- Fullerton Union High School is a high school located in the Orange County, California city of Fullerton, United States. Its current principal is Cathy Gach.
- History
-
In 1893 a special election was held to create Fullerton Union High School. The school's first classroom, a rented room on the second floor of the Fullerton Elementary School building, was adequate to house the eight pupils, which constituted the first year's enrollment and the 32 books which made up the library. The high school was the first in Orange County.
- In 1908, FUHS's enrollment was increasing at the rate of 18 percent a year. To accommodate the growth, the school was moved to new quarters on West Commonwealth Avenue, an area now known as Amerige Park.
- School enrollment continued to grow and within two years a new polytechnic building was built to ease the overcrowding. But on November 17, 1910, the day before it could be occupied, the older FUHS building burned to the ground. FUHS was housed in the polytechnic building and four tents that year. After the fire, the school's trustees debated the best location for rebuilding. The district owned the ground on which the polytechnic building stood, but the campus was small, and school work was disrupted by the numerous Santa Fe trains that roared by each day.
- In 1911, the present site was purchased one block east of Harbor Boulevard. A walnut orchard was removed prior to building, and the former site was sold to the City of Fullerton for use as a park.
- The school's facilities have changed over the years to meet educational and community needs. Plummer Auditorium's original ironwork, which was made by students on the campus, was kept when Plummer was refurbished and remodeled to meet earthquake standards in 1972 (the first class to use the auditorium for Bacculaureate was the Class of '72). Since then the stadium, locker rooms, and the agriculture complex have been rebuilt. The latest replacement was the swimming pool. Renovations of Plummer Auditorium were recently completed, and the Charles Kassler fresco "Pastoral California" was uncovered and completely restored in 1997.
- The school complex which makes up Fullerton Union High, Plummer Auditorium, and Fullerton College have a maze of tunnels underneath, which have been enjoyed covertly and recreationally by generations of FUHS students.
- Athletics
-
Fullerton's sports teams are known as the Indians, and are members of the California Interscholastic Federation's Southern Section. They compete in the Freeway League against the other five high schools in the district.
- Fullerton's athletics success dates back to 1919, when they won the 1918 CIF football championship in a game that was delayed for months due to the flu epidemic. They won more football championships in 1927 and 1984. Their football team scored 109 points in a game against Anaheim in 1921, a mark which remains an Orange County record. In 2007 Fullerton's football team went to the CIF finals and lost to La Habra High School.
- In 1919, Fullerton won the baseball championship. They would win it again in 1927 and 1978, and were runners-up in 1925, 1929, 1954, 1955, and 1982. They recently were League Champions in Baseball for the 2008-2009 school year.
- In the 1930s, Fullerton's swimming program had one of the early dynasties in the region and formed an intense rivalry with Long Beach Poly. The Indians prevailed in the championship meet in 1931, 1935, and 1936, but finished runner-up to the Jackrabbits in 1932, 1933, and 1937. There was no championship in 1934. Fullerton would return to the top in the 1960s, winning four consecutive titles from 1963 to 1966.
- The water polo team was dominant in the 1930s, winning eight championships: 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1939, and 1940.
- Fullerton High has also found success in Basketball winning the Freeway League Championship in 2007. Coach Bill Czech has coached at Fullerton for over a decade. Coach Bill Czech quit after the '08-'09 season for a coaching job at Hope Int'l University but is still teaching at FUHS.
- Speech and Debate
-
Fullerton High has a Speech and Debate Program.With the help of their speech coach, Salvador Tinajero, they have quickly risen to some success. One of the students even won supplement nationals in 2009. So far in the 2009-2010 school year, Fullerton Union High School has won the Grapevine tournament (Texas), and the Novice Tournament (Oxford High).
- Other programs
-
Fullerton High School also has many other departments that excel including Academy of Arts, Academy of Agriculture, Academy of Culinary, Regional Occupational Program Auto Body, JROTC, and various clubs including PUSH for PEACE, NHS, Friday Night Live and many others.
- FUHS has an army branch JROTC In this class (offered periods first though sixth), students learn leadership skills, discipline and how to communicate with others. They dress out in an army, class B-or class A for the staff, every Thursday. Mondays and Tuesdays are lecture days when the students learn things as in leadership, communication skills, personal acceptance, financial planning, first aid, how to read a map (both street and topographical), nutrition, how to take care of themselves (mentally and physically), and first aid. First Sergeant Duran's goal with these lectures is to get his cadets ready for life after high school. Wednesdays and Thursdays are P.T. Days (physical training). They cadets are prepared to pass the high school physical fitness test, and have fun doing it. For the most part, the program is student run. A team of students run the classes and all of the events. The S1, Jordan Kugal, is in charge of organizing all paper work and keeping up to date information about every cadet (including address, contact information, etc.). The S2, Jose Peralta, in in charge of all the equipment (such as electronics, rifles, and P.T. equipment). The S3, Stephine Aviles, is in charge of scheduling events. She keeps track of every competition, fund-raiser, fieldtrip, and even Military Ball. The S4, Zachary Walker, aided by his assistant Juan Romero is in charge of issuing uniforms to every cadet and keeping an inventory of every shirt, pant, skirt, ribbon, hat, and pair of shoes. The S5, Saundra McCormick, is in charge of public relations; taking pictures at every event, writing articles about it and getting them in the school and local newspapers, and getting pictures in the year book. The Battalion Commander, Pauline Ruiz, is the top cadet. She over sees everything and makes sure it runs smoothly. Along with her D.C.O (the eyes and ears of the program, she knows everything that goes on), Alejandra Fortis, her Executive Officer, Jose Gonzoles, and everyone on her staff, the program is run smoothly and seamlessly. After school the cadets have a wide variety of activities, they call it their "special team"; Angela Phang is the commander, she overlooks every team. They have Marksmanship, Unarmed and Armed Drill, Raider Team, Unarmed and Armed Exhibition drill and Color Guard. Each team has its own commander who is in charge of picking who is on the team and (in the case of the Exhibition teams) the routines performed.
- PUSH 4 PEACE is focused on creating a safe, inclusive and equitable campus. The club was started in the 2006-2007 school year by a the club's four task force students, Lauren Hoffman, Jasmin Garcia, Mariah Kelley, and Lily Grbavich and was originally called PEACE (People Ethically Against Conflict Everywhere) Club. In 2006 they merged with PUSH (Promoting Unity and Social Harmony) Club and became PUSH 4 PEACE, as it is known today. They work closely with OC Human Relations though their representative Rafa. Every year they have a Unity Week with a catchy slogan "Tribe Unite." They hold speaker forums and have people from the community and various organizations, come in to talk to the students about what is really going on in the world. The topic range from human trafficking to violent relationships, to racism, and stereotypes to hate crimes. They sell friendship bracelets at break and lunch and try to promote unity between students, teachers and the administration. Also, every year they host an Anti-violence Campaign where they talk to students about violence, discrimination and hate crimes as well as educate them about what is going on in the world around brake the "Cycle of Violence." In the 2008-2009 school year, they hung shirts with the names of victims that have died in hate crimes and the way they died (school shooting, suicide, etc). In May 2009, Ana Coria, Mariah Kelley, Carlos Jara, and Graciela Alvarez joined OCHR in the Campaign for Quality Education. The CQE lead a group of student leaders to Sacramento to protest the massive budget cuts in education proposed by the governor. This year the presidant, Saundra McCormick, and vice, Ana Coria, plan to work closely with the Dream Team to get support on the DREAM Act.
- Alma Mater
-
(to the tune of "Aloha")
- We are proud of all thy prowess, Fullerton
And we thy colors bravely bear.
We will be thy loyal subjects ever;
Joy and grief we alike will with thee share.
- Oh F.H.S. thy name we love,
And ever staunch and true you'll find us;
- We'll stand by thee
For all eternity
The Red and White so True. - Notable alumni
- Richard Nixon (for two years), 37th President of the United States
- Walter Johnson, major league baseball player and Hall of Fame member
- Hoby Brenner, former NFL player
- Leo Fender, inventor of the electric guitar
- Jim Norton, former AFL safety
- Keith Van Horne, former NFL player
- John Raitt, actor and father of singer Bonnie Raitt
The FUHS Alumni Website has more information.- External links
- Fullerton Union High School Website
- Academy of the Arts website
- Fullerton Forensics
- 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/edit information about this school (e.g., awards, news stories, notable alumni, fun facts)
|
View current housing listings in this area
Find your graduating class at Classmates.com
Review school: 
