Yosemite High School

Yosemite High School is a secondary school in the Yosemite Unified School District in Oakhurst, California. YHS occupies 100 acres (0.40 km²) of rolling, wooded hills and is located within the foothills of California's Sierra Nevada mountains. Yosemite High School is a California Distinguished School.

Campus

Yosemite High School is located in the Sierra Nevada foothills in the rural community of Oakhurst, 12 miles from the south entrance to Yosemite National Park in Central California. The campus is on a 100-acre site graced with pines, oaks, and seasonal streams with views of the High Sierra. The appearance of the 25-year-old campus is being transformed by a construction project resulting from the passage of an $11.76 million bond measure in 1998. The project includes a comprehensive library media center, state-of-the-art computer labs, science labs, classrooms, cafeteria/multi-purpose building, swimming pool, and a $6.5 million performing arts center. Amid the clamor of construction, the student body of 1,100 and staff of 95 continue to achieve impressive educational and extra-curricular successes, and to work toward meeting the new challenges of standards-based educational programs.

Academics

The school has continually raised expectations for all students. An academic focal point is the International Baccalaureate (IB) program that currently involves over 40% of our students. IB is a worldwide program, which provides a rigorous, standards-based curriculum. YHS is one of only 47 IB schools in California. Most universities give students who pass the externally moderated exams college credit, and full IB diploma graduates are often granted sophomore status upon university admission. Last year’s 47-point improvement on the Academic Performance Index (API) can be attributed in part to the challenging IB/AP curriculum, preparation of students for the Golden State Exam (GSE), and an emphasis on remediating the skills of low-performing students. YHS is increasing its AP (Advanced Placement) offerings through a $75,000 Advanced Placement Grant. In addition to a rigorous academic program, YHS also provides a comprehensive vocational program, which showcases cutting edge technology training in computer networking and multi-media production. Through a Digital High School Grant and an EAST (Environmental and Spatial Technology) Grant, the school provides access to current technology for all students. Over $500,000 in hardware and software (including engineering, CAD, animation, and global positioning software) will be available to students over the next 3 years. The ROP program encompasses Automotive Technology, Arc/Oxy Welding, Architectural Drafting, Woodworking, Criminal Justice, EMT, Careers in Education, Cross Age Physical Education Tutoring, Fire Science, and Agriculture. YHS’s award winning Fine Arts Program includes a broad range of offerings.

Academic Support

YHS support services aid its students with learning challenges. Students help students through Peer Tutoring and Peer Mediation. Title I programs, Math and Language Labs provide students with assistance in passing proficiency exams and provide individual attention.

Student Demographics

The ethnic breakdown of the student population at YHS is: White, 84.3%; Hispanic, 8.2%; Native American, 6.2%; Asian, 0.5%; African American, 0.5% and Pacific Islander, 0.1%. During the 1999-2000 school year there was one Limited English Proficient student and four Fluent English Proficient in Spanish, and four FEP in Vietnamese and two FEP in Hmong. Approximately ten percent of the students receive free and reduced meals and five percent of the students are from families receiving AFDC.

Yosemite High Graduates

A survey of 2000 graduates showed that 50% of YHS students completed courses to qualify for the University of California or California State University systems, 50% planned to attend a two-year college, 27% planned to attend a four-year college, 3% were going into a vocational program, 17% planned to enter the work force, and 3% were joining the military. In the third statewide administration of the STAR test in 2000, YHS students earned an excellent API rating of 742, ranking 9 on a scale of 10 for the State. 2000 SAT and ACT scores for YHS students were slightly higher than the state and national averages.

Accreditation

A Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Focus on Learning self-study was completed last spring with the school receiving a six-year accreditation.

Vocational Preparation

Retail trade, services, and government are the major employers in Eastern Madera County. The area has a high level of tourism with various government agencies such as the United States Forest Service, National Park Service, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, public schools, and various county offices.

The shared vision of the school community is to prepare our students to confidently face the challenges in their future by learning to make the changes in themselves that complex modern existence requires.

Feeder Schools

Yosemite has nine major feeder schools, of which eight are elementary schools and one is a middle school:

• Bass Lake Elementary
• Coarsegold Elementary
• North Fork Elementary
• Raymond-Knowles Elementary
• Rivergold Elementary
• Spring Valley Elementary
• Wasuma Elementary
• Wawona Elementary
• Oak Creek Intermediate

Current enrollment is approximately 1200 students.^{[citation needed]}

Test Scores and Honors

YHS was named a California Distinguished School in 2001 and 2005. Its 2005 Academic Performance Index (API) score was over 9000, which places it in the upper tier of California high schools. At least one alumnus has been awarded the Rhodes Scholarship.

YHS teams traditionally excel in the Academic Decathlon (AD) competition, having won sixteen consecutive Madera County titles as of 2009, in addition to having taken first place twice in 2000 and 2001 and second place at the state level multiple times, most recently in 2006 and 2007.

Music Department

Yosemite High School's Music Department consists of two choirs, two bands and two percussion classes. During football and basketball season the Advanced Percussion, Concert Band, and Wind Ensemble combine to form a pep band. In the spring the bands perform at CMEA (California Music Educators Association) Festivals and the Heritage Festivals in Anaheim, California.

Athletics

Yosemite fields interscholastic teams in seventeen sports. It is a member of the North Sequoia League in the Central Section of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF). The most noteworthy recent success belongs to the girls basketball team, which won its fourth consecutive section title in March 2007. Other consistently successful programs include football, girls volleyball, and cross country. The most well-known YHS athletic alumnus is probably Major League Baseball pitcher Ted Lilly, currently starting for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

==History==

Opened September 9, 1976 to relieve district travel times (often in excess of 4 hours), YHS became a site of constant controversy. The matter of greatest contention was its unorthodox education methods, ranging from laissez-faire scheduling to counterproductive class organization. Students (referred to as “learners”) chose their own classes, handled their own attendance, and gave themselves their grades, much to the chagrin of parents, who “…were worried that the students {were} running the school and that there {was} a lack of supervised instruction…”^{[citation needed]}

Teachers (referred to as “learning facilitators”) were also given free-rein with the classes they taught, resulting in such classes as skateboarding and rock climbing. They taught in a single large building with simultaneous classes operating without walls, leading to a good deal of confusion and distraction. Some time into the first year, 6-foot (1.8 m) tall partitions were set up, but they did little to reduce the strength of the din.^{[citation needed]}

In recent years, YHS has returned to more traditional academic practices, including fixed schedules, standard classrooms, state-mandated coursework and grading criteria, and referring to "teachers" and "students."

The school began relatively under funded; “learning facilitators” were paid a $4–6,000 lower salary than the state average for that time. By the turn of the 21st century, however, the budget had expanded and the campus had become a showpiece.^{[citation needed]}

Famous alumni

• Ted Lilly (Major League Baseball pitcher)
• Guy Major ([Cartoonist])
• Justin "JK" Kahler ([Winemaker])
• Nate Manor (Musician)

External links

• http://www.yosemitehs.com/

References

• Turcsanyi, Melinda. "YHS: Full circle in 25 Years", The Sierra Star, November 9, 2001.
• Ward, Earlene. "A long, difficult road to the first diploma", The Sierra Star, March 13, 1997.
• Ward, Earlene. "YHS at 30", The Sierra Star, September 1, 2006.
• "Academic Decathlon results", The Fresno Bee, February 7, 2009.