Mira Loma High School

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Location
Mira Loma High School

Sacramento, California, United States
Information
School district	San Juan Unified School District
Principal	Chris Hoffman
Students	1,817
Faculty	81
Student:teacher ratio	22.4
Type	Public secondary
Grades	9–12
Mascot	Matadors
Color(s)	Scarlet red & Columbia blue
Yearbook	Recuerdos
Newspaper	The Matador Caper
Established	1960
Athletic Conference	Capital League
Homepage	[1]

Mira Loma High School is a public high school located in Sacramento, California, United States. It is a part of the San Juan Unified School District with a student body of approximately 1800 students.

1 Academic
- 1.1 Academic Competitions
- 1.2 International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement courses offered
2 Culture
3 Sports
4 Ken Kesey Myth
5 Day of Silence controversy
6 Notable alumni
7 Notable faculty
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Academic

Mira Loma High School is generally held in high regard locally, and has been recognized nationally as well; Mira Loma High School was ranked in the top 250 high schools in the United States by Newsweek in 2004. This statistic has increased since 2003 when it was ranked in the top 300 schools. As of 2008, Mira Loma is ranked 232^nd in the nation.^[1]

The Mira Loma Arcade Creek Project is a highly-recognized ongoing study of the riparian corridor of an urban watershed in Sacramento, California. It consists of eleven studies which measure the health of the Arcade Creek and is run entirely by students of Mira Loma High School and five faculty advisers.^[2] The project has received many awards and recognitions including the Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award ^[3].

[edit] Academic Competitions

[edit] Science Olympiad

Mira Loma has several consistently strong academic teams. The Mira Loma Science Olympiad team has gone to national competition for the last three years, placing their highest (at 6th place) in 2006. In 2008, the fifteen-member group placed first in the Northern California State Science Olympiad, and traveled to George Washington University for the National Science Olympiad competition, where the team placed 21^st.

[edit] Science Bowl

The Mira Loma National Science Bowl team (consisting of a group of students that answer gameshow-style questions on science and mathematics) has competed at a national level thirteen times. In 2007, the Mira Loma team placed 9th in the nation. In 2008, the team became the youngest from Mira Loma to attend national competition (where they placed 2nd, the school's highest achievement at the National Science Bowl).^[4].

[edit] Speech and Debate

Mira Loma also sent a member of its Speech and Debate club to a national competition in 2007. In 2008, they will again send members to the national level.

Mira Loma has also had two Speech and Debate Team Members receive champion titles at the Camifornia State competition (placing 2nd and 5th place in Impromptu Speaking).

[edit] International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement courses offered

Mira Loma offers a large number of International Baccalaureate courses in addition to two AP courses that prepare students for IB examinations every spring. The IB tests are either Standard Level (SL) or Higher Level (HL) based on the amount of coursework prior to the examination. It was also one of approximately 25 schools worldwide to offer an IB course in anthropology, which was discontinued after the 2006-2007 school year due to the teacher's retirement. The following IB examinations were taken by Mira Loma students in 2006:

Biology (HL)
English A1 (HL)
Environmental Systems (SL)
French B (SL/HL)
Further Math (SL)
German B (SL/HL)
History (HL)
Japanese B (SL/HL)
Mandarin B (SL/HL)
Math Studies (SL)
Mathematics (SL/HL)
Music (SL/HL)
Physics (SL)
Cultural Anthropology (SL)
Spanish B (SL/HL)
Theatre Arts (SL/HL)
Theory of Knowledge
Visual Arts (SL/HL)^[5]

Although the classes are not offered, some students also took AP Physics, AP Biology, and AP Chemistry exams during the 2006-2007 school year.

[edit] Culture

As the variety of academic programs listed above indicates, Mira Loma is a school noted for its diversity. In early April Mira Loma celebrates its annual International Night, in which students from various ethnic backgrounds set up presentations about their culture (typically offering some traditional food as well) and sometimes give performances of traditional dance or music.

Another Mira Loma tradition is the annual Sports-A-Rama in which the four classes compete against each other in a variety of games to win the competition. Games begin with Penny Wars several weeks in advance of the event itself and culminate in the event known as the statue wherein around fifty students perform a choreographed dance routine on the subject of the class's theme.

Every March 14, the Mira Loma Math Club hosts Pi Day on campus. This event features carnival-like events that relate to the mathematical number. Events include a fundraiser that awards those who donate with the opportunity to throw cream pies at volunteering teachers and a competition where students memorize and recite the digits of Pi.

[edit] Sports

Mira Loma was a sports powerhouse in the late 1960s and early 1970s winning league championships in football, basketball, cross-country and baseball. The 1972 Matadors football team had a perfect season with 12 wins, no losses, a Capital Valley Conference Championship and winner of the inaugural City Championship.

[edit] Ken Kesey Myth

According to campus lore, author and counter-culture figurehead Ken Kesey anonymously attended a 1980s stage adaptation of his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest held by the Mira Loma High School drama department. According to a 2001 New York Times article, this adaptation was his "favorite" stage representation of the novel due to its elaborate "machine-like" set-piece which accurately represented his intended commentary on governmental control and existence as a malevolent "system," an aspect that many consider to have been neglected in Milos Forman's Oscar-winning 1975 film. ^[6]

[edit] Day of Silence controversy

Mira Loma has a large Gay-Straight Alliance club on campus that attracted local media attention during the 2006 Day of Silence. On April 26 around 100 Mira Loma students, along with an estimated 450,000 students nation-wide, voluntarily remained silent for the day to protest discrimination against the LGBT community. A group of students, organized by a local Slavic church, launched a counter-protest that day, handing out brochures arguing that the Day of Silence was immoral and that being homosexual is a sin. Many students also wore T-shirts denouncing homosexuality which were deemed derogatory. Several students who refused to remove these shirts, as well as some handing out fliers, were subsequently suspended from school because they were spreading hate messages. Three after-school protests organized by the Slavic church were then held in front of the school from April 26 to April 28. Over one hundred demonstrators participated. Advocates for the Day of Silence (members of the Gay-Straight Alliance, Stop the Hate and Young Democrats clubs) quickly organized their own demonstration and later printed t-shirts in support of human rights and condemning the actions taken by the protesters. ^[7] ^[8]^[9]

[edit] Notable alumni

Adult film star Jenteal (Reanna Rossi) attended Mira Loma High School.
Journalist Scott D Levin - Writer for the Wildcat Illustrated and copy editor for the famous "Orion" newspaper.
Country songwriter and singer James House. His first album "Days Gone By" received airtime on CMT.
Movie actor Sam J. (Jerry) Jones. Starred in the 80's sci-fi movie "Flash Gordon".
Serial killer Richard Chase, subject of the book “Dracula Killer” by Ray Biondi. He killed 6 people in 1977 and early 1978; he died in prison in 1980.
Mathematician Michael Usher, distinguished instructor of linear algebra at Princeton University

[edit] Notable faculty

Television screenwriter Jeff Ray (The A-Team, Greatest American Hero, Hunter) was a teacher and head of the Mira Loma drama department from 1997-2002.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Categories: International Baccalaureate schools | High schools in Sacramento, California