Piedmont High School (California)
Piedmont High School is a public high school located in Piedmont, California, United States. Piedmont High School is part of the Piedmont Unified School District. Piedmont High School was recognized with the Blue Ribbon School Award of Excellence by the United States Department of Education. Background. Piedmont High School offers ninth through twelfth grade. <nowiki> </nowiki>Many families move into Piedmont for the schools once their children reach school-age. Piedmont's colors are purple and white (representing the Scottish thistle), and its mascot, the Highlander, reflects the school's Scottish heritage . History. In September 1922, the Piedmont Unified School District opened the city's first high school. It was funded by a bond passed by voters in 1920. Piedmont High School was the last public school in California to require uniforms, which disappeared in the 1970s. The social scene was once dominated by social clubs, which resembled college sororities and fraternities, reminiscent of Lindsay Lohan's Mean Girls. While the social clubs raised money the organizations with which they were affiliated, their charitable exterior was just a front for what they really were, mainly drinking clubs. The male clubs died out  in the mid-1990s when they grew irrelevant, but the female social clubs didn't end until 2004 when the incoming senior class exhibited overwhelming indifference and distaste for retaining the tradition. "The school was covered in the "New York Times" when in the mid-1990s it began breathalyzing all students before dances. Campus. Piedmont High School has an open campus, and students can leave during brunch, lunch, and unscheduled periods. The campus is between Piedmont Park on the right of the school and Piedmont Middle School and Witter Field on the left. The center of campus is a grassy area referred  to as "the quad." The quad is the center of campus, connecting the former site of the Alan Harvey Theatre, the library, the cafeteria and student center, and the amphitheater. Classes are scattered around campus, with the music and science buildings the furthest apart. The campus was originally built on a portion of Piedmont Park, and dog-walking trails behind the school connect to the park. Architecture. The school was built in 1921 in a neoclassical design, part of the same plan that built the Piedmont city's Exedra. Since its design by architect W.H. Weeks, the school has undergone  several reconstructions, for reasons such as expansion, earthquake retrofitting, and combatting dry rot. In 1974, the school was declared unsafe, under state earthquake laws. It was demolished, and three new classroom buildings and a gymnasium were built. The original library, quad, and administration buildings were rehabilitated. Reconstruction in the 1970s reflected the "back-to-nature" look popular at the time, using wood instead of shingles. The school's "breezeway," an open, wide corridor running between the school's main buildings, exemplifies this. The last construction was an expansion of the gymnasium, during the 2003–2004 school year, to include an entrance  room that also displays trophies. The school has undergone further construction in accord with Measure E, which issued $56 million in bonds to the reconstruction of school facilities to meet earthquake safety guidelines. Academics. Piedmont High School is an academically strong school, scoring a 10 out of 10 for test scores at the website GreatSchools.net. In 2008, it was ranked in the top 100 schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The school newspaper reported that the average of GPA of 2006's graduating class was 3.47. Courses. Advanced Placement. As of 2009–2010, the school offers the  following AP courses. In addition, honors courses in physics, chemistry, and statistics are offered. Creative and performing arts. Art classes come in various fields: music (a cappella, band, orchestra, AP Music), visual art (2-D art, ceramics, 2-D AP, 3-D AP), drama (Acting I through IV), dance (Beg-Adv). The school also produces a musical every year (extra-curricular). Electives. Other electives offered include the Pride (yearbook) and the Piedmont Highlander (school newspaper), law and society, public speaking, multiple computer classes, and creative writing. Foreign language. Spanish, French, and Mandarin are the only three foreign language courses that  are offered. In 2007-2008 an AP Mandarin course was added. Before the 2007–2008 school year, Mandarin classes ranged from Mandarin I to Mandarin V (honors). The Mandarin program was added in 1995–1996, when it replaced German. Recent changes. 2006-2007. An AP European History course was added, while the junior-level course Honors Chemistry was opened to qualifying sophomores. 2007-2008. The current Mandarin V (honors) was replaced by AP Mandarin. The science curriculum changed from the system of "Integrated Science" to specific subjects, such as biology. In the old system, students took Integrated Science I as freshmen, Integrated  Science II as sophomores, and either chemistry or honors chemistry as juniors. The new system allows incoming freshmen to choose between physical science (for "most students") and biology (for "students showing mastery of PMS science"). The options are shown in detail below: ROP-funded journalism, sports medicine, and biotechnology were added. Also, math progression was clearly defined as follows Honors society. The school decided to form its own honors society following the 2005–2006 school year. The new group, the Piedmont Honors Society, has a GPA cut-off of 3.60. In addition, there is a community service requirement of 15 pre -approved hours for sophomores, 25 for juniors, and 35 for seniors. The class of 2007 is the last class to maintain eligibility and membership with CSF. School publications. The school newspaper is the "Piedmont Highlander" and the yearbook is the "Pride", but was known as the "Clan-O-Log" until 2017. Both have existed since the early decades of Piedmont High history, and participants of each publication are involved by taking the offered course. In 2006, the "Highlander" placed sixth in the National Scholastic Press Association's Best of Show contest. In 2007, the library's Teen Advisory Board revived  publication of the literary magazine "The Highland Piper", which had last been published in the 1970s. Publication has since been discontinued. Demographics. The majority of the student body is White, 68 percent, and Asian, 22 percent. In 2004, the San Francisco Chronicle highlighted the lack of racial and socioeconomic diversity in Piedmont in a Sunday front-page story. Comparing schools in Oakland and Piedmont, the article wrote that "wealth has created separate and unequal schools in [the] Bay Area and elsewhere." The majority of high school students have lived in Piedmont since elementary school. As in the surrounding cities, only  residents of the city can attend school at the district, unless a parent is a district employee. Homes with physical addresses in Oakland that partially abut sections of the Piedmont borders can also send their children to Piedemont schools. Library. At the beginning of the 2006–2007 school year, the library set up the Teen Advisory Board, a group for students to contribute to the library through writing book reviews, recommending purchases, buying books, decorating the library, organizing library events, and publishing a literary magazine. The literary magazine, "The Highland Piper", was launched in the spring of 2007 to publish student  original writing. It took its name from the school literary magazine published in the 1930s. It was last printed in June 2009, but a new edition is planned for spring 2014. Bird Calling Contest. Piedmont High is home to the nationally known Leonard J. Waxdeck Bird Calling Contest. Winners of the contest have been featured on the Late Show with David Letterman, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. The contest was started in 1963 by biology teacher Leonard J. Waxdeck. Sports. PHS offers a variety of varsity and junior varsity sports. In addition, many Piedmont  students participate in the national championship-winning rowing team Oakland Strokes; at least one Piedmont graduate, Scott Gault, has competed in the Olympics and World Rowing Championships. Piedmont High football ex-coaches Kurt Bryan and Steve Humphries created the A-11 offense, a controversial football offense in which any of the 11 players on the field is eligible. The offense relies on confusion, and its unconventional look can wreak havoc on even bigger, stronger and faster teams. Spring. In 2004 and 2005, the nationally-ranked women's basketball team won two consecutive division IV state championships. In 2005, the men's  varsity Cross Country team became the only men's team to win a state title in the history of the school. In 2010, Piedmont lacrosse posted a 15–7 record and won a regular-season BSAL championship. In 2011, the boys' tennis team finished the season as BSAL League champs, not having lost a league match in 11 straight years. PHS uses the Highlander, a kilt-clad Scotsman caricature playing the bagpipes, as its mascot. Fantasy Slut League. In 2012, Piedmont high school was covered by many major news outlets for a scandal in which members of the football team created  a points system for engaging in sexual activity with female students at the school, unbeknownst to most of the women.