Monta Vista High School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Monta Vista High School is not to be confused with various Monte Vista High Schools.
| Monta Vista High School |
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| Established | 1969 |
| Type | Public 4-year |
| Principal | April Scott |
| Students | 2,380+ |
| Grades | 9-12 |
| Location | Cupertino, California, USA |
| Colors | purple and gold |
| Mascot | Matador |
| Newspaper | El Estoque |
| Website | http://www.mvhs.fuhsd.org/ |
Monta Vista High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in the Silicon Valley neighborhood of Cupertino, California, USA. It is part of the Fremont Union High School District. The school serves most of the suburban residential and industrial techology enriched area of western Cupertino. Monta Vista also has a strong alumni following.
Monta Vista High School opened in 1969 with freshman and sophomore classes only, and graduated its first class in 1972. Since then, its student body size has averaged about 2500 students.
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[edit] Alma Mater
The traditional Monta Vista alma mater:
Hail to thee 'ole MV High
Proud her colors 'ere may fly,
Purple-gold they stand for might,
Teach us to defend the right
Truth and honor never fail
Loyalty will 'ere prevail,
Strong ideals will never die,
Hail to thee 'ole MV High!
[edit] Demographics
As of the end of 2005, Monta Vista has a student body of 2,475 students, of which 67.4% are Asian American, 30% are white, 1.8% are Latino and the remaining 0.8% is composed of African Americans, Filipino, and American Indian. [1] Monta Vista has the largest student body in the district. Because of the extremely high housing prices in the Monta Vista area, many less affluent ethnic groups, such as Latinos and Filipinos, are priced out of the region.
A 2005 Wall Street Journal article [2] claimed that Monta Vista is currently experiencing a "white flight" caused by white families feeling overwhelmed by the recent influx of Asian American immigrants. http://wsjclassroom.com/teen/teencenter/05nov_whiteflight.htm However, some of the Monta Vista students and faculty, white and Asian, responded negatively to the article and disagree with it.
[edit] Academics
In 2005, The Washington Post magazine ranked Monta Vista as the 57th best high school in the United States, the fourth highest academically performing high school in all of California.[3], and the top school in the Fremont Union High School District. With an outstanding API score of 924 points out of 1000, Monta Vista is regarded as one of the top schools in California. A GPA of 3.8 or higher is not uncommon, and a 3.0 GPA is below the student average. There is a heavy emphasis within the student body on honors and Advanced Placement (AP) courses, which has shaped school culture and atmosphere as well as some of the local humor. Lynbrook, Gunn, Saratoga, and Mission San Jose also have similar API scores and GPA rankings.
Due to Monta Vista's high academic achievements, many Monta Vista students have gone to some of the best colleges and universities in the United States. While it is common for Monta Vista graduates go on to highly regarded schools such as Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Duke, the University of Pennsylvania, UC Berkeley, UCSD, or UCLA, most of its graduates continue their formal educations in the University of California public school system or other smaller universities. 26% of the school's 2005 graduates went on to De Anza College or one of the other local 2-year community colleges. The Monta Vista community takes pride that nearly all of its 2005 graduates went on to continue their formal educations.
[edit] Athletics
Monta Vista High School's mascot is the Matador, with its official school colors being gold and purple. The school mascot uniform, however, is that of a purple bull. Monta Vista High School rivals nearby Lynbrook High School. The school's campus consists of a large baseball field, a football field, and tennis courts. Due to neighborhood complaints about noise level, as well as a lack of lighting on the field, Monta Vista holds most of their home football games at Cupertino High School. Girls cross country was a state-qualifying team in 2005. The girl's varsity tennis team won the CCS and Norcal titles in the fall of 2003 and 2004. They also won the Norcal title in 2005 after continuing their undefeated record which has now reached 92-0 over the last 6 seasons and counting. The school's badminton teams are also very high achieving, winning many matches in the Central Coast Championship in 2005. In 2006, the Monta Vista Badminton team were league champions with an impressive undefeated record in Varsity and an almost undefeated record in JV with only one loss. In 2004 Courtney Rudolph won the CCS diving championship as a freshman, and has been holding all American status ever since.
[edit] Architecture
Most of the buildings are built in the Spanish mission architectural style. The school has been undergoing a multi-million dollar facilities modernization. A new library, completed in late 2005, is showcased in the center of campus. Small renovations, such as the fitting of metal doors in place of old wooden ones, were completed over the summer of 2006. The athletic facilities (gym, pool and locker rooms) have now completed renovation. A new school office/main entrance is under renovation and scheduled to be finished late 2008.
[edit] Misc
- Abraham Lincoln Elementary School sits just to its east, and John F. Kennedy Middle School lies to its southeast.
- Monta Vista is the site of a 1973 sex comedy, The Cheerleaders.
- In its first year of Quiz Bowl Competition, Monta Vista High School captured the 2006 Northern California NAQT Championship, and placed 54th out of 128 in the National Championship.
- As of the start of the 2006-2007 school year, Monta Vista has the largest band program in the Fremont Union High School District although their marching band program is poor.
- Monta Vista and nearby Lynbrook High School, also of the Fremont Union High School District are academic and somewhat athletic (Monta Vista is doing better in athletics) rivals. However, little tension exists between the two schools and student bodies. Both schools have similar demographics and high grades.
[edit] Notable alumni
Notable alumni of Monta Vista High School include:
- Kyle Kingsbury, professional MMA fighter, Rage in the Cage Champion.
- Daniel Puder, professional wrestler and Ultimate Fighter
- Dennis Fong, former professional computer game player and gaming site webmaster. Co-founder of the Xfire online messenger program.
- Dylan Fergus, actor
- Sheryl Johnson, former Stanford field hockey coach and USA Field Hockey player of the year
- Aaron Eckhart, Actor
- Shea Parker, Actor
- Justina Headley, Writer
