Milpitas High School

Milpitas High School

Milpitas High School billboard and campus.
Address
1285 Escuela Parkway
Milpitas, California
United States
Coordinates 37°27′04″N 121°54′07″W / 37.451°N 121.902°W / 37.451; -121.902Coordinates: 37°27′04″N 121°54′07″W / 37.451°N 121.902°W / 37.451; -121.902
Information
Type Public
Established 1969
School district Milpitas Unified School District
Principal Cheryl Lawton [1]
Faculty 122 [2]
Enrollment 3,105 [2]
Color(s)      Blue      Gold
Song Milpitas Alma Mater
Nickname Trojans
Newspaper The Union
Website mhs.musd.org

Milpitas High School (MHS) is a public four-year comprehensive high school in Milpitas, California, a suburban community north of San Jose. It is one of two high schools within the Milpitas Unified School District.

As of 2013, Milpitas High School had an API score of 830 and had an API ranking of 8 out of 10.[2] In 2004, MHS was granted a full, six-year accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

The school provides its students with many academic, extracurricular and other resources in a community committed to diversity in its student body, faculty and staff. Milpitas High School has modernized facilities which are spread across a 44 acre campus. The facilities include an 8 lane track, tennis courts, baseball field, soccer field, and large gymnasium.

History

Milpitas High School was directly preceded by Samuel Ayer High School. A continuum of education had existed in what is now the City of Milpitas since the Spanish colonial era, only to be interrupted by brief periods from 1848-1858 upon the secularization of the Californian missions, and 1954–1959, in which James Lick High School in the nearby city of San Jose became the high school for Milpitas residents. Upon the final restoration of local secondary education in 1959, a classical education in Latin Grammar and English Literature ceased to be the norm, and a modern curriculum was implemented, of which forms the basis of the curriculum for the present high school. Milpitas High School co-existed with Samuel Ayer High School from 1969, until the latter closed its doors in 1980, leaving Milpitas High School to be the sole remaining high school. The predecessors of Milpitas High School are:

First interruption period, 1848-1856

Second interruption period, 1954-1959

Restoration to Milpitas

Campus

Milpitas High School is located on Escuela Parkway in Milpitas, north of Jacklin Road. The eastern side of the school is the main entrance and student drop-off area, and the western side consists of a football stadium, track, and mural of Milpitas High School's mascot, the Trojan.

Milpitas High School has many facilities for athletic use. The school has a new swimming pool(as of 2015) that is open to the public. Also, the football and soccer fields are built of artificial turf, and the synthetic rubber track was built in 2003 and finished in 2004. Since its beginnings, Milpitas High has been renovated and improved, with new buildings and facilities being added for school use. Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School is adjacent to Milpitas High School's east side, and Thomas Russell Middle School is located northeast of the high school.

Demographics

Milpitas High School is an ethnically diverse school. About 130 ethnic and national minority groups are represented. A total of 1,414 students have a primary language other than English. More than half of the students are of Filipino and Vietnamese descent. Other Asian-Pacific American groups in order of population include Chinese, Indians, Koreans, Japanese, Pacific Islanders, and Hmongs.

Academics

Departments

Advanced Placement

In the 2011/2012 school year, the following Advanced Placement are offered at Milpitas High School.

Advanced Placement (AP) Honor Roll

Milpitas Unified School District is one of 22 districts in the state that has been recognized by the College Board for simultaneously achieving increases in access to AP courses for a broader number of students and improving the rate at which AP students have earned scores of 3 or higher on an AP exam. The pass rate is 76%, higher than CA as a whole and higher than the international pass rate. Milpitas High School is on the 3rd Annual Honor Roll.

Committees

There are two committees to enrich development at Milpitas School:

Graduation requirements

Students must complete 220 credits, including:

Milpitas Unified requires 20 hours of community service in order to receive a high school diploma.

Extracurricular activities

Athletics

In 1997 the Boys Varsity Basketball team won the first CCS Division 1 Championship in school history by defeating Oak Grove 44-43. Led by Steve Moore's 19 points.

On December 2, 2006, the Milpitas High School Varsity football team won the CCS Championship for the first time. The Trojans competed against rival Piedmont Hills High School and won, 39-21. This was the second time Milpitas High School made it to the CCS Championship game. The first time was in 1993, and the Trojans lost to Leland High School in a shutout scenario of 35-0. Milpitas won CCS again in 2009. 4 years later, Milpitas won the school's third CCS championship; beating San Benito High School 37-23.

The 2008 football season was a successful one for the trojans becoming the De Anza division league champions with a record of 9 and 1.

In 2007, Milpitas High School's varsity girls track & field claimed 3rd place in the overall team title.

In 2004, varsity girls cross country won the team CCS title and qualified for state championships.

In 2015, Milpitas High School's varsity baseball team made school history, reaching the semi-finals in the Central Coast Section Division I Playoffs at San Jose Municipal Stadium where they lost a tight game in 10 innings to Piedmont Hills High School, the eventual champions. The Trojans season was highlighted by 7 walkoff wins during the season and highlighted by numerous upsets throughout the season. These upsets included victories over Carlmont for the Michael DeJesus Tournament, Pioneer High School, the 2014 CCS Open Division Champion Leland High School, a walkoff over a highly favored Los Gatos team at home, Los Altos, Saratoga, Homestead (twice: once during regular season play, and the other in the De Anza League Tourney to secure a fifth place league finish) 4 close victories over Mountain View High School, and a shocking upset over the favored 5-seed Willow Glen High School in the 1st round of the playoffs. These Trojans were one of the few Cinderella story teams that shocked CCS baseball with their outstanding run to the semi-finals.

Academies

There are three academies in the school: Engineering and Technology Academy, Traveling and Tourism Academy, Digital Business Academy,

The Engineering and Technology Academy offers a variety of projects for students to complete in the year. Including catapults, solar ovens, solar cars, and hover cars. Students are divided up into teams, picked by the teachers, and compete against each other to win for the E-Tech Cup. The winning team would usually be the team with projects that have the highest performance.

As of 2008, the Digital Business Academy and Engineering and Technology Academy teachers have been given SmartBoards, a touch-screen interactive whiteboard that displays content from a computer.

CLOGS

Unique to campus lexicon is the word "clogs", which means "clubs and organizations". Clogs host weekly meetings in classroom on campus during lunch throughout the school year. All clogs must be chartered every year through A.S.B, and approved at monthly congress meetings. [3]

Mathematics Team

The Milpitas High Mathematics Team, a division of the Math Club, participates annually in the five mathematics competitions hosted by National Assessment & Testing. In 2008, the Mathematics Team placed first nationally in Collaborative Problem-Solving Contest.[4] This feat was repeated in 2009. The Mathematics Team has also competed in the Stanford Mathematics Tournament, the Santa Clara Mathematics Contest, BAMO, AMC, and SCVMA continuously since 2003.

The Music Department

The marching band, jazz band, orchestra, and concert bands have been under the direction of Milpitas High Alumn, Christopher Kaldy, since the 1998 school year. Under the direction of, Christopher Kaldy, the music department has thrived; with a 100+ member marching band, a Pep Band, a 60 piece symphony orchestra, two concert bands, percussion ensembles, and a jazz band. Previous band directors have included Dick Goodrich, Wes Robbins, David Bakken and Eric Swisher. www.mhsmusic.org

Milpitas High School also has a concert choir and glee club which have been under the direction of Dan McQuigg since the 2010 school year. English and music teacher, Paula Chenoweth, revived the choir class in 2002 after many years with no vocal classes at the high school.

Marching Band & Color Guard/Concert Band

The MHS Marching Band and Color Guard regularly competes in NCBA (Northern California Band Association) and WBA (Western Band Association) field show competitions. The marching band and pep band also regularly perform at home varsity football games.

At the conclusion of the marching band season each December, the members form separate concert bands; a Wind Ensemble and a Symphonic Band.

Jazz Band

Milpitas High School has a standard 17-piece Jazz Band that meets every morning during zero period, from 7-8 AM In April 2005, the Milpitas High School Jazz Band received a Command Performance Rating at the 2005 Santa Cruz Jazz Festival and again in 2013.

Orchestra

Since 2002, the MHS Symphony Orchestra has provided an opportunity for string musicians to perform a variety of classical and contemporary orchestral literature.

Vocal Ensembles

In addition to the concert choir, Mr. McQuigg also directs the MHS Glee Club which he formed in the 2009 school year. The concert choir was revived in 2002 by former director, Paula Chenoweth, after being canceled in the mid-1990s and again in the 2008 school year.

A few students at Milpitas High School belong to the Navy Junior ROTC program. Students enrolled in the program have the opportunity to become a part of one of three drill teams. These drill teams are Drill Team With Arms, Unarmed Drill Team, and Color Guard. Each year, Milpitas NJROTC hosts "Legions of Troy", a drill meet and athletic competition that many other Californian JROTC units attend. Weekly lesson plans includes academic instruction, uniform inspection, physical training, and drill. The unit has two instructors to oversee them: Lieutenant Commander Queen and Senior Chief Petty Officer Ezell. The current Commanding Officer is Cadet Lieutenant Junior Grade Centino,Cheyenne. The Executive Officer is Cadet Ensign Tran,Annie.

The Union

The Union is the student-run campus newspaper, produced every six weeks by the Journalism class. Students take on roles in the class as reporters, photographers, and editors in the making of the publication. The Union includes sections for news, editorial, opinion, features, fashion, sports, and lifestyle. The student newspaper is predominantly funded by advertisements from local businesses. Students in the class use Adobe InDesign on the computers provided in the classroom to design page layouts for each new issue. Pages are put together by the editors of each section and overseen by the editor-in-chief.

Trojan Lowdown

The Trojan Lowdown was a TV Video Production that served as the MHS daily news announcement broadcast that covered items such as upcoming student activities, any changes in schedules, club, class or athletic information, and other announcements. The announcements produced on the Trojan Lowdown were meant to help keep students informed. Mr. Champ Wrencher is the faculty advisor for the TV Video Production class. The name "Trojan Lowdown" was unanimously chosen by the class after student Daniel Tong (Class of 2002) randomly submitted it thinking that it wouldn't be chosen.

As of the 2006-2007 school year, the "Trojan Lowdown" no longer makes announcements, and the intercom has been employed again for morning announcements. However, the Trojan Lowdown is now producing a monthly show in a video journal format, and it has been dubbed "The New Trojan Lowdown".

Notable alumni

Sports

Media and business

References

  1. ↑ Official Website
  2. 1 2 3 California Department of Education
  3. ↑ s://milpitashs.schoolloop.com/clog
  4. ↑ 2008 Collaborative Problem-Solving Contest Results
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