La Quinta High School (Westminster, California)

La Quinta High School, located in Westminster, Orange County, California, is one of seven high-schools of the Garden Grove Unified School District - recipient of the 2004 Broad Prize for Excellence in Urban Education. It currently has the highest API score of all the high schools in Garden Grove Unified School District, and 10th in Orange County (a score of 845 in 2009), as well as a high percentage of students attending college.

Beginnings and Popularity

It was founded in 1963, and gained semi-notority during the early in the 1990s, as a vast Vietnamese immigration took place, racial tensions took place and soon eskalated to a race war, with a three way split between Vietnamese/Caucasians/Hispanic. The most famous incident was the "three way brawl" between a large mass fight between Vietnamese, white and latino students, in which a pacifier was stabbed. La Quinta High was one of the four schools, in Orange County, inwhich, was famous for its "Race Wars" mainly between Vietnamese sutdents and Hispanic students, and in some cases White students.

It recently celebrated its 45th anniversary. Its mascot is an Aztec. La Quinta's current principal is Louise Milner.  The assistant principals are Tom Dugan, Erin Lara, and Chris Cumberland.

The structure of the school is divided into three main buildings. The 200 building to the east specializes in world languages, social sciences, english, business, and special education. The 300 building to the west features classes in the science, mathematics and fine arts. The 400 building to the south houses weight rooms and classrooms for miscelaneous subjects, such as health/drivers ed and computer graphics. The 500 buildings, which are three portable rooms to the south of the 400 building, house three social science classrooms. Students must crisscross back and forth across the intervening space between buildings, known as the quad. The student store, which is located in the 200 building facing the quad, is the center of the schools activities.

There are two primary parking lots, the junior parking lot and senior parking lot. The senior lot is reserved for seniors only who have a permit, whereas the junior parking lot encompasses mainly underclassmen students. The fields south and west of the main campus has courts for sports such as basketball, soccer, track and field, tennis, football, softball, and baseball.

Student body

There are about 1,425 students, grades 9th-12th, who reside in Westminster, Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, and Santa Ana. La Quinta’s student population is very diverse; 70% of the students are Asian, 21% Hispanic, 9% are Caucasian, and .1% African American (Andy Vu) representing approximately 26 different home languages. In the past seven years, La Quinta has produced 23 National Merit Finalists, more than any high school in our surrounding area. The class of 2006 sent approximately 90% of its graduates to higher education; 25% to four-year colleges and 65% to two-year colleges.

Academics

La Quinta High School offers many Advanced Placement classes. AP classes, if mastered, will give students college credit in that course. Mastery is determined by a score on the AP tests given in May. A score of 3, 4, or 5 allows the student to gain college credit. La Quinta offers the following AP classes: English Literature, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Statistics, Physics B, Physics C, Biology, Chemistry, Spanish, European History, US History, Economics, and Civics.

Electives

La Quinta has two elective departments: Fine Arts and Business. Fine arts students win numerous awards each year for their projects. La Quinta has one of the largest Business departments in Orange County, California; it offers classes to obtain either an Accounting Certificate or Business Ownership Certificate as a supplement to college applications or resumes.

Sports

La Quinta High School offers many sports for students to participate. It also participates in most of the district's sports. La Quinta has won many league championships for the past couple decades in sports such as boys and girls tennis. They currently hold the California state record for the most consecutive league championships in baseball. The Badminton team is one of the top in the county. In 2009, two athletes were named to the All CIF first team: Aidan Nguyen (baseball) and Adrianna Cardoza (Softball). Listed below are some of the sports offered.

• swimming (coed)
• soccer (boys and girls)
• baseball
• tennis (boys and girls)
• water polo (boys and girls)
• basketball (boys and girls)
• football (coed)
• cross country (coed)
• track and field (coed)
• softball
• badminton (coed)
• volleyball (boys and girls)
• cheerleading (coed)

Notable alumni

• Brent Kutzle, American musician best known for playing the bass guitar and cello for the band One Republic
• Bobby Crosby, MLB shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates
• Gerald Laird, MLB catcher for the Detroit Tigers
• Ian Kennedy, MLB pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks
• Ian Stewart, MLB third baseman for the Colorado Rockies
• Aidan Nguyen(Class of 1987). South Korean singer/rapper and a former member of pop singing group, g.o.d. Will portray Yamcha in the upcoming Dragonball film.

External links

• Official site of school
• School Report Card
• Garden Grove Unified School District
• Orange County Department of Education
• La Quinta High School API Score
• County Schools API Scores
• Rate my Teacher
• CIF Southern Section
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