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Aragon High School

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Aragon High School
Location
Map
900 Alameda de las Pulgas
San Mateo
,
California,


United States 94402
Information
TypePublic Secondary
Established1961
PrincipalPatricia Kurtz
Faculty84 [1]
Grades9-12
Number of students1,602 [2]
CampusSuburban
Color(s)Red, Black
MascotDons
Websitehttp://aragon.schoolloop.com/

Aragon High School is an American public high school in San Mateo, California, and is part of the San Mateo Union High School District (SMUHSD). The school has a six-year, clear accreditation with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).

SMUHSD utilizes a policy that enables parents and students in the district to request to attend any of the six district schools, provided there is space available. Due to this policy, every fall for the last seven years, Aragon has been enrolled at full capacity, with a yearly waiting list of 50-100 students.

History

Aragon High School was established in 1961 to accommodate development and population growth in San Mateo. The campus is located in the Foothill Terrace neighborhood [3] to the north of State Route 92 and west of State Route 82 (El Camino Real), on the border with Hillsborough [4]. Schools in San Mateo, Foster City and Hillsborough feed into the high school.

Extracurricular activities

Aragon offers numerous extracurricular activities, including music ensembles, youth leadership clubs, student theater productions, and publications.

Active music ensembles at Aragon include the Chamber Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble, Chamber Choir, Symphonic Band, String Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Mixed Choir, Concert Band, and Women's Choir. The Jazz Ensemble and the Chamber Choir meet during the "zero period" before the regular school day. Aragon's Chamber Orchestra, Symphonic Band, and Chamber Choir were invited to Beijing to play in a festival celebrating 2008 Olympics.[5]

The Model United Nations Club was established in 2003 and has attended conferences at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis. Aragon also boasts a Mock Trial team that competes against similar teams in the area. The Model Congress Club sends delegates once a year to a conference held in San Francisco by Harvard students. An Aragon Public Forum was founded in the fall of 2008 for public debate and discussion on current topics.

The Aristocrat was a 12-page newspaper published monthly during the school year. It was renamed "The Outlook" at the end of the 2007-2008 school yea. It is produced by twelve editors who are enrolled in an advanced journalism course. A large staff of writers, photographers, and graphic artists contributes most of the content. The newspaper staff remodeled their web site and began printing in color during the 2006-2007 school year.

Aragon also boasts an exceptional mathematics team, with two USAMO qualifiers in 2008 and an AMC 10A team score of 291/300, easily putting Aragon in the top 5 schools in the nation. Furthermore, as of 2008, Aragon High School is the second largest contributor to the 15-member San Francisco Bay Area ARML A-Team. There has also been some talk of Aragon High School students creating a mathematics contest to develop and encourage mathematical talents in middle school students. The school also sponsors the Aragon Robotics Team (ART), a student-run organization founded in 2000 that provides opportunities for exploring robotics through collaborative design and team competition.

Aragon has recently made efforts to reduce its environmental impact. In addition to the student-operated Recycling Club, which services all the common bins in the school, there is a location in the main office where alternative materials (such as ink cartridges and overhead transparencies) can be deposited for recycling. There is also an Environmental Impact Committee; unique to Aragon, administrators, faculty, parents, and students from the school community serve on it.

Other extracurricular groups include the editors of the yearbook El Tesoro, an improvisation team, and many other clubs. Most of these typically meet during the lunch period.

Sports

Aragon competes in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, gymnastics, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling, gymnastics, ping pong, bowling, ribbon dancing, interpretive dance.

For the past few decades, there has been an ongoing rivalry between Aragon and nearby Hillsdale High School, ritualized every year by the fall football rally.[citation needed]

Parent/Community Involvement

Parents at Aragon are involved in a number of ways. The school's 719-member Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) holds monthly meetings, often with guest speakers to address parenting issues. The PTO also raises money for the school, sponsoring professional development grants for teachers and staff as well as funding clubs, departments, and school-wide programs. Funds raised by the PTO pay for Aragon's use of Edline, an online student grade software that allows parent and student access to grades and assignments.

Parents also get involved in the school through the Friends of the Library program and three active booster clubs in Athletics, Drama, and Music. Together, these organizations have paid for and supported Aragon's library, theater, library resources and athletic facilities.

Recently, parents and administrators have collaborated to create Latino, Asian, and Pacific Islander parent organizations. At the monthly Latino and Pacific Islander meetings, Spanish and Tongan, respectively, are spoken, with translators available when English is used. Each parent group advocates for the school in their respective communities and provides enrichment opportunities for their specific student groups. All groups send representatives to take part in the larger PTO and other school-wide events.

School/Business Relations

Many outside organizations provide guidance and support to Aragon students. Ninety-three service organizations, individuals, and institutions provide scholarships to students at the school. After-school internships are available for Aragon students interested in information technology at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale. Students also take part in several "School to Career" field trips, which in the past have included the Professional Business Women's Conference, California Culinary Academy, and Mills Peninsula Health Day Center.

Demographics

2005-2006

  • 1,570 students;
White Asian Hispanic Pacific Islander Filipino African American No Response American Indian
43.2% 24.3% 19.2% 5.0% 3.6% 3.0% 1.3% 0.3%
  • 87 certified staff

Source: California Department of Education

Aragon High School - San Mateo, California

Statistics

Aragon has surpassed the STAR testing academic performance index level of 800 the last two school years. [6]

SAT 1 scores 2004-2005
Average Verbal Math
Aragon HS 546 573
SMUHSD 532 566
California 499 521

Aragon is ranked 341st in Newsweek's Top 1000 High Schools, above 431st ranked Hillsdale. [1]

Notable alumni

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.newsweek.com/highschools/?q=2008/state/101/
  2. ^ Title Lempert, Sue. "A new political star, bafflement in Belmont". The Daily Journal. Retrieved 2009-01-31. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ "Alumni News and Notes" (List). JSA and the Junior Statesmen Foundation. 2008-09-13. Retrieved 2009-01-31. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  4. ^ "Football Athlete Profile - Manase Tonga". BYU Athletics. Retrieved 2009-01-31. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ "#11 Manase Tonga" (Statistics Page). Foxsports. Retrieved 2009-01-31. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ Walch, Tad (2007-07-06). "BYU's Tonga arrested". Deseret News. Deseret News Publishing Co. Retrieved 2009-01-31. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ Becerra, Hector (2004-03-28). "Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew Dang, 20". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times. pp. B-18. Retrieved 2008-12-28. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ "California's War Dead" (Database). Data Desk. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-12-28. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  9. ^ Morente, Christine (2006-03-25). "200 gather to mourn San Bruno GI killed in Iraq". Oakland Tribune. ANG Newspapers. Retrieved 2008-12-21. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

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