# Portola High School (Irvine, California)

Portola High School (PHS) is one of five public high schools in the Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) and is located in Irvine, California. The groundbreaking ceremony was held in October 2014 and the school opened in August 2016. The campus is situated on 42 acres (0.17 km$^2$) of land and can accommodate approximately 2,600 students. The school is located at the intersection of the Rise Park, Altair, and Solis Park neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city.

## Student body

The school opened in August 2016 with 400 ninth-grade students. In each successive year, a new grade level was added, ninth and tenth grade students attending in 2017–2018, grades 9–11 in 2018–2019, and grades 9–12 starting in the 2019–2020 school year.

## Campus

Portola's campus is located on land formerly occupied by the Irvine Ranch and Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. It was constructed to meet criteria established by the Collaborative for High Performance Schools.

## Physical features

PHS contains specialized buildings outside of normal classrooms. These features come in part from IUSD's Educational Specifications.

### Innovation Lab

The Innovation Lab, a.k.a. The Student Commons, is run through the staff in the library and contains multiple methods and machines to produce products using multiple formats such as plastic, metal, wood, etc.

### Layout

The school is laid out in groups of buildings:
* Visual and Performing Arts
* Theater
* Stadium and associated buildings
* Science Building
* Math Building
* English and foreign language classes
* Administration and food services
Classroom building groups are linked on the second story by walkways.
Many spaces have multiple uses; the cost savings allowed for the construction of a theater, a multipurpose stadium, and an aquatics center in the first phase rather than in a later expansion.

### Learning Commons

The Learning Commons functions as the school library, containing databases that students can use for research, multimedia resources including two TVs, and also provides a study space. It is separated from the Student Union by a retractable glass wall; they can be combined to provide space for events.

## Athletics

Portola High School's athletic teams, known as the Bulldogs, compete in the California Interscholastic Federation/Southern Section. Portola participates in the following sports: baseball, basketball, cross country, gridiron football, golf, lacrosse, pep squad, soccer, softball, swimming/diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling. Portola competes in the Pacific Coast League in all sports, except for gridiron football, in which they compete in the Pacific Hills conference of Pacific Coast League. On April 17, 2020, the athletics program received the "1st Team Safe Sports School Award" from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association for "...excellence in athlete safety". Portola was the first and, as of 2020, only school in IUSD to acquire the title.

## Student life
### Sports

Lacking a traditional inter-class competitiveness, the Portola staff established a house system. There were four houses, which compete for points: Orion, Poseidon, Hercules, and Pegasus. The Associated Student Body of Portola was charged with creating and hosting competitions and events which give students the opportunity to earn house points. During the 2020–2021 school year, Portola decided to get rid of the house system and establish traditional grade level competitions in which students were split into Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors.

### PNN Broadcasts

Portola News Network (PNN) is a biweekly broadcast that informs students about school and community events and entertains an audience of over 2000 people with various student features and other stories.

### Portola Pilot Newspaper

Established in 2016 alongside the school, the Portola Pilot is the school's newspaper. Every month, it prints, publishes, and distributes newspapers to students for free during advisement period. The Portola Pilot is a nationally and locally awarded and recognized paper, as well as serving as Portola High School's official student journalism program. Articles are uploaded multiple times a week on the Pilot's website, portolapilot.com.

## Awards

Best of the Best K-12 Education Award – California – January 30, 2018
Best of the Best K-12 Education Award – National – January 30, 2018