Los Gatos High School (LGHS) is a high school in Los Gatos, California, a small high income town near San Jose in the Silicon Valley. Los Gatos High School was founded in 1908 and is part of the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District and is home to a large number of Silicon Valley Executives' teenagers. During the late 1880s up until the establishment of Los Gatos High School, high school age students were taught at Los Gatos Central School, a grammar school which was established in 1886. While the school is not labeled a "feeder school" or preparatory, a large number of students move on to Ivy League and Tier One colleges and universities after graduation. In the 1970s, Los Gatos High School was listed among the top thirty high schools in the State of California. In a 2013 study Los Gatos High School ranked 86th in California.
The school enrolls approximately 1,700 students and employs about 100 teachers. In 2004, 94% of graduating seniors went on to attend college, including 64% to four-year colleges. Los Gatos High School is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and has regularly received six-year accreditations, the highest possible. The school has been recognized twice as a National School for Excellence. LGHS is also notable for its sports programs and exceptional athletes, making it unique among academically distinguished public schools in the area. The Los Gatos Wildcats are part of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League of the CIF Central Coast Section.
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History
The school landscape is notable for its spacious extensive front lawn and neoclassical main building, which was designed by W. H. Weeks, a famous architect of schools in California. His Greek Revival style was famous in the 1920s and 1930s. The main building was dedicated on January 17, 1925, built using a $250,000 bond measure which passed in 1923. Other buildings and various additions to the main building were built in the period between the dedication of the main building in 1925 and 1970. The school underwent no major construction from 1970 until 2001, when the school successfully passed a $79 million bond measure in the town of Los Gatos to renovate the aging buildings. Since then, several new buildings have been constructed, and all of the old buildings have been renovated.
Due to the unusual joint cooperative nature of the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District, until 2005, Saratoga High School shared Los Gatos High School's Prentiss Brown Auditorium for performing arts and, until 2006, they shared Helm Field for football games. Both are on the grounds of Los Gatos High School but are available for equal use by both schools. Until 2006, when the Los Gatos High School football team played Saratoga, both were actually the home teams since they shared the field. The title of home team was switched each year when the two schools played each other.
Notable alumni
Notable alumni at Los Gatos High School include:
- Jared Allen, NFL defensive end for the Carolina Panthers
- Kiko Alonso, NFL linebacker for the Miami Dolphins
- Mark Bingham and Todd Beamer, passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 on 9/11 believed to have stormed the cockpit after its hijacking
- Lynn Burke, Winner of two Gold Medals for Swimming in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome
- Kari Byron, best known for her appearances on the Discovery Channel show MythBusters
- Hugh Campbell, former head coach of NFL Houston Oilers, Canadian Football League Edmonton Eskimos, winner of 5 Grey Cup championships.
- Robert Chambers (1944), Track & Field, 2nd fastest all-time high school 880 as of that date; 3rd NCAA 880 for USC 1948; 6th 1948 London Olympics 800 meters
- Hal Chase, former MLB player (New York Highlanders, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, New York Giants)
- Jordan Corey, singer/songwriter
- Colleen Holland, President of Fresh Healthy Media and Publisher of VegNews Magazine
- Michael Eugene Couchee, Major League Baseball player
- Trent Edwards, Free Agent quarterback, NFL
- Joan Fontaine, Academy Award-winning actress, estranged sister of Olivia de Havilland
- Scott Frank, screenwriter, who wrote the screenplays to Get Shorty and Minority Report
- Olivia de Havilland, two-times Academy Award winning actress who played Melanie Hamilton in Gone with the Wind
- Jeffrey Hornaday, choreographer and director. Choreographed Flashdance and Madonna world tours
- Dan Jinks, producer of American Beauty, Big Fish and Down with Love
- Jason Jurman (Class of 1998), actor (Cougar Club)
- Chris Knapp, drummer for The Ataris
- Fred Markham, Olympic bicycle racer
- Ryan Nyquist, a professional BMX rider
- Mike Park, musician and owner of Asian Man Records
- Logan Schafer, current MLB player (Milwaukee Brewers)
- Holden Smith, former wide receiver for NFL Indianapolis Colts, United States Football League Oakland Invaders
- Jackson Stewart, professional bicycle racer
- Phillip Stuart-Sharkey (1967), Aquanaut, Undersea Explorer, National Fellow of the Explorers Club, Founding Officer of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences, Associate Member of the Boston Sea Rovers.
- Terry Scott Taylor, lead singer and songwriter for Daniel Amos, The Swirling Eddies and founding member of Lost Dogs
- Christine Von Saltza, Winner of 3 Gold Medals and 1 Silver Medal for Swimming in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy
- Carrie Yazel, Playboy Playmate of the Month, May 1991
- Members of the bands dredg, Trapt and Skankin' Pickle
- Roy McAlister, Internationally acclaimed luthier, featured in the Smithsonian & Stringed Instrument Museum, Cremona, Italy.
In the media
The front façade of the school was shown on The Amanda Show starring Amanda Bynes. It was used in the show's soap opera spoof segment called "Moody's Point". The front exterior of the school was also used on Saved by the Bell.
The school was also used as a filming location for several scenes in the 1996 made-for-TV movie Lying Eyes.
The school, its stadium and track, and nearby Santa Cruz Avenue were also used for filming an episode of the 1986 television series Starman; drama students played the role of some extras.
The 1988 made-for-TV film Quiet Victory: The Charlie Wedemeyer Story, was based on the life of former Los Gatos High School head football coach Charlie Wedemeyer, who was stricken with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and continued to coach the football team for several years. The movie was actually filmed in Goose Creek, South Carolina at Stratford High School.
In 1992, Principal Ted Simonson, former Dean of Boys during earlier decades, attracted media controversy for a series of jokes he made during a roast at the Lions Club in which he referred to female joggers as "jigglers" and described gay-friendly city of San Francisco, California as "Fairyland" and the city of Oakland, California, with its large African American population, as "Jungleland."
Principals
- Kristi Grasty (2015-present)
- Markus Autrey (2009-2015)
- Doug Ramezane (2005-2009)
- Trudy McCullough (1998-2005)
- Ted Simonson (1978-1998)
- Dr Allen Coryell (1971-1978)
- Fred Canrinus (1957-1970) - older principals
- Prentiss Brown (1931-1956)
- J. Warren Ayer (1922-1931)
- Irving Wallace Snow (1920-1922)
- E. N. Mabrey (1918-1920)
- W. F. Walton (1916-1918)
- Edwin Forrest Blayney (1915)
- Frank M. Watson (1909-1915)
- Allan B. Martin (1908-1909)
- Charles I. Kerr (1905-1908)
- W. W. Wilson (1901-1905)
- George C. Russell (1899-1901)
- Louis K. Webb (1898-1899)
- A. M. Kelley (1895-1898)
- H. E. Shumate (1891-1895)
- C. H. Crowell (1889-1891)
- Henry Meade Bland (1887-1889) - later California Poet Laureate
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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