California Saratoga High School

It is ranked No. 1 Best College Prep Public High School in California according to Niche.

Saratoga High School
Address
20300 Herriman Avenue Saratoga , California 95070 United States
Coordinates	37°15′58″N 122°1′44″W / 37.26611°N 122.02889°W / 37.26611; -122.02889
Information
School type	Public high school Public
Mottoes	Stronger Toga-ther, It's a great day to be a Falcon
Established	1959
School district	Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District
Superintendent	Bill Sanderson
Rector	Erick
Principal	Greg Louie
Staff	63.75 (on an FTE basis)
Grades	9–12
Years offered	9-12
Enrollment	1,248 (2021–22)
Student to teacher ratio	19.58
Color(s)	Scarlet, navy blue, and grey
Athletics conference	Santa Clara Valley Athletic League
Nickname	The Nest
Teams	Football, Basketball(M&W), Water Polo(M&W), History Bowl
Team name	Falcons
Rival	none(unrivaled)
Accreditation	WASC
Newspaper	http://www.saratogafalcon.org/
Yearbook	The Talisman
Communities served	Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Los Gatos
Feeder schools	Redwood Middle School
Feeder to	West Valley CC, NYU, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCR, CSU San Jose, CSU Cal Poly, Davenport College
Website	http://www.saratogahigh.org/

Saratoga High School is consistently designated a top academic high school. It is one of two schools in the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District, which is ranked the Best School District in California.

Saratoga High School has a four-year Project Lead the Way engineering program, and is ranked No. 23 in the U.S. for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The school offers 35 honors and Advanced Placement courses.

The graduation rate is 99%, and 97% of students attend college. It is jointly accredited by the California Department of Education and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Student enrollment averages around 1300, with a student-teacher ratio of approximately 20:1. It is a diverse high school, with total minority enrollment of 75%. The school community includes families that speak 39 languages.^{[citation not found]}

In 2017, Saratoga High School was named a California Gold Ribbon School for the strength of its Student Support Programs and its focus on Social Emotional Learning.

Athletics

 

The Saratoga Falcons compete in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) of the CIF Central Coast Section (CCS).

More than 60% of students participate in Saratoga High School athletics. From 2015 to 2020, every varsity team competed in the CCS playoffs; titles and runners up were earned in Boys and Girls Tennis, Boys and Girls Basketball, Boys Cross Country, Boys Volleyball, and Badminton. In addition, individual medals were won in Wrestling and Boys and Girls Track and Field. In 2019, the Boys Golf Team finished No. 4 in California. Boys Volleyball won two Northern California championships in 2016 and 2017.

Saratoga Football has won five CIF Central Coast Section championships: 1973, 1976, 1980, 1987, 1996. The team formerly played night games at Los Gatos High School; in April 2006, the Trustees of the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District approved permanent lights for the football field.

SHS Baseball won a Division II CCS championship in 1999.

In 2009, the girls' varsity tennis team defeated rival Monta Vista High School 5-2 for their first CCS championship in the history of the program and went on to win the title again in 2010.

Theater Arts and Music

Performing Arts is a strong area of achievement at Saratoga High School. Almost 40% of students perform onstage through theater arts, vocal ensembles and instrumental music. The Saratoga Strings orchestra performed in the prestigious Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago, Illinois in 2018 and 2023. The Marching Band and Color Guard marched in the 2016 Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. The Marching Band participated in the 2012 Macy's Parade in New York City.

Chess team

At the 2005 National Grade Level Chess Championships in Houston, the 9th graders were national champions. The team won the NorCal State Championship for a record six consecutive years (2004–2010).^{[citation needed]}

Science Bowl team

The Science Bowl team qualified for the 2023 National Science Bowl competition in Washington DC.^{[citation needed]}

 

The school has 8 tennis courts, an all weather track, an artificial turf football field, an artificial turf soccer field, an artificial turf softball field, aptly named Rector Field after alumnus and 12th grade English teacher Erick Rector, a quad, and an Olympic-size swimming pool. The McAfee Performing Arts and Lecture Center, a community facility, opened in 2006.

• Mark Ames (1983) – journalist
• Zach Gill (1993) – musician
• Lance Guest (1978) – actor
• Lee Hancock (1985) – MLB player
• Bill Haselman (1984) – MLB player and coach
• Andrew Hong (2023) – Chess grandmaster
• Dan Janjigian (1991) – actor and bobsledder
• Alex Lagemann (2007) – musician
• Beth Lisick (1987) – author
• Patricia Miranda (1997) – bronze medalist in wrestling at 2004 Summer Olympics
• Cyndy Poor (1971) – 1976 Olympian and American record holder
• Anil Raj (2002) – human rights activist, Amnesty International board member, killed in Kabul while working on United Nations Development Programme.
• Kyle Shanahan (1993) – head coach of NFL's San Francisco 49ers
• Varun Sivaram (2007) – Rhodes Scholar, CTO of ReNew Power, and author
• Ed Solomon (1978) – actor, director, writer and producer
• Steven Spielberg (1965) – Academy Award-winning film director
• Carrie Steinseifer (1986) – 1984 Olympic swimmer
• Mark Suciu (2010) – professional skateboarder
• Vienna Teng (1996) – singer-songwriter
• David Warshofsky (1979) – actor

• Suicide of Audrie Pott