Santa Monica High School
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| Santa Monica High School | |
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Seniority, Maturity, Honesty, Sincerity
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| Location | |
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| 601 Pico Blvd Santa Monica, CA 90405 USA |
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| Information | |
| School district | Santa Monica-Malibu Unified |
| Principal | Dr. Hugo Pedroza |
| Enrollment |
3,100 |
| Type | Public |
| Mascot | Victor and Vicky Viking |
| Color(s) | Blue and Gold |
| Established | 1884 |
| Homepage | http://www.samohi.smmusd.org |
Santa Monica High School (SMHS), informally known as Samohi or just Samo, is a public school located in Santa Monica, California which was founded in 1884 . It changed location several times in its early years before settling into its present campus at 601 Pico Boulevard.
Santa Monica High School is a part of Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. The current school principal is Dr. Hugo Pedroza.
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[edit] History
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The current campus opened in 1906 with one building, the current History building, and an enrollment of 50 students. As the school needed teachers, the school sat on the hilltop of what is now 6th Street and Pico Blvd. In its first ten years, school enrollment grew with the population of Santa Monica until the administration decided to expand the campus to meet the population increase, and with this the English building was built. In 1921, the Greek Amphitheatre was built in front of the school campus, owned by a separate company. The Amphitheatre was soon bought by the school district for Santa Monica High School, since the school needed more land for more buildings, the gymnasiums and music buildings. As the campus contained six buildings, the Language, English, Business, History, Administration and Music, the city of Santa Monica, once again grew in population.
In 1952, Santa Monica High School was finally expanded to what it is now, 33 acres, and two new buildings were built, the Science and Technology buildings. As the school aged, renovations took place with Barnum Hall and a complete rebuild of the Music building. Currently the school is waiting for a state measure, Measure BB of the State of California, to be passed for grant money for renovations of the aging buildings, History, Language and rebuilding of the Business.
Samo has also been a location in a number of films. Most famously, it is the high school setting in Rebel Without A Cause, and James Dean walks up the History Building stairs. Recently, Seventeen Again, starring Matthew Perry and Zac Efron, was shot during the '07-'08 school year.
[edit] Houses
Since Santa Monica High School has many students, around 3600 last year, there were too many teachers and too many counselors spread out over the campus. In 2003, Samohi adopted a house system, similar to college house systems; each student is part of a house.[1] There are six houses, S, A, M, O, H and I, with each house assigned a building or a floor of a building. S House is stationed in the Language Building, A house is stationed in the Business building, M house is on the first floor of the History building, O house is on the second floor of the History building, H house is stationed in the English building, and I house is stationed in the Technology building. A principal oversees each of the houses, along with two counselors. Teachers with classrooms in a house building/floor are automatically deemed one of the house teachers. Teachers not in a house building/floor are assigned a house, often the one closest to their classroom or to make an equal amount of teachers.[citation needed] Upon enrollment in Santa Monica High School, students are randomly assigned to a house. The students' files are then sorted by house. House affiliation is labeled on student identification cards.
[edit] Advanced Placement Classes
Santa Monica High School provides many Advanced Placement classes that are offered to all students. They range from Math and Science to Film and Art. Many students start taking AP courses in their junior year. The most popular AP classes on campus are AP English, AP US History and AP Biology/Chemistry.[citation needed] While it is most common for students to begin taking AP classes their junior year, students sometimes take courses over the summer and take their first AP course in 10th grade.
[edit] Foreign languages
Currently, Santa Monica High offers four foreign languages: Spanish, Latin, Japanese and French. Most of these four offer four different levels, but some offer a fifth level, preparing students for AP language tests.
[edit] Music department
The Santa Monica High School Music Department is one of many prestigious music departments in the United States.[citation needed] There are five wind bands, five orchestras, ten choirs, piano classes, and guitar classes. The music department offers many concerts in the community throughout the year, with performances by the bands, orchestras, and choirs. The school hosts concerts on the campus in Barnum Hall, a 1,200 seat theater with a full stage renovated in 2004.
[edit] Choral and vocal ensembles
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This section does not cite any references or sources. (February 2008) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
Under the conduction of Jeffe Huls the Santa Monica High School Choral Department has recently competed in and won many competitions, both regional and national. Over 300 students are enrolled in the choral music program. The program is made up of twelve different student choirs. The choral program ranges from large mixed choirs to chamber/madrigal ensembles, women's choirs, men's ensemble and jazz. The Jazz Ensemble meet after school on selected days of the week. In the past the choral department has traveled to New York City, Boston and most recently Honolulu, Hawaii to compete in a national choral competition where Chorale, Chamber Singers, Jazz Singers and Madrigals Ensemble received 1st place with a gold rating. The Santa Monica choirs as a whole were then named the Grand Champions. The school has also competed in the Golden State Choral Competitions (South) both Large and Small Divisions. In April 2007, Madrigal Ensemble & Chamber Singers traveled to Italy and performed in cathedrals around the country. Chorale also competed in a competition which took place on a cruise to Mexico. Chorale won first place over all other choirs competing on any cruise ship the entire year.
In addition to the regular Winter and Spring concerts, the choral department has a Masterworks Concert, Cathedral Classics Concert, and performs in the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District's Stairway of the Stars every year.
[edit] Orchestral program
The orchestra program has been led for the past five years by director Joni Swenson, following longtime director Christopher Schawbe. In 2005, Symphony Orchestra was labeled the best High School level orchestra in the nation by the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) at the National Orchestra Festival in Reno, Nevada.[citation needed] The orchestra program is made up of many different ensembles, ranging from the smaller Beginning Strings / String Orchestra to the large Symphony Orchestra. Many of the orchestras from Santa Monica High School have had the chance to travel around the nation and the world. In February 2006, Symphony Orchestra became the first public high school orchestra to perform in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown Los Angeles.[2] In April 2006, the orchestra traveled to China and toured and performed in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. In 2004 the Symphony Orchestra performed various cathedrals and churches in Vienna, Austria and in Prague, Czech Republic. In 2002 the Symphony Orchestra performed in Carnegie Hall. Recently, the orchestra program was selected for the elite Partnership Program with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In April 2007, the Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestras traveled to San Francisco, where they participated in the California Music Educator's Association (CMEA) festival. Symphony Orchestra returned to Europe for a trip in March 2008]], performing in such esteemed halls as the Rudolfinum and Orangerie of Schönbrunn Palace.
[edit] Band and marching band
Samohi's band program is under the direction of Terry Sakow, UCLA graduate, and Dr. Abel Ramirez, a distinguished conductor and musician who is also in direction of the Cal State LA band. The Santa Monica High School Viking Marching Band is one of the oldest high school marching bands in the state of California. Today the marching band competes in many different competitions in Southern California. In their 2006-2007 season, the marching band received several sweepstakes awards and participated for the first time in the SCSBOA (Southern California Student Band and Orchestra Association) 5A division championship, winning 9th place.[3] In 2007 they attended a new marching band circuit, the Western Band Association, where they competed in the 4A devision. The Marching Band also performs in a Disneyland Resort parade every year and is featured at all home varsity football games for the Vikings. This year, they have been invited to be part of the London New Year's Day Parade opening in 2009. Wind Ensemble is also one of the most recognized high school bands in California. They performed at Carnegie Hall in May 2007.
[edit] Athletics
[edit] Volleyball
The boys volleyball team, lead by Ms. Liane Sato won the southern section CIF championship in their division in 2006. They returned to the championship in 2007, but lost to Valley Christian. Ari Feldman, a member of that team, recently signed with Cal State Northridge to play volleyball.
[edit] Baseball
The Samohi varsity baseball team, for the first time since 1973, made the Division IV Southern Section Championship in 2007. However, they lost 7-1 to Charter Oak in the championship game at Dodger Stadium.
[edit] Cross country
The Cross Country team aka XC team is on a 8-year league winning streak going into the 2008 season with Sr. Daman Coffman leading as their captain.
[edit] Wrestling
The Wrestling team is coached by Mark Black, Head Coach and Brent Wright Assistant Coach.
In 1986 Jackson won the CIF State Championship. He was undefeated. In 2007 Yusaf Syed won the CIF State Championship in 152 weight class. He was undefeated in 152 lbs. that year. For the past years, the team regularly qualifies individuals for the Southern Section CIF Masters, one of the toughest high school tournaments in the nation. [4]
[edit] Soccer
Coached by Frank Gatell ('89) and Jimmy Chapman, Samohi went undefeated (29-0-1) during the 2007-08 boys soccer season. Winning the Southbay/Westside Torunament, South Torrance Holiday Tournament (first time for a Varsity squad to win), undefeated Ocean League title (Back-to-Back), CIF Division IV Championship (first time in Samohi Soccer history), and the first ever CIF Southern Regional Championship Division I (a Southern State, Fresno thru San Diego, where eight top teams of their region competed). Along with the championships, the Samohi men set many new records. 29 wins, 0 losses, 17 shutouts, only conceded 17 goals, scored 110 goals, and were the men's team to win CIF in the 36 year history of the program. Players to receive CIF honors: Artur Jozkowicz, Offensive Player of the Year for D. IV, Nick Ferro, Defensive Player of the Year for D. IV, Charlie Paris, First Team D. IV, Alessandro Canale First Team D. IV, Alex Kovacs, First Team D.IV, Luis Zavala, Second Team D IV, All CIF Selection. All players are in their senior year.
[edit] Softball
Coached by Debbie Skaggs, the lady Vikings have been undefeated in league games since 2004.
[edit] Football
Coached by Zachary Cuda. Three different levels: freshman, junior varsity, varsity.
[edit] Memorable events
• On May 9, 2005, Newsweek magazine, during its ranking of the 100 top high schools in America (a list of 1061 high schools), ranked SMHS as the 203rd top high school.[5]
• The school won a Power 106 FM contest in which Hip-Hop mogul Kanye West performed at the school. The concert took place on December 5, 2005 in the Greek Theatre.
• Shooting for the 2009 Paramount film 17 Again starring Zac Efron and Matthew Perry commenced on campus December 14, 2007.
[edit] Racial tensions
On April 15, 2005, after several fights broke out between students in general but media mistakenly reported that it was between African-American and Latino students during the lunch period,[6] police were called in and the school was put on a lockdown. As a result of the fighting, at least two police officers are permanently stationed on campus and students must show their school identification cards to enter or leave campus for lunch; when students leave for home, identification cards are not checked. After school, anyone is able to enter the campus.
Tension brewed once more on February 3, 2006 when students arrived at school to find racial epithets targeting African-Americans spray-painted on four different walls around the campus, along with the symbols of the Santa Monica Gangs, SM13 and SM17.[7] Retaliation graffiti was written throughout the day slandering both Latinos and African-Americans. A mediation session was set up in Barnum Hall to try to relieve these tensions, [8] but it suffered from limited participation.
[edit] Principal called to resign
After a meeting on Friday, February 10, 2006, members of the African American Parent/Student/Staff Support Group (AAPSSSG) unanimously passed a resolution stating, “We request the termination of employment of Dr. Ilene Straus CEO/Principal of Samohi and that she not remain in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District because she is a clear and present danger to our children.”[9] Members of the organization believed Dr. Ilene Straus inadequately handled the incidents involving groups of African-American and Latino students.
[edit] School songs
[edit] Hymn of Praise
The school's anthem is called "The Hymn of Praise" by Ken Darby, class of 1928. The words are: Oh Samohi, Dear old Samohi Queen of the setting sun For you we toil, for you our banners fly We win for you when victories won All hail to thee, Mighty Samohi Faith in the ne'er will fail For the love that we give is thy po'er to live To thee, All Hail!
[edit] Vikings Bold
The fight song of Samohi is mainly played by the Santa Monica Viking Band at the football games. The song is mainly known by the Marching Band and its alumni. Its melody is like most of the other fight songs of universities. The words to the chorus are: "Ra ra, ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra, ra ra... Go Sa Mo Hi! Forward they go together, onward they surge a head. Inward they bond together to the very end. Waves crash around the ship, yet still they hold FAST. To the FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT for the Vikings are Bold! S A M, O H I, Vikings, Vikings Samohi UGHH!"
[edit] Notable alumni
Notable alumni of Santa Monica High School include:
