San Marino High School

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San Marino High School
Location
2701 Huntington Drive
San Marino, CA, USA
Information
Principal Loren Kleinrock
Asst. Principal Mary Johnson
Mike Mooney
Enrollment

1,217 (as of 2005-06)[1]
Faculty 52.4 (on FTE basis)[1]
Student:teacher ratio 23.2[1]
Type Public high school
Grades 9-12
Nickname Titans
Established 1955
Homepage School website

San Marino High School (SMHS) is a public high school located in San Marino, California, United States. It is a part of the San Marino Unified School District.[2]

Contents

[edit] Philosophy

San Marino High School will provide the fundamentals of literacy, communication, and mathematical applications for students to succeed in their later studies and/or working lives. School personnel will partner with parents and the community to maximize resources necessary to provide students a quality education in a supportive and positive climate. Students will develop global awareness, civic responsibility and critical thinking skills to respond and adapt to the changes of the 21st century. [3]

[edit] History

The high school is situated on the former site of Carver Elementary School. School reconstruction began in 1996 and is now complete. The school is equipped with new laboratories, classrooms, and ethernet connections, supported mostly by bond issues and rigorous fund-raising by the San Marino Schools Endowment. The new buildings include a brand new cafeteria, orchestra and band room, dance studio, journalism lab, and renovated auditoriums, as well as a renovated baseball field and a brand new football field/track.

San Marino High School is part of the San Marino Unified School District. Its public funding is supplemented by private donations raised through the San Marino Schools Foundation.

[edit] Athletics

San Marino High School has several good tennis teams and players; at one point the school won five straight CIF titles and became ranked number one in USA Today's High School Tennis Teams in 1998. SMHS has a history of athletic rivalry with South Pasadena High School, a high school in the neighboring city. SMHS has the second most C.I.F. Southern Section Championships, behind of Long Beach Poly. The school's most recent C.I.F. title was Division II Boys' Varsity Tennis in 2007.

[edit] Speech and Debate

San Marino High School currently boasts one of the fastest growing speech and debate teams in the nation. The team, currently coached by Director of Forensics Oliver Valcorza and Assistant Debate Coach J.J. Rodriguez, features over seventy active members. San Marino Forensics recently secured its first ever first place award at the California State Tournament in the AA division.

The team travels around the country to attend invitationals and tournaments. San Marino has produced two national champions in Extemporaneous speaking. The program is home to many national and state ranked speakers. San Marino Speech and Debate is one of many successful programs on campus.

[edit] Classes

San Marino High School currently has a 59 member teaching faculty. SMHS offers a variety of AP Classes in mathematics, science, foreign languages, English, social science, and music/art. Unfortunately, SMHS is one of the few schools that does not offer AP U.S. History, the most commonly taken AP test. [2]

Extracurricular classes include small business, fashion design, computer graphics, three courses in media arts (digital film making, animation, and field work), the school newspaper Titan Shield , the school yearbook Titanian, band, and orchestra.

[edit] Student population

As of the 2005-06 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,217 students and 52.4 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student-teacher ratio of 23.2.[1] The school's racial composition is 74% Asian, 20% White, 5% Hispanic, 1% other.[4]

In the 2006-07 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,249 with 94 faculty and staff members, 314 seniors, 297 juniors, 277 sophomores, and 267 freshmen.

[edit] School events

The high school holds events several events, including sports, theater, and others. The Associate Student Body puts on the Coronation Ball, a dance held to crown the Homecoming Queen and Princesses. These young ladies will then be honored throughout Homecoming. The ball is held on the Saturday directly before the Homecoming game, takes place in the home of a student, and also features an annual theme. During the week before the homecoming game, the ASB usually holds lunch- and snack-time rallies to boost school spirit. Finally on the Thursday night before homecoming day, the ASB will stay over night at school to decorate the campus. In the afternoon of Homecoming day, SMHS students hold a homecoming parade with the assistance of the San Marino Police Department and Fire Department. The parade is attended by community figures such as the mayor, the principal, and San Marino Unified School District Board members. Floats include each class' advisory board and community service clubs. The SMHS Marching Band usually leads the parade. The homecoming game takes place that night, with the marching band and color guard performing during half-time. The 2006 game against Blair High School, which San Marino won 24-15, also featured fireworks during halftime. San Marino tied the La Canada High School football team in its 2007 Homecoming game with a score of 7-7.

The annual winter formal is held by Amicians, one of the school's many service clubs. The dance is usually held in December and has an annual theme. The 2006 theme was "Alice in Wonderland". The 2007 theme was "Cirque de Soleil."

In March, the ASB holds Monte Carlo Night, a "pseudo casino night" event, where students play BlackJack, Poker, Craps, or Roulette to win chips they then trade in for raffle tickets. Prizes for 2007 included iPods, a PlayStation 3, two Nintendo Wiis, Laker game tickets, a digital camera, a mini-bike, and gift certificates.

[edit] Other Facts

San Marino High has produced many royal court members for its annual Rose Parade & Rose Bowl Game such as followed: Suzanne Gillaspie `83, Aimee Richelieu `86, Cara Rullman `91, Keli Hutchins `96, Caroline Hsu `02 and Alexandra Wucetich `03 have earned titles as Tournament of Roses Queens for the Rose Parade on New Year's Day in Pasadena. As for the Princess, Carrie Gastos; Amy Gordinier & Kristin Henry `88, Tisha Mei-Lin Kong `91, Kristen Kneier & Grace Huang `98, Allison Ude `01, Carolyn Loo `06, and most recently Courtney Rubin was named Rose Princess for the 2008 parade.

In March 2005, four students got a 2400 on the first administration of the new SAT I, the highest score possible.

San Marino High was named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2006 and a Gold Medal school by U.S. News and World Report[5] in December 2007, ranking #82 in the nation. San Marino High remains the top high school in the Los Angeles County and one of the top schools in the state.

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] External links