Palo Alto High School

Palo Alto High School
Address
50 Embarcadero Road Palo Alto, California 94301 United States
Coordinates	37°26′13″N 122°09′25″W / 37.437°N 122.157°WCoordinates: 37°26′13″N 122°09′25″W / 37.437°N 122.157°W
Information
School type	Public, comprehensive high school
Founded	1898
School district	Palo Alto Unified School District
Oversight	Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Accrediting Commission for Schools
Superintendent	Glenn "Max" McGee
Principal	Kimberly Diorio
Staff	127 (2011–2012)[1]
Grades	9–12
Enrollment	1,943 (2014–2015)[2]
Campus	Suburban
Area	Northern Santa Clara County
Color(s)	Green & White
Team name	Vikings
Newspaper	The Campanile
Feeder schools	Jordan Middle School JLS Middle School Terman Middle School
Website	http://www.paly.net

Palo Alto Senior High School, known locally as "Paly", is a public comprehensive high school located in Palo Alto, California It was founded in 1898 and is one of the oldest high schools in the region. The school's property is adjacent to Stanford University. Paly has a rivalry with crosstown Gunn High School.

Statistics

Demographics

2014–15^[2]

• 1,943 students: 982 Male (50.5%), 961 Female (49.5%)

White	Asian	Hispanic	Two or More Races	African American	Filipino	Pacific Islander	American Indian	Not Reported
974	564	194	91	67	23	19	11	0
50.1%	29%	10%	4.7%	3.4%	1.2%	1%	0.6%	0%

Standardized testing

SAT Scores for 2013–2014[3]
	Critical Reading Average	Math Average	Writing Average
Palo Alto High	628	661	631
District	629	668	634
Statewide	492	506	489

2013 Academic Performance Index
2009 Base API[4]	2013 Growth API[5]	Growth in the API from 2009 to 2013
901	905	4

Student media

• The Campanile, the high school newspaper. It prints 24 broadsheet pages once every three weeks. The Campanile has been in the National Scholastic Press Association Hall of Fame since 2004, and also has won four Pacemaker awards and also a West regional award for editorial excellence from Time.
• Verde is Paly's school magazine publication, published five times each year and available online. Verde has won Pacemaker and Gold Crown awards for scholastic journalism, including the 2005 Gold Crown award in the Newspaper category. In 2006 Verde won the Best in Show at National Journalism Convention held in San Francisco. In 2008 Verde was one of four newsmagazines awarded the Pacemaker award from the National Scholastic Press Association.^[6]
• The Viking is Paly's sports magazine publication, published six times each year and available online. Founded in 2007, The Viking was the first publication at the high school level to solely cover athletics in the country. The Viking has won several Gold Crown awards for scholastic journalism, including awards as both a print and hybrid (print/online) publication.
• The Paly Voice, launched in the 2002–03 school year, is Paly's online news source. It features searchable archives of all other Paly publications as well as exclusive online content. In the spring of 2005 the site won both the People's Voice and Overall Webby Award in the "Student" category.
• Proof is Paly's arts and entertainment magazine. It was first published second semester of the 2009–10 school year.
• In October 2014, a brand new Media Arts Center was unveiled at Paly. This multimillion-dollar, 23,000 square foot building is filled with state-of-the-art technology catering to the diverse needs of the multitude of student journalism groups on campus.^[7]

Robotics

Palo Alto High School Robotics team is registered as a FIRST robotics competition team as Team 8. The team was founded in 1996, and currently has 85 members.

Athletics

Titles won by teams from Palo Alto High School range from CIF State Championships in Boys Varsity Basketball in 1993 and 2006,^[8] a football Division I state championship in 2010,^[9][10] volleyball Division I state championships in 2010 and 2011,^[11] to CCS Championships in Football in 1995, 2006, 2007, and 2010,^[12] and countless CCS titles in other sports. In 2010, both the Boys and Girls Lacrosse teams won the inaugural Santa Clara Valley Athletic League Championships.

Paly has 23 varsity teams, including football, swimming, as well as badminton, softball, basketball, track and field/cross country running, golf, lacrosse, soccer, tennis, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling teams.^[13] The school is also home to several athletic clubs, including an Ultimate Frisbee Club.^[14]

Basketball

The school's basketball team won the California state championship in 1993.

In addition, the 2006 boys basketball team won the Division II state title after defeating Mater Dei of Southern California in a close 51–47 game. One member of that year's team, Jeremy Lin, is now a member of the NBA's Charlotte Hornets.

Football

The 2010 Palo Alto High School football team went undefeated, compiling a record of 14–0. The season culminated with a 15–13 upset victory for Paly over the nation's 5th-ranked team, Centennial High of Corona, to claim the first Division I State Championship in school history.^[9][10] Palo Alto finished the season at #13 in the nation in Maxpreps's final rankings.

Volleyball

The Palo Alto High School girls volleyball won the Division 1 California State Championship in the fall of 2010, two weeks before the school's varsity football team also won the Division State championship. The volleyball team finished the season with a 41–1 record, breaking the school's record for most wins in a season from the previous season's team. Palo Alto finished the season ranked no. 2 in the country. The team won another Division 1 California State Championship the following year to become back-to-back Volleyball State Champions, finishing ranked no. 1 in the nation by Maxpreps.^[11]

Notable alumni

• Davante Adams (2011), NFL Wide Receiver
• Rink Babka (1954), Olympic discus thrower
• Joan Baez (1958), folk singer^[15]
• Charles Brenner (1961), APL implementer and forensic mathematics^[16]
• Ron "Money B" Brooks (1988), rapper (Digital Underground)
• Whitfield Crane (1986), lead singer (Ugly Kid Joe)
• Aarón Díaz (2001), Mexican telenovelas actor
• Tim Dickinson (1992), political journalist (Rolling Stone, Mother Jones)
• The Donnas (1997), rock band (Brett Anderson, Maya Ford, Allison Robertson, and Torry Castellano)
• Margot Early (1982), romance author
• Dave Feldman (1983), sportscaster (CSN Bay Area)
• Karen Joy Fowler (1968), author (The Jane Austen Book Club)
• Dave Franco (2003), actor (Scrubs, 21 Jump Street, Now You See Me)
• James Franco (1996), actor (Spider-Man trilogy, Pineapple Express, Milk, 127 Hours)
• Erle Stanley Gardner (1909), detective fiction author & creator of Perry Mason^[17]
• Charles Haid (1961), actor and director, (played Andy Renko on TV series Hill Street Blues)^[16]
• Jim Harbaugh (1982), football player and coach, current head coach at the University of Michigan^[18][19]
• Peter Hansen (1997), defensive assistant/quality control coach of the San Francisco 49ers
• Douglas Hofstadter (1961), professor of cognitive science and author^[16]
• Allan Hoover, son of President Herbert Hoover
• Jon Huntsman, Sr. (1955), billionaire founder of Huntsman Corporation
• Ollie Johnston (1930), Academy Award-winning Disney animator (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia)^[20]
• Morris Kirksey (1913), gold medal-winning sprinter and rugby player at the 1920 Summer Olympics^[21]
• Bill Kreutzmann (1965), drummer (Grateful Dead)^[22]
• Jeremy Lin (2006), basketball player with the Charlotte Hornets; formerly with the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets, New York Knicks and Golden State Warriors ^[23][24]
• Jim Loscutoff (1948), basketball player, won seven NBA championships with the Boston Celtics^[25][26]
• John Markoff (1967), New York Times journalist and author
• Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (1963), musician (Grateful Dead) (didn't graduate)^[22]
• Rob Minkoff (1980), film director and animator (The Lion King, Stuart Little)
• Sean Nolan (1990), Olympic water polo team, Sydney 2000
• Hank Norberg, football player
• Teresa Noyola (2008), soccer player^[27]
• Téa Obreht (2002), novelist (The Tiger's Wife)^[28]
• Luke Paquin (1996), guitarist (Hot Hot Heat)
• Joc Pederson (2010), Major League baseball player (Dodgers)
• Stu Pederson, Major League baseball player (Dodgers)
• Bill Pidto (1983), sportscaster (ESPN, MSG Network)
• Keith Raffel (1968), technology executive, novelist, US Senate aide^[29]
• Tom Ritchey (1974), (Ritchey Design), cycling engineer and pioneer of the mountain bike
• Dave Schultz (1977), Olympic and world champion wrestler^[30]
• Mark Schultz (1978), Olympic and world champion wrestler^[30]
• Joe Sebok (1995), professional poker player
• Joe Simitian (1970), California State Senator (2004–2012) and former California State Assemblyman (2000–2004)
• Grace Slick (1958), rock singer (Jefferson Airplane) (attended as an underclassman, but eventually graduated from Castilleja)
• Tom Stern (1964), Oscar-nominated cinematographer (Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, Changeling)
• Dink Templeton (1915), multi-sport athlete, 1920 Olympic gold medalist and Hall of Fame Stanford track & field coach^[31]
• Christopher Tin (1994), Grammy Award winning composer
• Tad Williams (1975), author (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Otherland, and Shadowmarch science fiction/fantasy series)
• Kirk Wise (1981), film director/animator (Beauty and the Beast, Atlantis: The Lost Empire)
• Ron Wyden (1967), U.S. Senator for Oregon (1996– ) and former U.S. Representative of Oregon's 3rd congressional district (1981–1996)^[32]
• Lily Zhang (2014), U.S. Olympic table tennis player, London 2012^[33]

See also

• Gunn High School, Palo Alto's other high school
• Cubberley High School, Palo Alto's now-defunct third high school

References

1. "School Profile 2011–12: Palo Alto High School". California Department of Education.
2. "Enrollment by Ethnicity for 2014–15: Palo Alto High School". California Department of Education.
3. "SAT Report 2013-14 – District Level Scores". California Department of Education.
4. "2009 Base API School Report – Palo Alto High". California Department of Education Assessment, Accountability and Awards Division.
5. "2013 Growth API School Report – Palo Alto High High". California Department of Education Analysis, Measurement, & Accountability Reporting Division.
6. "NSPA – Contest Winners". Studentpress.org. June 15, 2010. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
7. Elena Kadvany (October 12, 2014). "Paly to host three-day grand opening for Media Arts Center". Retrieved December 21, 2015.
8. "CIF State Boys Basketball Champions" (PDF). pp. 60–61. Retrieved January 22, 2011.
9. "State Football Championship Results" (PDF). p. 39. Retrieved January 22, 2011.
10. Stephens, Mitch (December 17, 2010). "Palo Alto shocks nationally ranked Centennial to capture CIF Division I state football title". Palo Alto Online. Retrieved December 18, 2010.
11. Borsos, Paige (December 17, 2010). "Volleyball Conquers State Championship in Five-Game Thriller". The Paly Voice (Palo Alto High School). Retrieved January 22, 2011.
12. "Historical Record of CCS Football Champions Year-by-Year". Retrieved January 22, 2011.
13. "Brochure 1" (PDF). Retrieved August 2, 2010.
14. Blake, Jamie (November 17, 2008). "Ultimate Frisbee Club passionate about unique hobby". Palo Alto Online. Retrieved December 18, 2010.
15. "The Joan Baez Web Pages". Retrieved December 21, 2015.
16. "Palo Alto High School, Class of 1961". Retrieved 6 April 2016.
17. Nolan, William F. "Erle Stanley Gardner (1889–1970)," 'Early Life' sub-section, pages 1-2. Retrieved March 14, 2009.
18. Emmons, Mark (December 29, 2010). "Cardinal coach's energy, intensity level always in the red". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved January 31, 2011.
19. "Stanford to Introduce Jim Harbaugh as Head Football Coach" (Press release). Stanford University. December 18, 2006. Retrieved January 31, 2011.
20. Disney Legends web site, "Legend Bio: Ollie Johnston, Animation." Retrieved March 14, 2009.
21. Faraudo, Jeff. "Kirksey strikes gold in two sports". Oakland Tribune. FindArticles.com. March 15, 2009.
22. Palo Alto History Project, "The Grateful Dead: Making the Scene in Palo Alto"
23. Stephens, Mitch (April 2, 2006). "BOYS PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Jeremy Lin / A knack for the big play". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on November 8, 2010. Retrieved February 10, 2012.
24. O'Neil, Dana (December 10, 2009). "Immigrant dream plays out through son: Harvard's do-it-all star learned the game from his father and a host of NBA legends". ESPN. Archived from the original on November 12, 2010. Retrieved February 10, 2012.
25. "The Last Roundup." Oakland Tribune. FindArticles.com. March 15, 2009
26. Tennis, Mark. "Mr. Basketball 2003: Trevor's Time." Scout.com, April 3, 2003
27. Player Bio: Teresa Noyola
28. "Téa Obreht - The Tiger's Wife". Retrieved December 21, 2015.
29. Cassidy, Mike (November 19, 2011). "Cassidy: Former Silicon Valley CEO settles into the writing life". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
30. Brown, George; Prioleau, Cassie (February 19, 2010). "Palo Alto High School wrestlers Dave and Mark Schultz remembered for Olympic gold medals, love of wrestling". The Paly Voice. Palo Alto High School. Retrieved January 2, 2012.
31. "Hall of Fame". USATF. August 7, 1962. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
32. Simon, Mark (December 11, 1999). "Palo Alto to Honor Local Boy". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved February 10, 2012.
33. Sheehy, Kelsey. "Meet the U.S. High School Students Competing in 2012 Olympic Games". usnews.com. U.S. News & World Report LP. Archived from the original on January 21, 2013. Retrieved January 24, 2013.

External links

• Palo Alto High School official website