Sequoia High School (Redwood City, California)

Sequoia High School
Address
1201 Brewster Avenue San Francisco Bay Area Redwood City, California, San Mateo County, California, 94062 USA
Coordinates	37°29′05″N 122°14′13″W / 37.4847°N 122.2370°WCoordinates: 37°29′05″N 122°14′13″W / 37.4847°N 122.2370°W
Information
Established	1895
School district	Sequoia Union High School District
Superintendent	James Lianides
Principal	Sean Priest
Grades	9th-12th grade
Age range	14-19
Number of students	2,135 (2014-2015)[1]
Color(s)	Purple and White
Slogan	UNALIYI: Place of Friends
Fight song	Go Get 'em Cherokees
Mascot	raven
Team name	Cherokees
Newspaper	The Raven Report [2]
Yearbook	Cherokee
Website	www.sequoiahs.org
Sequoia Union High School
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Built	1923
NRHP Reference #	95000389[3]
Added to NRHP	1995

Sequoia High School is a high school in downtown Redwood City, California, United States. Established in 1895, it is the oldest high school in San Mateo County. It was founded as a preparatory school for Stanford University. Today, it is one of the few schools to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme within the Bay Area.

The present-day campus is located on the grounds of the former estate of Horace Hawes, author of the legislative bill that created San Mateo County. The grounds include a Japanese tea garden and is surrounded by a number of historical trees; the Giant Sequoia, Monkey-puzzle tree, Australian Tea tree, Ginkgo biloba trees, Cork Oak tree and many others. The school was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district in 1995, under its former name Sequoia Union High School.^[3]

Sequoia High School is part of the Sequoia Union High School District.

On September 13, 2007 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Sequoia High School to sign bill SB 33, which prohibits persons who are under the age of 18 years from using a wireless telephone or other mobile service device while operating a motor vehicle.

Specialized programs

• "Business/Information Technology Program": Sequoia's Business/Information Technology program consists of core business and technology courses designed to prepare students for exciting careers in business and information technology. These courses are available to all students and may be combined so that the program matches students' interests and goals. Business/IT provides students with advanced training that can lead toward industry recognized certification and community college credit. The program also provides students with marketable skills that can be applied immediately in the high tech workforce or built upon through higher education.
• "Electronic Arts Academy": The Academy is a small school-within-a-school at Sequoia High School. The program is a School to Career Partnership Academy funded through a grant from the State of California that is matched by the district and industry partners. This grant is used to keep class sizes small, infuse curriculum with technology, provide extra support to students, and support hands on learning. Teachers in the Academy have time to meet and collaborate. This gives them the opportunity to plan cross-curricular technology rich projects to enhance learning. It also gives teachers an opportunity to identify students who need an extra push to take themselves to the next level and pool our resources to push them. The Academy provides a rigorous academic experience that focuses on helping students complete the A-G requirements to transfer to a four university. Students take four classes per year within the Academy: English, Science, Social Studies, and a Technology elective. The elective varies each year depending on the student’s pathway. Students have the opportunity to enroll in an SAT preparation course at no cost. Students can earn college credit through Cañada College for all technology classes in the Academy.
• "Personalized Learning Communities (PLC)": Personalized Learning Communities at Sequoia High School provide a more personalized atmosphere for students and to ensure that all students receive the education they need. The movement toward personalized learning communities at Sequoia began in 2002. A team of teachers, administrators, and parents looked at three possible models for a house system. The Sequoia community ultimately chose the horizontal model, which is the model in place today. A team visited Nathan Hale High School, a school in Washington State that had already implemented the horizontal house system. They came back to Sequoia with observations, ideas, resources, and inspiration. During the 2003-2004 school year, the 9th grade houses task force met monthly at first, and gradually increased meeting time to almost weekly in order to plan everything necessary to implement 9th grade houses in the fall of 2004.
• "International Baccalaureate Programme (IB)": Sequoia High School offers the International Baccalaureate Programme as of February 2002. The IB Programme is available to all students beginning of freshman year. The students are placed in ICAP classes their freshman and sophomore year before they enter IB classes as a junior and senior. Sequoia High School includes a wide range of classes for the students from English, History, Arts, Sciences, and Languages. The students are able to choose if they want to partake in the full IB Diploma which includes taking a Theory of Knowledge (TOK) class, an Extended Essay (EE) and doing Creative Active and Service (CAS) hours. For those who do not wish to participate in the IB diploma, the students can take the IB classes for certificates, if they pass the IB test. The International Baccalaureate Programme allows the students a wide range of opportunities because the course is worldwide. It prepares them for college as the course is rigorous, but helps each student adapt to the work load. At the end of the end year, similar to the AP test, the students take IB tests which go on throughout the month of May.

Statistics

Demographics

2014-2015^[1]

• 2,135 students: 1,067 Male (50.0%), 1,068 Female (50.0%)

Hispanic	White	Two or More Races	Asian	Pacific Islander	African American	Filipino	American Indian	Not Reported
1,261	603	94	62	48	33	31	3	0
59.1%	28.2%	4.4%	2.9%	2.2%	1.5%	1.5%	0.1%	0%

Standardized testing

SAT Scores for 2013–2014 [4]
	Critical Reading Average	Math Average	Writing Average
Sequoia High	506	535	523
District	540	564	543
Statewide	492	506	489

2013 Academic Performance Index
2009 Base API [5]	2013 Growth API [6]	Growth in the API from 2009 to 2013
740	801	61

Notable alumni

• Gary Beban: 1967 Heisman Trophy winner, briefly played professional football for the Washington Redskins.
• Eric Dane (in school as Eric Feldman 1987–1990): Actor on Grey's Anatomy and Marley & Me
• Ray Dolby: (1951) founder of Dolby Laboratories
• Spencer Folau: (1991) 2000 Super Bowl championship with the Baltimore Ravens
• Bob Gaughran: (1953) Member United States Water Polo Hall of Fame^[7]
• James Gaughran: (1950) Olympic Water Polo Athlete, Melbourne 1956, Member United States Water Polo Hall of Fame ^[7]
• Tim Genis: (1984) Boston Symphony lead timpanist
• Charles Johnson: professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors
• Steven G. Krantz: Scholar, writer, mathematician
• Paul McClellan: Major League Baseball (MLB) player for the San Francisco Giants
• Gordon Moore: (1946) Co-founder of Intel Corporation, best known for Moore's Law
• Paul Noce: former MLB player with the Chicago Cubs
• Kenny Ortega: (1968) director and choreographer for the High School Musical franchise.
• William Royer: member of US House of Representatives^[8]
• Dick Sharon: former MLB player
• Dick Stuart: (1951) former MLB player with the Pittsburgh Pirates
• Bob Svihus: (1961) Played with the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets from 1965–1973
• Tim Twietmeyer: Ultramarathon runner, best known for his completing the Western States Endurance Run more than 25 times in under 24 hours
• Tom Dickson: Owner of Blendtec and star of the YouTube sensation "Will it Blend"

See also

• San Mateo County high schools

References

1. "Enrollment by Ethnicity for 2014-15: Sequoia High School". California Department of Education.
2. <Newspaper section
3. Staff (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
4. "SAT Report 2013-14 - District Level Scores". California Department of Education.
5. "2009 Base API School Report - Sequoia High". California Department of Education Assessment, Accountability and Awards Division.
6. "2013 Growth API School Report - Sequoia High". California Department of Education Analysis, Measurement, & Accountability Reporting Division.
7. http://www.usawaterpolo.com/hof/
8. Michelle Durand (April 10, 2013). "Former Redwood City mayor, congressman dies". The Daily Journal. Retrieved June 16, 2013.

External links

• Sequoia High School website
• Sequoia Alumni Network website