Laguna Hills High School

Laguna Hills High School (LHHS) is a public high school located in Laguna Hills, California, which serves the Saddleback Valley Unified School District. Of the district’s four high schools, LHHS is geographically the smallest campus with student enrollment at approximately 1,600 students. The mascot for Laguna Hills is the Hawk, and the official colors are black, brown, and gold. 220 credits are required to graduate from Laguna Hills High School. 89% of LHHS graduates are accepted at 2- or 4-year colleges.

Laguna Hills High School
Address
25401 Paseo de Valencia

Laguna Hills
,
California
92653

United States
Coordinates33.59388°N 117.70261°W / 33.59388; -117.70261
Information
TypePublic
MottoOne Town One Team
Established1978
School districtSaddleback Valley Unified School District
PrincipalBill Hinds
Faculty59.76 (FTE)[1]
Grades9-12
Enrollment1,522 (2018-19)[1]
Student to teacher ratio25.47[1]
Color(s)     
MascotHawk
RivalAliso Niguel High School
Information(949) 770-5447
WebsiteLaguna Hills High School

The innovative programs include the Golden-Bell Award-Winning Two-Way Language Immersion Program;[2] AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination); a four-year Model United Nations program; an interdisciplinary senior humanities program; the renowned International Baccalaurate (IB) program; and a two-period Virtual Enterprise business program.

Recent renovations to the school have brought a new football stadium and second gym, and new science building, a redone theater and library, a new multipurpose room in the center of the campus, a new food services building, expansion of the ceramics and arts room, a new video productions class, and a massive 4,500 sq ft (420 m2) weight room. Upcoming projects will focus on the locker rooms and the remaining classrooms.

Awards and recognition
  • LHHS has historically had the highest API scores of the four comprehensive high schools in SVUSD, and had a score of 838 in 2007, 17 points higher than the next highest school and scored 854 in 2008,[3] one of the top scores in the county[4]
  • In Newsweek's list of the top 1,300 high schools, LHHS placed 613 which places it within the top 3% of schools nationwide[5]
  • LHHS has been named a National Blue Ribbon School and a California Distinguished School on multiple occasions[6]

Academics

International Baccalaureate

Competitive and successful Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs have a tradition of engaging honors students in curriculum designed to help them succeed in these rigorous exams.

Model United Nations

Model United Nations is an extra curricular activity which simulates the United Nations. Students participate in conferences held throughout the year at various high schools and colleges. At each conference, students represent a UN member nation and discuss various topics depending on the committee they choose. The activity teaches the students about international relations, diplomacy, public speaking, and research. The LHHSMUN program is headed by campus MUN advisor, Carri Geiger. The LHHSMUN conference is held every February and is orchestrated by the students. The MUN program is campus-wide, as students are permitted to join MUN as part of a class (9th and 10th grades). In 9th grade, students take MUN as part of a global connect class. In 10th grade, students taker MUN as part of AP World History. During 11th and 12th grade, MUN is taken as an honors history elective. Students in 11th and 12th grade can be a part of Secretariat, which has the responsibility of coordinating the conference each year.

Two-Way Language Immersion Program

Established in 1991, the multi-award winning SVUSD Two-Way Language Immersion Program is designed to provide English-speaking and Spanish-Speaking students an exciting, enriching, and challenging educational opportunity to learn, collaborate, communicate, and think critically in all academic content areas in both Spanish and English. By the end of twelfth grade, students will have obtained the bilingual skills and multi-cultural competencies needed to succeed in our global society and economy.

Activities

Key Club

Under the supervision of Greg Roberts, Laguna Hills Key Club is one of the largest and the most active clubs on campus. As of November 2009, there are over 100 active and participating members. Members regularly meet in the Theater every Tuesday at lunch.

True North Christian Club

True North Christian Club is an organization affiliated with Compass Bible Church, and is a club on campus led by students, who want to see Orange County be reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. There has been some debate among pupils and parents as to whether it is appropriate for a public school to be promoting a specific religion to its student body, however, no legal action has yet been taken by the county of Orange, the state of California or the Federal Government.

Arts

ComedySportz

ComedySportz has become an integral part of the school's drama department as well as student activities. In only its second year, the troupe placed 2nd at the Fullerton Drama Festival under Theater Games.

Instrumental Music

Program offerings include Marching Band, Color Guard, Drumline, Winter Guard, Jazz Band, Orchestra, Symphonic Band, and Wind Ensemble.

Athletics

Each student must have completed four semesters of physical education (or equivalent) to graduate.

Wrestling
  • 29 Consecutive league championships[7]
  • In 2007 the program won 2 CIF titles (CIF duals and CIF individuals), 2006 CIF Champion; won the 2005 CIF Championship as well, 3 out of the last 5 years with the other two seasons recognized as CIF runners-up.[8]
  • Won both the Dual Meet CIF title and the CIF individual title again in 2008
  • 5 wrestlers advanced to the state meet in 2008

Football
  • 6 consecutive league championships ('05-'06-'07-'08-'09-'10) to go with 7 previous titles and another title in 2012[9]
  • CIF titles in 1991, 1997, 2008.
  • 1998 Season had 6 victories vacated by CIF Southern Section. The athletic director at the time allowed for a transfer player to participate in the 1998 season without filing the proper transfer paper work with the CIF office. This led to that team going 2–8 on a season where they were predicted to be repeat CIF winners.

Girls' basketball
  • 1997 California State Champions
  • 2012 Southern California Champions
  • 2012 California State Runner-up
  • 2000 CIF Southern Section Champions
    • Megan Aaker CIF MVP
  • 2007 CIF Southern Section Champions
    • Lauren Engeln CIF MVP
  • 2008 CIF Southern Section Champions
    • Lauren Engeln CIF MVP
  • 2012 CIF Southern Section Champions
    • Celia Marfone CIF MVP
  • 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Champions
  • 2011, 2012 South Coast League Champions

Soccer

Both the boys and girls team won Pacific Coast League titles on all 3 levels. In 1990, The boys advanced and won the CIF Southern Section Finals defeating Orange High School. The boys have also advanced to the CIF quarterfinal and the girls to the CIF semifinals in 2008. In 2010 the boys advanced to the CIF semifinals while girls made it to the quarterfinals. In 2015 the girls team advanced to the CIF Division 1 Finals.[10]

Boys' swimming
  • 1989 - CIF Runners-Up
  • 1990 - CIF Champions, League Champions
  • 1991 - CIF Runners-up, League Champions
  • 1992 - CIF Runners-up, League Champions
  • 2017 - League Champions

Softball

Recent alums Brittany Lastrapes and Rosey Neill played in the NCAA tournament. Elisa Victa made it to Super Regionals. Brittany for the University of Arizona, Rosey for Stanford, and Elisa for North Dakota State. In 2008 the girls repeated as Pacific Coast League champions and made it to the semifinals of CIF [11] In 2009 a third straight title was won, and in 2010 the team won it again to make it four in a row.[11]

Notable alumni

References
  1. "Laguna Hills High". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  2. California School Boards Association Archived 2007-12-25 at the Wayback Machine
  3. http://api.cde.ca.gov/AcntRpt2008/2008GrowthSch.aspx?allcds=30736353030244
  4. 2007 Growth API LEA List of Schools Report (CA Department of Education)
  5. America's Top Public High Schools | Newsweek Best High Schools | Newsweek.com
  6. SVUSD Distinguished and Blue Ribbon Schools Archived 2008-02-28 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Article - SPORTS - Laguna Hills makes it 23 league titles in a row
  8. hawkwrestling.com laguna hills hawks varsity wrestling team
  9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-12-05. Retrieved 2006-12-11.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. http://www.hawksoccer.com
  11. http://www.cifss.org
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