- Alameda High School is a public coeducational high school serving grades 9-12. It is located in Alameda, California and is part of the Alameda Unified School District.
- History
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It was at the Alameda Board of Education meeting held on March 6, 1874, that the suggestion to open a ‘Preparatory Department of a High School' was first presented. On April 17, 1874, C. Y. Johns was elected the first principal. Classes began with 52 students, in July 1874, in a rented room over a drugstore on Park Street known as "Boehmer's Hall". The building still exists today as the China House restaurant.
- Boehmer's Hall was only temporary. Already a new building was being built on a site on Santa Clara at Chestnut, completed and occupied in 1875. The high school shared space with the Grammar Department in what became known as ‘Haight School', a site still occupied by this school today. The class of 1878, totalling nine students, was the first to graduate from Alameda High School.
- It wasn't long before the number of students enrolled in the high school outgrew the space available at Haight. Temporary quarters were located at the Porter school, located on Alameda Avenue, by 1900. A campaign was started for a new separate high school building.
- With the help of the high school student body, a bond was passed in the city for the new school. The cornerstone was laid in 1902 on the new site at Central and Walnut. The building was dedicated in 1903 and occupied in time for the December 1903 term.
- Continued growth in enrollment required an even larger campus. In 1925 a new bond issue was voted on. The new school, dedicated in 1926, comprised three connected buildings, including the original 1903 structure which was refurbished to blend with the architectural style of the other two. The architecture, designed by local architect Carl Werner, is early-twentieth-century Neo-Classical Revival in nature, evoking images of ancient Greek temples with Ionic columns in front of the Kofman Auditorium, a facility known throughout the Bay Area as one of the best of the local playhouses.
- By 1955, the ‘old building' had outlived its usefulness and was replaced with what became known as the ‘new building' by subsequent students until 1977.
- Campaigns to replace old public buildings with newer earthquake-safe structures led to the construction of the newest high school building, across the street from the established campus, on Encinal at Walnut.
- Original plans involved tearing down the 1926 buildings and replacing them with a sports complex, the only building to be kept being the ‘new building' of 1955. A dedicated group of alumni and citizens saved the venerable buildings and the planned new construction was scaled back to what exists today.
- The newest building was first occupied in 1978 and included the site of the former Porter school. At present, the office of the Alameda Unified School District reside in the Kofman Buildings. The west wing now houses Language and Fine Arts, as well as the Frederick L. Chacon Little Theater. The school was made an Alameda Historical Monument in 1976 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
- Enrollment and Academics
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Alameda High School is an ethnically diverse school, reporting, for the 2004-2005 academic year, a composition that is 41% Asian, 33% non-Hispanic White, 10% Hispanic/Latino, 8% African-American, 6% Filipino, less than 1% American Indian/Native Alaskan, and less than 1% Mixed/Not Reporting.
- The school has received National Blue Ribbon recognition and California Distinguished School and Digital High School awards. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, offering more than a dozen Advanced Placement courses. The school also has a very strong journalism course, which produces the monthly student newspaper publication "The Oak Leaf."
- Its Academic Performance Index index is 10/10, also the highest on the island, with a similar schools rank of 8/10. Alameda is also currently ranked #483 in the top 1200 high schools in the US.
- Athletics
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AHS competes in the Alameda/Contra Costa Athletic League (ACCAL) and is part of the Northern Coastal Section (NCS) of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF). The athletic programs are generally well-regarded.
- The track and field, cross country, tennis, golf, swim and badminton teams, in particular, have enjoyed recent success. Likewise, the baseball program has historically been competitive at AHS. Led by coach Ken Arnerich, the 2006 Varsity baseball team recorded four consecutive upset wins in the playoffs to bring Alameda High its first ever North Coast Section title in baseball. Also, the women's varsity swim team, led by head coach Leslie Cortez, has won 13 consecutive ACCAL championships as of 2009.
- Alameda was a perennial regional football power back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and won a state championship back in 1918, but the program struggled through the 80's and 90's. The football program has been improving steadily in recent years, however, with six consecutive winning seasons, one ACCAL Championship, wins in five of the last six Island Bowls (2002 - 2006) [1] against crosstown rivals Encinal High and four playoff appearances, (2003, 2005-2007). This improvement began under head coach Kevin Hennessee, who departed in 2006, and was succeeded by former Offensive Coordinator George Calandri. Calandri continued the winning legacy in his sole season as head coach (2006), leading Alameda back into the playoffs. Former Hornet assistant Steve Rochlin has now assumed the head coaching duties, with Kemp Moyer and Dan Reynolds serving as his offensive and defensive coordinators, respectively. In Rochlin's first season as head coach, the Hornets went 7-3 and made their third consecutive playoff appearance.
- Encinal High, Alameda High, and St. Joseph Notre Dame High School collectively field men's and women's Rugby union teams.
- Other Varsity sports include:
- Badminton
- Baseball
- Basketball (Men's and Women's)
- Football
- Diving
- Golf
- Cheerleading
- Cross Country
- Soccer (Men's and Women's)
- Softball
- Swimming (Men's and Women's)
- Water Polo (Men's and Woman's)
- Tennis (Men's and Women's)
- Track & Field
- Volleyball (Men's and Women's)
- Water Polo (Men's and Women's)
- March 2008 Student Walkouts
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On March 5, 2008, students from Alameda and Encinal High Schools walked out of class to protest the budget cuts for the 2008-2009 school year. The budget cuts were a result of the $4 billion budget cut approved by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The budget cuts would eliminate many school sports, Advanced Placement classes, and lay off about 46 teachers. The walkout began at Encinal High where students marched to the Alameda Unified School District (AUSD) offices located on the Alameda High campus, where the 1,000 Encinal students were joined by many more students from Alameda High. After about a half hour of chanting protests outside the District offices, AUSD superintendent Ardella Dailey invited the walking out students into the Kofman Auditorium to try to explain why the cuts were required.[2]
- Text messaging technology, as well as social networking sites, helped the students coordinate and announce the strike and prevented officials from Alameda High School from successfully preventing their students from joining the students from Encinal.
- Alameda High in the Media
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Alameda High is the first school in Alameda to appear in a Japanese anime. The school and its former vice principal were both animated for the Animatrix short film Kid's Story. It is interesting to note that the school was renamed to Clearview High while the likeness of the former vice principal was used as the teacher seen in the episode.
- Notable alumni
- Life Again, band, three of the members attended Alameda High School.
- Debbi Fields, entrepreneur
- Simon Rex, actor
- Stephen Stucker, actor, deceased
- Chris Speier, professional baseball player, San Francisco Giants, retired
- Dick Bartell, professional baseball player, New York Giants, deceased
- William F. Knowland, United States Senator, deceased
- Sharon Tate, actress, deceased
- John Coleman, athlete, deceased
- Jim Morrison, musician, deceased
- Notable faculty
- Dr. Philip Dauber, nominated for Academy Award for "Spaceborne" (Best Short Film, Live Action: 1978), author "The Three Big Bangs"
- Don Perata, politician (former faculty)
- External links
- Alameda High School
- Alameda High - Hornet Football
- Alameda High - Hornet Boosters
- Newsweek school rankings
- An interview with an individual involved in "Kid's Story." It mentions the use of Alameda High in the anime
- San Francisco Chronicle story about the baseball team
- Calandri's letter of resignation
- API scores 2006
- Alameda High Class of 87
- 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.
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