California High School (San Ramon, California)

California High School (commonly referred to as Cal High) is one of two public high schools located in San Ramon, California, United States (Dougherty Valley High School is the other). It is one of four high schools in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District. Its mascot is the grizzly bear.

California High School
Location
9870 Broadmoor Drive
San Ramon, California 94583

United States
Coordinates37°44′48″N 121°56′46″W[1]
Information
TypePublic
Established1973
CEEB code053229
PrincipalMegan Keefer
Faculty113.97 FTEs[2]
Enrollment2,777 (2018–19)[3]
Student to teacher ratio24.37[2]
Color(s)Black and orange    
Athletics conferenceEast Bay Athletic League
NicknameCal, Cal High, The Grizzlies
Team nameThe Fighting Grizzlies
NewspaperThe Californian
Websitewww.calhigh.net

As of the 2014–15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 2,639 students and 107.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 24.5:1. There were 78 students (3.0% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 39 (1.5% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[2]

Cal High's athletic rivals are Monte Vista High School and San Ramon Valley High School in Danville, and De La Salle High School in Concord.

Campus

Cal has an all-weather track and an aquatic center, including a multi-use athletic stadium and fields (football, soccer, lacrosse, and track and field). Outside, there are six tennis courts, four baseball/softball fields including one baseball field and one softball field intended for games, and an indoor gym and stadium. In 2004, a two-story, ten-classroom building was completed and was designated the World Language building. In 2006, the school added a new main building (67 classrooms on 3 stories) and a new library. In 2007, the school completed a new careers and technology building, student quad, and counseling building. In 2008, the new fine arts building was completed. In March 2010, a second gymnasium was completed on the site of outdoor basketball courts, called the Event Center. In April 2010, a new theater, which was under renovation for three years, opened. It has nine classrooms and is fully fitted with a video production studio and soundroom, and an art gallery to display student work. Cal has a large student and faculty parking area, but demand exceeds available space.[4] In light of this, many of the streets around the school are permit parking zones. Cal High also has a recently renovated weight room, equipped with lifting machines and 12 fully stocked Olympic weightlifting cages used mainly by the football team and weightlifting class. Twelve years of construction were concluded with the installation of SunPower solar panels over the back parking lot in the summer of 2011.

Schedule

Unlike other schools in the district, Cal High operates on a block schedule. Classes are 100 minutes long, with the exception of Wednesday, when classes are 90 minutes long. The base schedule consists of six 100-minute periods; students have three classes per school day. Odd-numbered classes are on one day and even numbered classes the next. Some students opt to add an extra 50-minute "A-period" class to their schedule. A-period classes meet every day for 50 minutes, with the exception of 45 minutes on Wednesdays.[5] At the end of the first full period of the day, from 10:05 to 10:35, students have a designated "tutorial" period during which they can read, study, collaborate on work, or get help from teachers. There is no tutorial on Wednesday, since the day is shorter.

Awards and recognition

During the 2006–07 school year, California High School was recognized with the Blue Ribbon School Award of Excellence by the United States Department of Education,[6] the highest award an American school can receive.[7][8]

Cal High's student-run monthly, The Californian, is an award-winning newspaper. The paper's writers, photographers, graphic designers and artists won numerous awards from 2000 to 2018, including a total of 17 during the 2007–2008 school year. The first school newspaper, The Bear Facts, was started in 1973.

California High School was ranked No. 250 in the top 500 US high schools by Newsweek in 2011,[9] placing it within the top 1.5% of the over 18,000 high schools in the United States.[10] In 2005, Cal High was a California Distinguished School.[11]

Notable faculty
  • William Everett Pence – biology teacher who assisted students with discovering which chromosomes are the location of three cancer-causing genes; California's Teacher of the Year in 1999[12] He was a United States Aquanaut in 1984.
  • Tony Sanchez – Head football coach from 2004 to 2008. Went on to coach the Bishop Gorman High School (Nevada) and University of Nevada, Las Vegas football programs. Sanchez turned around California High "from doormat status to a berth in the North Coast Section finals," according to ESPN.[13]

Notable alumni
  • Memorial sign
  • The science building (pre-2008/09 renovation)
  • The foreign language building
  • The library and main building

References
  1. United States Geological Survey (November 9, 1995). "GNIS Detail - California High School". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved December 29, 2009.
  2. School data for California High, National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  3. "California High". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  4. http://www.chs.srvusd.k12.ca.us/CHSHOMEPAGE/facilities.html Archived October 4, 2006, at the Wayback Machine — California High School website: "Facilities"
  5. California High School Official Site
  6. U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Schools Program: Schools Recognized 2003 through 2006 (PDF), United States Department of Education. Retrieved May 11, 2006.
  7. CIBA cited as one of the best by Education Department Archived August 19, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Journal Inquirer, November 16, 2006. "The Blue Ribbon award is given only to schools that reach the top 10 percent of their state's testing scores over several years or show significant gains in student achievement. It is considered the highest honor a school can achieve."
  8. Viers Mill School Wins Blue Ribbon; School Scored High on Statewide Test; The Washington Post. September 29, 2005. "For their accomplishments, all three schools this month earned the status of Blue Ribbon School, the highest honor the U.S. Education Department can bestow upon a school."
  9. "Newsweek rankings of the top US high schools". Newsweek. June 19, 2011. Retrieved July 24, 2011.
  10. "High Schools in the U.S." (PDF). National High School Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 3, 2011. Retrieved July 24, 2011.
  11. "Message From Principal". Archived from the original on September 22, 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
  12. http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/sr/ct/honoreesall.asp — California Dept. of Education – 1990–2006 California Teacher of the Year
  13. Sherman, Mitch (October 4, 2013). "Sanchez sets bar at Bishop Gorman". ESPN. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  14. "California Golden Bears". David Bingham Profile. calbears. Archived from the original on December 17, 2012. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  15. "Pleasanton's David Bingham, Goalkeeper for the San Jose Earthquakes, Could be Going to 2012 Olympics". Dublin Patch. Archived from the original on June 30, 2013. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  16. "Houston-Gamblers.com".
  17. Creaven, Patrick (December 21, 2011). "Cal High Grad Ready For National Figure Skating Championships". San Ramon Patch. Retrieved July 8, 2014.
  18. Eiges, Brandon (February 5, 2010). "Alumnus turns pro in soccer". The Californian. p. A1.
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