Acalanes High School | |
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Location | |
1200 Pleasant Hill Road Lafayette, CA 94549 |
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Information | |
Type | Public |
Established | 1940 |
School district | Acalanes Union High School District |
Principal | Aida Glimme |
Grades | 9-12 |
Number of students | 1,389 |
Color(s) | Blue and White |
Athletics conference | California Interscholastic Federation, North Coast Section; Diablo Foothill Athletic League |
Mascot | Dons |
Website | http://www.acalanes.k12.ca.us/ahs |
Acalanes High School was the first of several high schools in the Acalanes Union High School District in Lafayette, California. It was built in 1940 on what was then a tomato field. The school was built with federal money through the work of the Works Project Administration through the Roosevelt administration. Lafayette businessman M.H. Stanley suggested the name "Acalanes," likely after a local Native American Bay Miwok tribe called Saclan, referred to by Spanish missionaries as "Saclanes". The first graduating class of 1941 selected the school colors of blue and white and the mascot, the Don (a Spanish honorary title).
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Acalanes offers a diverse course selection and a number of AP and Honors courses. Among the electives offered are sports medicine, digital design, automechanics, graphic arts, video production, journalism, drama, photography, Mandarin (Chinese), Spanish, French, chorus, band (4 groups), and orchestra.
Acalanes academic clubs regularly participate in Bay Area quiz bowl tournaments, including BAAL (Bay Area Academic League). Acalanes also offers Model UN and Academic Decathlon as extracurricular activities. The Acalanes Academic Decathlon team recently won (first place) in the Contra Costa regional meet in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. They took first place in Division III at the 2009 California state competition.
Acalanes established itself as the premier scientific school in the Lamorinda community in 2008, winning the regional science bowl competition at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Acalanes finished second in the same competition in 2009.
Acalanes students Blake Marggraff and Matthew Feddersen won the top award (the $75000 Gordon E. Moore award) at Intel's 2011 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) for their project, a potential new low-cost cancer treatment using tin particles. Marggraff and Feddersen were members of the class of 2011.[1][2]
California Interscholastic Federation - North Coast Section - Diablo Foothill Athletic League
The award-winning school paper, Blueprint, runs 8 issues each year, publishing approximately every three weeks. Blueprint recently won the American Scholastic Press Association's (ASPA) "Most Outstanding High School Newspaper for 2009" for a student body population of 1001-1700.
The yearbook is the AKLAN. The leadership class runs a student body website, asbdons.org, and issues a monthly communications video with skits announcing upcoming events. On November 13, 2006, a special video was shown as a kick-off to Acalanes diversity week, and featured a short film, Silhouettes, directed by an Acalanes student. Also screened was the documentary, Invisible Children. Popular events during the school year include games, rallies, and weekly activities sponsored by the leadership class. The drama department puts on two plays each year, along with a yearly musical, a collaboration between the chorus and band departments. There are various chorus and band concerts throughout the year.
Students are issued half-height lockers. The school's library is open from 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM daily, with the exception of an 8:40 AM opening on Wednesdays. The campus includes a track, several fields(an astro-turf field, a grass field, and a baseball field), a pool, tennis courts, two gyms, weight room, two quads, and a state-of-the-art performing arts center. Measure E bonds passed in 2008 provided for the complete renovation of the aquatic facilities, which was completed in the summer of 2011.