| Poway High School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| 15500 Espola Road Poway, California, United States |
|
| Information | |
| Type | Public secondary |
| Motto | Faithful Titans we will be through the years to you |
| Established | September 1961 |
| School district | Poway Unified School District |
| Principal | Scott Fisher |
| Grades | 9-12 |
| Enrollment | 3,045[1] (2007) |
| Color(s) | Green and Gray |
| Mascot | Titan |
| Fight Song | School Alma Mater |
| Newspaper | The Iliad |
| Yearbook | Odyssey |
| Website | Poway High School |
Poway High School (PHS) is a public, comprehensive high school located in the city of Poway, California. Established in 1961, it serves ninth through twelfth grade students from the communities of Poway and Rancho Bernardo. The school mascot is the Titan. Poway is the oldest high school in the Poway Unified School District.
Poway High School is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. First granted in 1965, the current accreditation is valid through 2008. Poway High School is both a California Distinguished School Award winner (1999) and a National Blue Ribbon School (1990/91).
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The campus is in northern San Diego County, approximately 35 miles northeast of downtown San Diego. The campus covers 59 acres (238,765 m²).
Poway's athletic teams, the Titans, compete in the Palomar League and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) San Diego Section.
The school fields teams in 19 sports: gymnastics, baseball, basketball, cheerleading, cross country, football, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, roller hockey, soccer, softball, swimming, diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling.
The wrestling program has won four state championships, 57 different CIF division awards, and numerous Palomar League awards.
The 2007 football team finished the season 12-0 and were the CIF Division I champions. They again won the CIF Division I championship in 2011 with a record of 12-0-1.
The 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 baseball teams won back to back Palomar League and CIF Division I Championships. Over the last four years the Titan's baseball team has been consistently ranked among the top twenty teams in the nation.
The 2007-2008 Boys Soccer team finished with a record of 23-2-5 and were the Palomar League and CIF Division I Champions. They were also finalists in the first annual Southern California Regional Soccer Championships.
Boys Tennis won CIF in both 2007 and 2008
The Girls Golf team won the 2006 CIF State Championship and the 2006 CIF San Diego Section Championship.
Also, the Marching Band has won many competitions throughout the years. Most recently they were crowned MBOS (Marching Band Open Series) champions, over 26 other competing groups, in Corona California, in November 2009.
The 2000 Boys Cross Country team placed third at the CIF State Championship.
The music program consists of several bands: Symphonic Band, Concert Band, Wind Ensemble, and the top band Wind Symphony, as well as the marching band, The Emerald Brigade. String Ensembles include Symphony Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra. Also, Poway has a Jazz Band and a Concert Percussion Ensemble. The Percussion Ensemble replaced the percussion Winterline shows in 2007. All groups consistently receive Superior ratings at the El Camino and district Festival competitions. In 2006, the Poway High School music program was designated a Grammy Signature School by the Grammy Foundation.
Poway High School also boasts one of the most successful choral programs in Southern California, and the entire United States, under the direction of Nancy Gray. The school has 5 choral groups, of which 2 are audition-only. The choirs, from more novice to more advanced are:
In 2006, Poway's chamber group, the Die Lieder Singers won the annual Festival of Gold in San Francisco, CA, scoring a 94.67 on a 6-song festival set adjudicated by 3 judges. The Die Lieder Singers and Women's Ensemble often score superior ratings and place first in many prestigious competitions and festivals, and send many students to Southern California and California All-State Honor Choirs.
In March 2010, both the Women's Ensemble and the Die Lieders singers were selected by audition to participate in the National Youth Choir on stage at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Four Poway High singers were selected to sing solos for songs composed by the conductor, Dr Jeffrey Ames. Also the Die Lieder Singers were selected to be the featured choir and to sing their own set of songs on stage. They dedicated this performance to Chelsea King.
Poway's choral music department is also known for its extremely successful musical productions every spring. The last few shows have been:
Poway's stage productions, under the direction of Rollin Swan, are well-known for being the most successful in the district; the Theatre Guild stages a Shakespearean play every fall ("Taming of the Shrew" in 2009,A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2008, Twelfth Night in 2007, King Lear in 2006, etc.) and puts up one or two smaller-scale productions every winter, with the spring play often a large-scale play written and directed by a senior for a senior project (2008 brought senior Marcus Kevorkyan's highly acclaimed Internal Bliss). In 2010, Theatre Guild performed "Triangle Factory Fire Project" to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the Triangle Factory Fire disaster.
On April[2] 22, 2004, Poway junior Tyler Chase Harper came to school wearing a t-shirt with masking tape on the front and back, upon which was written "Homosexuality is shameful - Romans 1:27" and "Be ashamed, our school has embraced what God condemned." [6] The incident occurred one day after the Day of Silence, a national protest staged by high-school students against homophobia and sponsored by several state and national gay rights organizations. Harper was sent to the principal's office by a teacher, where he was asked to remove the tape; he refused.. He then was forced to stay in the school's office until the end of the school day.
The incident garnered a minor amount of attention in local and national media as an example of tensions in schools arising from homophobia and religious freedom. California, at the time, was in the process of reforming domestic partnership laws (see Domestic partnership in California).
Backed by the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian legal group, Harper eventually sued the district, claiming a violation of his right to free speech. The case was eventually heard before a federal judge, but was thrown out, with the judge in the case ruling that the message was disruptive and needlessly offensive.
A film called "Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech" from HBO Films uses this case as an example of a violation of the 1st Amendment rights.