process.^{[citation needed]} A full four school years of portables later, a new three story building opened in 2001, just in time for the incoming freshmen. Oddly enough, the "trailer park" era held some architectural advantages over its predecessor and successor structures, most notably with its broad, expansive open air decks, which brought a positive centralizing and social mixing aspect to the campus. The new building's design efforts - characterized by critics as "design by committee" - resulted in a large but functionless glass tower next to the main entrance, and an external appearance of an airplane hangar. The whole building, as well as the tiled floor, is trimmed with red and white, representing the school colors.

During the 2004-2005 school year, several security cameras were installed in the building to prevent various acts of vandalism, mainly prank pulling of fire alarms.^{[citation needed]} 2004 was also the year the school suffered overcrowding due to an overly large freshman class, which caused great traffic jams on the main building's two staircases. The large influx of students was caused in part by an Albany Unified School District policy, which allowed students from other cities such as El Cerrito and Richmond to enter Albany schools.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Academics

Albany participates in many local competitions, including NAQT, NOSB's Otter Bowl (which they won in 2006 and took fourth nationwide), and the National Science Bowl, in which they also took fourth place nationwide. Albany High won its 2008 Science Bowl regional competition, defeating academic rival Mission San Jose High School. Traditionally, both schools went to different regional competitions, but in 2008, due to a desire to participate in both the Otter Bowl and Science Bowl, whose regionals coincided, Albany was forced to attend MSJ's regional competition for Science Bowl.

[edit] Block schedule

Albany High changed from a 7-period per day schedule to a block schedule during the 2005-2006 school year. Instead of having seven 57-minute periods per day, the new block schedule consists of two blocks, A and B. Block A, Tuesday and Thursday, have 95 min periods for periods 1, 3, 5, and 7. Block B, Wednesday and Friday, have 95 min periods for periods 2, 4, and 6 with an added 40 minute Advisory period between 2nd and 4th period. On Monday, all classes meet for 52 mins. The first class always begins at 7:40.

Reaction to the block schedule has been positive so far. Students, especially those without a 7th period, appreciate the earlier release times (school ends for them at 12:45 twice a week). Teachers appreciate the longer periods because of more time to teach and engage students in educational activities. However, not everyone is pleased. Some students complain that some teachers are not prepared to teach within the extended timeframe and that their classes are dull.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Substance abuse issues

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In 2004 the Albany Schools Drug and Alcohol Task Force surveyed the students of Albany High. 9.6% of Albany High students are frequent users of alcohol and 8.5% are frequent users of marijuana. Alarmingly, 11.7% of the students do not care at all about the short and long term health problems of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco.^[2] The fact that about 20% of the students reported using marijuana in the past six months, and about 20% of the students reported using alcohol in the past six months, has been erroneously stated as "More than forty percent of the student body has experimented with alcohol and marijuana." However, the survey provided no way to tell how much overlap there was between the groups.

During Homecoming Week 2005, students at Albany High caused a commotion by having Wild Child day, which many interpreted as "Pimps and Hoes" day. A few residents alerted the police.^{[citation needed]}

During the Homecoming Dance in 2005 ten students who had been drinking or using drugs where sent home early. One of the students had a blood-alcohol level of 0.9 and passed out during the dance.^[3] To ensure more sobriety at dances, the school administration resolved to use breathalysers on students entering future school dances. ^[4]

An earlier attempt at introducing breathalyser tests failed because of a threat by a parent promising to sue for invasion of student privacy. This time, the idea of using breathalysers faced little opposition. The Albany Parent Teacher Student Association, The Albany Leadership Class, numerous reporters for the school paper, and many students support the use of breathalysers.^{[citation needed]}

During Winter Ball 2006, the breathalysers were used for the first time with success, according to official reports.^{[citation needed]} None of the students showed up drunk, and no incidents of drinking during the dance were officially reported. Although there was an appearance of a streaker at the dance, there was no alcohol connection. Students, parents, and faculty were pleased with the results.^{[citation needed]} Breathalysers (and a "no in-and-out policy") have become standard procedure for dances at Albany High. However, the effort made by the school to prevent students from attending dances under the influence of alcohol has prompted some students to devise alternatives.^{[citation needed]}

Albany High was in the local Bay Area spotlight once again on February 10, 2006, when a murder took place in the house of an Albany High senior and sophomore, located in North Berkeley. The senior, Annalise Oppelt, threw a house party while the parents were away, and numerous guests started to arrive. A dispute over a skateboard erupted, resulting in one death (a former Albany student) and three wounded by knife violence. The murder remains unsolved.^{[citation needed]}