Milpitas High School

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Milpitas High School
Milpitas High School billboard and campus.
Location
1285 Escuela Parkway
Milpitas, California,
Flag of the United States United States
Information
School district Milpitas Unified School District
Principal Charles Gary
Enrollment

2,945 [1]
Faculty 122 [1]
Type Public
Song Milpitas Alma Mater Dear
Mascot Trojan
Color(s)      Blue      Gold
Established 1969
Homepage Milpitas High School

Milpitas High School (MHS) is a public four-year comprehensive high school in Milpitas, California, a suburban community adjacent to San Jose. It is one of three high schools in Milpitas. (The other two schools are Calaveras Hills High School and Airpoint Academy, which are continuation high schools.)

Milpitas High School is run by the Milpitas Unified School District. Charles Gary is the principal of the school.[2] The Mayor of Milpitas is ex officio the visitor and patron of the school.

As of 2007, Milpitas High School had an API score of 771 and had an API ranking of 8 out of 10.[1] In 2004, MHS was granted a full, six year accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The curriculum emphasizes mathematics, science, writing, and the use of technology.

The school provides its students with academic, extracurricular and other resources — in a community committed to diversity in its student body, faculty and staff — that help them achieve at the highest scholarly levels and prepare them for positions of leadership and lives of service in many fields of human endeavor. The school also has strong links with research institutions and with business and industry, both in the United States and overseas. Milpitas High School's modern and well-equipped facilities are spread across a spacious campus, with easy access to cafes and restaurants in close proximity. The school offers a wide variety of subjects in flexible academy and program structures.

Contents

[edit] History

Milpitas High School was directly preceded by Samuel Ayer High School. A continuum of education had existed in what is now the City of Milpitas since the Spanish colonial era, only to be interrupted by brief periods from 1848-1858 upon the secularization of the Californian missions, and 1954-1959, in which James Lick High School in the nearby city of San Jose became the high school for Milpitas residents. Upon the final restoration of local secondary education in 1959, a classical education in Latin Grammar and English Literature ceased to be the norm, and a modern curriculum was implemented, of which forms the basis of the curriculum for the present high school. Milpitas High School co-existed with Samuel Ayer High School from 1969, until the latter closed its doors in 1980, leaving Milpitas High School to be the sole remaining high school.

The predecessors of Milpitas High School are:

First interruption period, 1848-1856

  • Laguna School (1856-1858)
  • Milpitas Grammar School (1858-1954)

Second interruption period, 1954-1959

Restoration to Milpitas

  • Samuel Ayer High School (1959-1969; co-existed until 1980)

[edit] Campus

Milpitas High School is located on Escuela Parkway in Milpitas, north of Jacklin Road. The eastern side of the school is the main entrance and student drop-off area, and the western side consists of a football stadium, track, and mural of Milpitas High School's mascot, the Trojan. The newly constructed math and science wing has two stories and offers new tools and facilities for student use.

Milpitas High School has many facilities for athletic use. The school has a swimming pool. Also, the football field is built of artificial turf, and the synthetic rubber track was built only a few years ago. Since its beginnings, Milpitas High has been renovated and improved, with new buildings and facilities being added for school use. Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School is adjacent to Milpitas High School's east side, and Thomas Russell Middle School is a block north of the high school.

Because of the small community size at the time(when?), Milpitas High School served also as a junior high school housing the grades of 6-8. The students went to class in bungalows that were near-by.

[edit] Demographics

Milpitas High School is an ethnically diverse school. About 130 ethnic and national minority groups are represented. A total of 1,414 students have a primary language other than English. More than half of the students are of Vietnamese and Filipino American descent. Other Asian Pacific American (APA) groups in order of population include Chinese Americans, Indian Americans, Korean Americans, Japanese Americans, Polynesian Americans, and Hmong Americans. 40% is of Asian (non-Filipino) descent, 20% is Filipino. Almost 17% of the student body is Hispanic American, about 15% is white, and approximately 4% is African American.

Milpitas High School was often criticized by many students for having no East Asian language classes in the Foreign Language department for a majorly Asian Pacific American institution. French (Standard Parisian), Spanish (Castilian and Latin American), and Chinese (Mandarin) are currently being offered at both introductory and advanced levels. Petitions were passed around by students demanding classes in ancestral tongues, such as Tagalog, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese, citing that they are offered at other local high schools in the South Bay. Faculty repeatedly defended the Foreign Language department, saying that not enough money goes into that department. Some students called for the school administration to drop classes in French while retaining Spanish, as "French is not spoken here".[citation needed]

[edit] Academics

There are three programs at Milpitas High School. They are the:

  • Tutorial Program (English, Spanish, History, Biology)
  • Service Learning Program
  • Workability Program

[edit] Departments

There are 14 academic departments.

  • Business
  • ELD-PFEL
  • Fine and Performing Arts
  • Foreign Language
  • Home Economics
  • Industrial Technology
  • Language Arts
  • Mathematics
  • NJROTC
  • Physical Education
  • Science
  • Social Studies
  • Special Education
  • CCOC/ROP

[edit] Advanced Placement/Honors

As of the 2007/2008 school year, the following Advanced Placement/Honors Courses are offered at Milpitas High School.

[edit] Committees

There are two committees to enrich development at Milpitas School:

  • Parent-Teacher-Student Association (PTSA)
  • School Site Council

[edit] Graduation requirements

Students must complete 220 credits, including:

  • English- 40 credits
  • Social Studies- 35 credits
  • Math- 30 credits
  • Science- 20 credits
  • Physical Education- 20 credits
  • Fine Arts, Foreign Language, or Humanities- 10 credits
  • Electives- 65 credits

Milpitas High School additionally requires 20 hours of community service in order to receive high school diploma.

[edit] Extracurricular activities

[edit] Athletics

Milpitas High School's official athletic team is the Trojans. The cross country and track teams rank as one of the best in the Central California Division. The Milpitas Trojans rival those of Piedmont Hills High School and Independence High School, both in neighboring San Jose, California. The school colors are blue and gold, which are also reflected in the City of Milpitas' official city seal.

On December 2, 2006, the Milpitas High School Varsity football team won the CCS Championship for the first time. The Trojans competed against rival Piedmont Hills High School and won, 39-21. This was the second time Milpitas High School made it to the CCS Championship game. The first time was in 1993, and the Trojans lost to Leland High School in a shutout scenario of 35-0.

The Saga, the yearbook of Milpitas High School, is now in its 26th year of publication. It has won first place for large publications at the Capital Journalism Day held in Sacramento by the Journalism Education Association of Northern California.

Milpitas High School annually hosts the Trojan Olympics, a friendly competition between the class grades. The class of 2007 won for three consecutive years.

The Tri-M Honor Society hosts a film festival every year around May, where students submit short films that they have created. Milpitas High School has recently become well known for its student's efforts in the film production field. In 2006, groups like Westscape Films, and freshSQUEEZED Productions emerged as the leading film crews at MHS.

[edit] CLOGS

Unique to campus lexicon is the word "clogs", which means "clubs and organizations".

Every year, as new clogs arise, all clogs participate in "CLOG Rush" for a two day event at lunch to attract freshmen, old and new members to their clog.

As of March 2006, Milpitas High School boasts 57 clogs.

Interact, Key, VSA (Vietnamese Student Association), PUSO (Pilipino United Student Organization) and Chinese Club are the top Five clogs on campus. The latter three clogs' membership rates are due to the many Vietnamese, Filipino and Chinese students at the school.

Chinese Club hosts a Lunar show every year. The show consists of many performances that promotes Asian culture in the school. The acts are mainly composed of martial arts, modern and traditional Asian Dance, Songs from various instruments, Singing, and invited Club Acts.

VSA also hosts their own show every year, usually dubbed the "VSA show." This show mainly attracts a large Vietnamese audience, but the show actually contains material from various clubs such as Hip Hop Club, Chinese Club, EMAC (Extreme Martial Arts Club), and Dance Club.

The Pilipino United Student Organization (PUSO) also hosts a cultural show every year, including PCN (Pilipino Cultural Night), PHAT (Pilipino Heritage And Tradition) and Brown Out, a spoken word, poetry slam show. The Pilipino United Student Organization also hosted a group of exchange students from one of Milpitas's sister cities, Dagupan City, located in the northern part of the Philippines during the spring of 2006. The organization also partakes in helping World War II veterans.

New clogs may be chartered; new clogs of 2006 include: Kids on the grass, Indie Club, Cue 8 Ballers Club, Book Club, Comics Club, Physics Club and Club Art.

[edit] Mathematics Team

The Milpitas High Mathematics Team, a division of the Math Club, participates annually in the five mathematics competitions hosted by National Assessment & Testing. In 2008, the Mathematics Team placed first nationally in Collaborative Problem-Solving Contest [3].

[edit] Marching Band

The Marching Band hosts the annual festival Music in the Parks. The marching band's traditional rival is the Bella Vista Marching Band. The rivalry has escalated in recent years after the Marching Band came within 000.3 points of beating Bella Vista in a fieldshow competition. It was announced incorrectly that Bella Vista had placed second, which led many Milpitas students to believe they had actually won before the correct placings were announced.

The band took sweepstakes at the Pismo Beach Central Coast Classic on October 28, 2006. This marked the first time Milpitas High had won a sweepstakes award in a field show competition.

  • 2003: West Side Story
  • 2004: The Mask of Zorro
  • 2005: The Incredibles!
  • 2006: Grease
  • 2007: The Nightmare Before Christmas

[edit] Concert Band

Milpitas High School supports two Concert Bands: a Wind Ensemble and a Symphonic Band. Most Freshmen are placed in Symphonic Band. The concert band season begins immediately after the conclusion of marching band season in December.

In the 2006-2007 school year, 5 members of the Milpitas High School Band were accepted into the Santa Clara County Honor Band. Additionally, 2 members were accepted to the California All-State Honor Band.

[edit] Jazz Band

Milpitas High School has a standard 17-piece Jazz Band. In April 2005, the Milpitas High School Jazz Band received a Command Performance Rating at the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival.

[edit] Navy Junior ROTC

A sizable percentage[clarify] of students at MHS belong to the Navy Junior ROTC program, including its drill teams. Each year Milpitas NJROTC hosts "Trojan Armada," a drill meet and athletic competition that is attend by many other California NJROTC units. In October 2007, Milpitas High School hosts another drill meet, "Southbay Throwdown", a drill meet where other schools attend for an athletic competition and a regulation competition.

[edit] Trojan Lowdown

The Trojan Lowdown was a TV Video Production that served as the MHS daily news announcement broadcast that covered items such as upcoming student activities, any changes in schedules, club, class or athletic information, and other announcements. The announcements produced on the Trojan Lowdown were meant to help keep students informed.

As of the 2006-2007 school year, the "Trojan Lowdown" no longer makes announcements, and the intercom has been employed again for morning announcements. However, the Trojan Lowdown is now producing a monthly show in a video journal format, and it has been dubbed "The New Trojan Lowdown". Announcements have been replaced with skits and music videos. A factor that made the "old" Trojan Lowdown unappreciated was that the sound was not broadcasted properly. It was fixed in 2007 by Nikolaus Lindberg, who noticed that there were mistakes made in the settings of the mixer and the sound compressor. At the end of the 2006-2007 school year, the Trojan Lowdown opened a YouTube account and posted the most popular videos of the year and all new ones they made.

[edit] Trojan Olympics

Milpitas High School annually hosts the Trojan Olympics, a friendly competition between the class grades. The classes compete for bragging rights for the year. Spirit points, ticket sales, decorations, Trojan Olympic games, dances, and a pyramid are all accounted for in deciding who wins the Trojan Olympics. For many years it was thought that only the senior class could win the competition, however in 2005, the Class of 2007 made history by becoming the first Sophomore Class to win, and then again in 2006 becoming the first Junior class to win. To top it all off, they won again in 2007, becoming the first class to win three consecutive years in a row. In 2008, the Freshman Class of 2011 made history by coming in 2nd place, defeating both the sophomore and junior classes -- achieving the highest place a freshman class has ever reached in Trojan Olympics.

Winners:
2005: Class of 2007
2006: Class of 2007
2007: Class of 2007
2008: Class of 2008

[edit] Anthem

The Milpitas High School Alma Mater song was co-written by former music department instructors Wesley Robbins and Tim Bakken.

"Milpitas Alma Mater Dear,
All your praises now we cheer.
And through the years our pledge will be
To honor your community.
Cultural diversity
You bring forth with dignity.
Milpitas with your banner bold,
We will love your blue and gold."

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c California Department of Education
  2. ^ Administrative Staff
  3. ^ 2008 Collaborative Problem-Solving Contest Results

[edit] External links