Scotts Valley High School
| Scotts Valley High School | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
| 555 Glenwood Dr. Scotts Valley, California, Santa Cruz County, 95066  United States |
|
| Information | |
| Established | 1999 |
| School district | Scotts Valley Unified School District |
| Principal | Valerie Bariteau |
| Vice principal | Daniel Denton |
| Chief custodian | Daniel Garcia, Mike Scott |
| Staff | 48 |
| Enrollment | 805 |
| Mascot | Falcon |
| Nickname | The Dirty Birds |
| Rival | San Lorenzo Valley |
| Newspaper | The Falcon Times |
| Website | svhs.santacruz.k12.ca.us |
Scotts Valley High School (SVHS) is a public high school located in Scotts Valley, California. It was founded in 1999 and is a part of the Scotts Valley Unified School District, which is in Santa Cruz County. SVHS serves approximately 900 students from the communities of Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz. The school mascot is the Falcon.
Contents |
[edit] Academics
The school has award-winning teachers[citation needed] who guide students towards earning International Baccalaureate certificates and diplomas. Spirited athletes represent the school with honors including league, regional and national athletic recognitions. Some of the school’s achievements include a California Distinguished High School Honorable Mention, Newsweek's Top 5% National High School and California Businesses for Educational Excellence Scholar School.
[edit] Athletics
Scotts Valley sports include Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, Cross Country, Baseball, Wrestling, Basketball, Lacrosse, Soccer, Volleyball, Track & Field and Softball.
Coach Louie Walters has led the Football team to an impressive run, winning four straight league titles starting in 2006 after joining in 1999. For the majority of the past several years, the Scotts Valley football team has traveled out of state for their first game of the season; recently playing highly acclaimed schools in Texas, Alaska and Hawaii.
The 2007-2008 Girls Soccer team won the CCS Small School Championship, led by Coach Mike 'Scooter' Hernandez.
[edit] Controversy
On April 30, 2007 a suspicious device was found on the Scotts Valley High School campus. After the school was evacuated, police began searching the school and found the boys locker room had been vandalized with graffiti. The vandal(s) wrote racial slurs targeting Asians and Mexicans. They also found a 4 foot swastika in the center court of their gymnasium and the phrase "Imus rules" written on the wall. Months before this, posters were posted up around school promoting a "Scotts Valley Aryans Club and announced "The 7th era is here", referring to the age in which the Ku Klux Klan say the white man will rule. While there was some subsequent debate amongst students, administrators and community leaders regarding the appropriate response to this and other incidents, all concerned expressed a determination to respond as a community. In a letter to the SVHS community, Principal Gregg Gunkel and Vice Principal Valerie Bariteau called for students and the residents to “show them we are united. Let’s demonstrate pride, respect in our school, and in each other. Taking a stand against prejudice and harassment must be a community effort.”[1]
While in its first couple years SVHS was known for being the academic champion of the local area, it has recently been afflicted by several issues. As of May 2006, 100% of the original staff from 1999 has resigned from teaching, citing lack of district support as a key element. The school has also battled PR problems, such as in 2005 when an SVHS parent filed a lawsuit against the high school for promoting a "gay agenda." Several parents and students claims they felt uncomfortable with the way homosexuality was promoted at the high school, but defenders claim there is no gay agenda or promotion of homosexuality, but simply that they have a tolerance for homosexuals. The specific evidence in question was the existence of pro-tolerance posters hanging around campus.
[edit] References
- Tami Kittle Announces Resignation (Falcon Times)
- Mold infestation closes Scotts Valley High classes (Santa Cruz Sentinal)
- Scotts Valley Track front page of Sentinel Sports section (Santa Cruz Sentinel)
- Scotts Valley High School faces bomb threat (San Jose Mercury)
[edit] External links
- Scotts Valley High School website
- Scotts Valley Unified School District website
- Scotts Valley High School Video Productions
- International Baccalaureate Organization
- The Falcon Times (student newspaper)
