Rio Americano High School - Sacramento, California/CA

Home > California > Sacramento County > Rio Americano High School

Rio Americano High School

4540 American River Dr., Sacramento, CA, 95864-6104 -

tel: (916)971-7494
Visit School Website
View current housing listings in 95864
Review school:
Find your graduating class!

Discuss this school

View RSS feed

Definition of Terms

Rio Americano High School

School Level

High school

Grades Offered

Grades 9 - 12

County

Sacramento County, CA

Awards

Blue Ribbon School – Selected in 2006

Students & Faculty

Total Students

1769 students

% Male / % Female

53% / 47%

Total Classroom Teachers

66 teachers

Students by Grade

Grade 9 - 439 students

Grade 10 - 460 students

Grade 11 - 446 students

Grade 12 - 424 students

This School

( CA ) School Average

Teacher : Student Ratio

1:27

1:20

Students by Ethnicity

This School

( CA ) School Average

% American Indian	1%	1%
% Asian	11%	11%
% Hispanic	7%	45%
% Black	4%	7%
% White	76%	33%
% Unknown	1 %	4%

Additional Student Information

This School

( CA ) School Average

% Eligible for Free Lunch

44%

% Eligible for Reduced Lunch

10%

% Migrant Students Enrolled

n/a

( CA ) Statewide Testing Performance

School Statewide Performance

View Education Department Test Scores

School District Name

San Juan Unified School District

This School's Agency

( CA ) District Average

Number of Schools Managed	80	4
Number of Students Managed	50,463 students	1,785 students
District Total Revenue	$440,765,000	$16,194,000
District Expenditure	$453,420,000	$16,545,000
District Revenue / Student	$8,734	$8,848
District Expenditure / Student	$8,985	$8,162
District Graduation Rates	n/a	n/a

Rio Americano High School, colloquially known as Rio, is an American public high school in Sacramento, California, part of the San Juan Unified School District.
Rio is one of 41 High Schools in the nation to be named a 2006 National Blue Ribbon School, an accolade they've held consistently for many years.
Rio Americano students come from the surrounding areas of Arden Park, Arden Oaks, Sierra Oaks, Fair Oaks, Carmichael, Gold River, and to a much lesser extent, the La Sierra community. In recent years, more students have been transferring from other districts and areas, partly due to the shift of Sacramento High School to a charter school. Rio's two rival schools are Jesuit High School and to a lesser degree El Camino High School because of its close proximity to the Arden Park area.
History: Rio Americano High School was established in 1963 as a temporary high school, built to offset a huge baby boomer population increase. It was supposed to be a temporary solution for education shortages, to be demolished 20 years later and used for housing purposes. As demand increased and Rio's academic and extracurricular programs proved strong, the school has remained a permanent fixture in the community.
On November 2, 2000, a fire destroyed the school's "Little Theatre" and severely damaged several neighboring classrooms. The theatre has since been rebuilt as the "Betty Miller Little Theatre", (in honor of Rio Americano's Readers Theatre and Drama Director Betty Miller,) and the damaged classrooms have been restored. The school went through a major cosmetic overhaul known as "remodernization" from 2001-2002.
Advanced Placement: Rio Americano offers 14 AP courses in addition to various Honors classes. Although there are no official classes, students have been known to take the AP Music Theory, AP Statistics, and AP French exams.
AP Biology - Ruggiero.
AP Calculus AB - Baker and Dunkum.
AP Calculus BC - Dunkum.
AP Chemistry - Montbriand.
AP Comparative Government - Blenner.
AP English - Mahoney.
AP Macroeconomics - Westover.
AP Microeconomics - Westover.
AP Physics - Baird.
AP Psychology - Casazza.
AP Spanish - Losada.
AP US Government - Mason.
AP US History - Blenner and Deville.
AP French - Murray (Pending Enrollment, to begin in the 2007-2008 School Year).
Band: The Rio Americano band program is nationally recognized, having 4 levels of concert band and 3 levels of jazz ensemble. The AM Jazz Ensemble was recognized as one the United States' top 15 high school jazz bands at the Essentially Ellington Jazz competition in New York City in 2001, 2002, 2006, and 2007. The Rio AM Jazz Ensemble has also won the Monterey Jazz Festival in the High School Big Band category an unprecedented 7 times. They have toured Japan, Europe and most recently China in the summer of 2006 and are scheduling a tour of Australia in the summer of 2008.
Electives: The following are electives available at Rio Americano.
Art I, Auto Technology, Drafting, Drawing & Painting, Photography, Ceramics, Computer Graphics, Drama, Reader's Theatre, Speech & Debate, Woodshop, Teacher/Office Assistant.
Mock Trial: Mock Trial is a program that places students in a courtroom environment in which they play the parts of attorneys, witnesses, court clerks and bailiffs. Rio Americano's Mock Trial team is known for its record of success at both the county and state levels. The team reached the final round in the California Mock Trial State Finals in 1999 and 2006.
Moot Court: Rio Americano's Moot Court team has won the Sacramento County competition the past two years, in both 2006 and 2007.
Radio & TV: The Radio & Television program has won the award for best High School News show in Sacramento several times, last awarded to them in 2002, by the Sacramento Educational Cable Consortium. The program has been reportedly falling apart by students and graduates after Gebhardt retired.
Science Bowl: Science Bowl is a high school academic competition that tests students on their science in seven different categories (Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, General Science, Math, and Physics). There exist two 2007 teams (Team A and Team B), each consisting of five members. In the Sacramento Regional Completion, Team A placed 2nd and Team B 3rd. Team A defeated Mira Loma A in the double-elimination round, but narrowly failed in their attempt to beat them a second time in the final winner-take-all match. Team B lost only to Mira Loma A and Rio A.
Science Olympiad: A science competition with various events. Their '07 A team placed second at regionals, and did not place at the state level.
The Mirada: The school's newspaper. It is made by students of all grade levels, and covers nearly every event and new items. Mostly juniors and seniors are editors, two seniors for editor and chief, and junior and seniors for News, Opinions, Features and Sports. The Mirada also has three graphic artist, and one main photographer. There are many staff writers of all grade levels. The paper even has a business manager. There are about 21 staff members overall. One teacher, supervises. The features are: Bachelor and Bachelorette, Prep of the issue, Car of the issue and sometimes food reviews. The paper has an issue every month and has won various awards. The raider icon on the front page to the side of the heading changes every month.
The Tesoro: The school's yearbook. Each year the Tesoro has a different theme, the 2005-2006's being 'Curious'. On the bottom each page, varoius students wrote things they were curious about, such as: "Why do guys wear girl pants?" The yearbook also features clubs, sports, outside-of-school ports, senior favorites, quotes and pictures. Parents of seniors can submit a page dedicated to their son or daughter in the "Diapers to Diploma" section.
Basketball: Their Boy's Basketball recently won the 2006 Jack Scott Tournament, a tournament hosted by Rio. In 2002, the Rio Varsity Boy's Basketball team won the section title at Arco Arena and went all the way to the state semi-finals at UC Davis.
Cross Country: The Rio Americano cross-country teams are coached by Gordon Hubble. The varsity boys cross-country team placed 5th in the 2006 Sac-Joaquin Division III Section Finals Meet at the Willow Hills course in Folsom, CA. This is the teams best performance in many years. The varsity boys also received two CAL (Capital Athletic League) All-League awards. The varsity girls team subsequently ran to a best performance in many years, placing 7th in the 2006 Sac-Joaquin Division III Section Finals Meet, and also received two CAL All-League awards as well. Both teams placed second in the Capital Athletic League. The freshman boys team placed first in the Capital Athletic League, the SJS Div. III Sub-Sections Meet, and the SJS Div. III Sections Meet.
Football: Rio Americano's football team has been the center of many jokes in the surrounding area. In the past ten years, Rio Americano has failed to procure a winning record in the regular season. However, the 2006 season showed much promise as the team began the season 4-1, later falling off the momentum to end the season at 5-5. Yet, this record is still much better than any record for Rio Americano in the past five years. With the incoming sophomore class (which went 8-2 in their JV season) to the varsity team, there is much hope that the program is finally turning around and returning to the high level of prestige that it was once known for.
Golf: Rio Americano's golf team is quite possibly the greatest team Rio has ever had. The team is coached by Brady Yount (2007-current) and assistant coach Shepherd.
2007 Varsity Golf: Aaron Kim, Jordan Mills, Bryson Boatwright, Philip Lee, Matt Shepherd, and Stan Jorgenson.
Soccer: Rio has boys' and girls' soccer programs coached by Jim Sullivan and Danny Cruz.
Swimming & Diving: The boys' coach is Chris Nissen, and the girls' coach is Kirk. Rio's boys team has repeatedly won the Section title over the perennial power, Jesuit High School.
Track & Field: The track & field teams are coached by Gordon Hubble. With assistant coaches Tay Moore and Eric Smith. In 2006, Rio Americano's 4x100m team, consisting of Kianti Gix, Kyle Odister, Chris Valls, and Diante Mayers, set the school 4x100m record with a time of 42.38 at the 2006 Sacramento Meet of Champions. They were also ranked 20th in the state of California. Rio Americano's track team produced four CAL All-League award winners in 2006. Also during the 2006 track season, junior Laura Lilly jumped to a school-record height of 5'3" in the women's high jump at the CAL Center 2 Meet. During the 2007 track season, Rio Americano had 4 CAL All-League award winners. At the Sac-Joaquin Division II Section Trials, senior Kianti Gix set the school record in the 200m sprint with a time of 21.83 while junior Patrick Nilan set the school record in the 800m run with a time of 1:56.80. At the Sac-Joaquin Divison II Section Finals, Kianti Gix set yet another school record, the 400m record, with a time of 48.85 seconds, placing first in the race. The Rio Americano varsity boys team won the 2007 SJS Division II Section title with a total of 46 points, beating Oak Ridge High School by 3 points.
Water Polo: Water Polo is one of the most recognized of the sports at Rio. Girls Water Polo has won 5 straight section titles. Men's Water Polo has produced division 1 players such as Brian Kinsel and Matt Hillard, both of whom play for UC Berkley. The Air Force Academy recruited Austin Bartlett.
Rugby: Rio has one of the best Rugby teams in Northern California. The team was officially founded in 2000 and has been successful since.
Clubs: Rowdy Raiders, Asian Culture Club, Suburban Life Enhancement Club, French Club, French Conversation Group.
Source: Wikipedia; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL
Add information about this school (e.g., awards, news stories, notable alumni, fun facts)

About This Zip Code (95864)

School Zip (95864)

(CA) State Average

Population (Approximate)

23,355 people

33,137,211 people

% (age 25+) w/College Degree

56%

32%

Population Average Age

44 years old

33.3 years old

Average Household size

2.4 persons

2.9 persons

Median Household Income

$59,570

$49,006

Avg. # of Rooms in Household

6 rooms

4.8 rooms

Median Age of Housing Structure

50 years old

39 years old

View current housing listings in 95864

Median Value of Housing Unit
Zipcode (95864)

What's a Zindex?
Subject to Zillow Terms of Use

% Owning / % Renting

75% / 25%

58% / 42%

Get: driving directions View weather forecasts and averages

Weather: 10-day forecast or monthly climate averages.

Nearby Schools:


1. Sierra Nueva High Continuation School - 59 students - view location
2. Delta Secondary Academy - 49 students - view location
3. Encina High School - 751 students - view location
4. Palmiter Community - 59 students - view location
5. Palmiter Special Education - 79 students - view location
View all schools in: Sacramento Town, Sacramento County, Zip 95864

Tip: Zoom in/out using the slider below. View aerial photos using the Satellite or Hybrid buttons.

Note: Data has been gathered from several government and commercial data sources. School data reflects years 2002-04 statistics (most recent years available). Area and demographic data reflects year 2000 statistics. Public School Review does not ensure the timeliness or accuracy of the information on this site.

Quick Links:


• View website: Visit school website
• Find housing: View current housing listings in 95864
• Reconnect: Find your graduating class at Classmates.com
• Review: Review school:
• Tools: Search schools by zip, Compare schools side-by-side
• More schools: Private schools, Boarding schools & military schools
• Return to: Sacramento County public schools, California public schools, Home

Featured Partners:

School Website

School Reviews:

Review school:

Public School Articles

Evaluating Public Schools

Types of Public Schools

Attending Public School

Public School Policies

Public School Jobs

Discuss This School:

Discuss in Forum
(currently 1 thread)

$0.00