Bell Gardens High School

Infobox High School|
name= Bell Gardens High School
principal= Victor V. Chavez
established= 1947
type= Public
location= Bell Gardens, California
United States
enrollment= 3626
colors= Cardinal, Maroon, and Gray
website= [http://www.bhs.montebello.k12.ca.us School Website] |

Bell Gardens High School is a High School in Bell Gardens, California.BGHS, located at 6119 Agra Street, Bell Gardens, CA 90201, is part of the Montebello Unified School District.BGHS' mascot is the Lancer. The school colors are cardinal, grey, and maroon. The school was built around the 1930s and 1940s and was primarily white. It serves students from Bell Gardens, Commerce, and parts of Downey. BGHS ranked in at 945 out of the top 1000 High School in America according to Newsweek magazine in 2006. [http://www.bhs.montebello.k12.ca.us/newsweek_may_9.htm]

Clubs

Clubs at BGHS include The Technology Club, Lancer Scroll, Charger Yearbook, ASB, Girls' League, CSF, Photography Club, Environmentalist Club, HOSA, FHA-Hero, ELD Club, Cheer, STAND, and many others.

Athletics

Bell Gardens High School competes in the CIF Southern Section Almont League composed of Alhambra High School, Mark Keppel High School, Montebello High School, Schurr High School, and San Gabriel High School.The sports that are offered consists of boys and girls soccer, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls volleyball, boys and girls water polo, boys and girls basketball, boys wrestling, baseball, track and field, softball, boys golf, boys and girls swimming, football, and girls tennis.

BOYS SOCCER

Bell Gardens High School’s boys soccer program is recognized as one of the most successful soccer programs in all of southern california. The teams have won the Almont league a total of 11 times out of the leagues 13 year history, to go along with that remarkable achievement they have won 3 C.I.F. tittles 1984. 1991. 1994 as well as a recent defeat in the finals to Anaheim Esperanza High School in 2004 by the score of 1-4. The team has been lead by head coach Orlando Brenes who has compiled an extraordinary record of 293-60-45 since being in the helm in 1982.

*In 2007-2008 season the team finished with a disappointing 13-6-4 and ending up in 2nd place in the Almont League. Their season ended prematurely in the postseason with a 0-1 defeat in the hands of Los Alamitos High School.

Curriculum

BGHS currently offers an array of courses from general ed courses like English, Math, Science to electives like Art, Web Design, Automobile Technology, Wood Shop, Culinary Arts, Journalism and Yearbook. BGHS also offers Advance Placement courses for students hoping to earn early university credits. These courses are:
*AP Biology
*AP Calculus AB
*AP Calculus BC
*AP Chemistry
*AP Comparative Government and Politics
*AP English Language and Composition
*AP English Literature and Composition
*AP Environmental Science
*AP French Language
*AP Psychology
*AP Physics B
*AP Spanish Language
*AP Spanish Literature
*AP Statistics
*AP U.S. Government and Politics
*AP U.S. History
*AP World History

Demographics

The school had 3626 students as of the 2004-2005 school year [http://www.greatschools.net/modperl/browse_school/ca/2670] .
* 94% Latino
* 2% White American
* 1% African-American
* Less than 1% Filipino American
* Less than 1% Asian American
* Less than 1% Native American

65% of Bell Gardens students were eligible for free or reduced lunch.

Southeast Student Film Festival

In 2005, BGHS placed 3rd Overall in the Southeast Student Film Festival in the city of South Gate hosted by Congressman Hector De La Torre.

Student publications

The Lancer Scroll and the Charger Yearbook are BGHS's only recurring student run publications. Both publications have been active since the school's conception in the 1940s.

The Lancer Scroll is the school's student run newspaper. It published roughly every month and is the school only vehicle for news and information. The newspaper's advisor is Cal State Northridge graduate Jose Avila.

The paper annually participates a county wide newspaper competition; The ELAJEA Write Offs. During the competition writers in News, Editorial, Sports, Feature, and Cartooning go through a 1 hour press conference with a question and answer period and they are given 1 hour to write an article on the topic. Participants in News Layout are given 2 hours to design a newspaper front page. Photographers are given 2 hours to take pictures and then 45 minutes to choose which ones they want to submit. Placing 10th through 1st in this leads to eligibility in the ELAJEA State Wide competition, which is structured in virtually the same manner.

During the 2005 Competition season, Lancer Scroll celebrated its highest number of reporters who placed in both the ELAJEA County competition and State competition. A number totalling somewhere in between 13-15 winners broke the previous record and still stands today.

The Charger Yearbook is Bell Gardens High School's annual publication. For the past 21 years the program has been headed by Whittier College graduate Stan Smith, with the exception of the 2004-2005 school year when it was advised by Benjamin McNair. The Charger Yearbook continues to be recognized as one of the top ten yearbook in the nation by the American Scholastic Press Association (1995-1999). Countless hours are dedicated by the yearbook staff to ensure accuracy, and layout design. The yearbook stands at 288+ pages, with limited color. Yearbook circulation ranges from 750-800.

Remodeling

After years of development and construction, BGHS's new three story building was finally opened on December 18th, 2005. Originally intended to open in 2001, the building's progress lagged due to legal action taken by the school and counteraction taken by the builders. Aside from this, the construction company miscalculated the dimensions and measurements of the building's foundation. In addition, classrooms that were designed to hold 40 students were inadequately built to hold only 20. The school would eventually get over the legal problems and have the building finished.

In 2005, the high school underwent a further phase of renovation when the school's athletic field, otherwise known as "Lancer Stadium", got a $1 million dollar upgrade. The gradually decaying long-standing natural dirt/grass field was replaced with a state of the art synthetic turf playing field to go along with a rubber track to surrounding it which replaced the previous dirt/ clay 440 yard track. The process commenced during the latter half of the 2004-2005 school year and was gradually completed the following spring on January of 2006.

Notable alumni

* Eddie Cochran, musician, 1950's early 1960's .
* Johnny Lee Clary
* John Force, NHRA drag racer and 14-time Funny Car division champion.
* Brenda Villa '98, water polo, 4-time HS All-American (while playing on boys team), 3-time Olympic medal winner (00,04,08) current team captain for the 2008 Olympic silver medalist, 2002 Peter J. Cutino Award recepian given to the nations best female player of the year, 3-time College All-America, member of the 2002 NCAA champions (Stanford Uni.'03).
* Michael Granville '96, track and field, 4-time SS C.I.F 800m Champion (93,94,95,96), 4 time C.I.F. Masters Champion (93,94,95,96), 2-time CA State 800m Champion (94,96), 4-time HS All-American, 1996 Gatoraide National HS Athlete of the year, High School 800 meter National record holder (1:46.45), College All-American, member of 1999 outdoors 4X400R NCAA Champions(UCLA '00).
* Sergio Macias '96, water polo, 2-time SS C.I.F. Champion (95,96), HS All-American, College All-American (Whittier College '01), Current water polo head coach at Cerritos College and Montebello High School.
* Patty Cardenas '02, water Polo, 4-time SS C.I.F. Champion (99,00,01,02), 3-time HS All-American, College All-American (USC'07), Current member of the 2008 USA Olympic silver medalist team in Beijing, China. [http://www.usoc.org/26_53818.htm]
* Jennifer Rodriguez, politics, Current Mayor of Bell Gardens. [http://www.bellgardens.org/n_council.asp?view=mayor&show=mayor]
* Reuben Chavez '03, Whittier College's Lead Football Player