Santa Susana High School

Santa Susana High School is one of four high schools located in Simi Valley, California, USA. The school campus was formally known as Sequoia Junior High School into June 1995 when it was converted into the present day high school. The school colors are silver, black, white and teal. The school is part of the Simi Valley Unified School District, and the mascot is the Troubadour.

It is a magnet school, and has three separate areas of emphasis: the Arts, Technology, and Academics. It is also a school of choice, meaning that a student must fill out an application and be accepted before attending. This is a somewhat selective process because the school is small, with only about 1250 students enrolled and a total faculty of 54.

Santa Susana is widely known for its superior academics and diverse student population. Students, staff and parents say what they appreciate most about the school is the free atmosphere - it is unlike other typical high schools in which cliques and bullying are a problem. Because the school is rather small, everyone knows a majority of the rest of the student body.

U.S. News and Report awarded the school the Silver Medal in the first annual list of America's Best High Schools in 2007. That year it also received the Golden Bell Award from the California School Board Association for Invigorating High Schools. With an API (Achademic Performance Index) score of 821, it remains as one of the highest ranking schools in the area.

Santa Susana is also unique because unlike most other high schools throughout the country, it does not offer a competitive sports program. However, it does offer a vast array of extracurricular activities (many of which have won major awards in recent years), including Dance Team, Yearbook Staff, and clubs concerning topics that range from environmentalism to community service and journalism.

As one of the highest ranking schools academically in the area, it also provides a long list of challenging and rigorous courses of study. It offers many of the Advanced Placement classes sponsored by the College Board (AP English, Calculus AB and BC, Computer Science, Studio Art, World and U.S. History, Spanish, and Government/Economics just to name a few) as well as many Honors courses in addition.

It is also known for its ROP (work experience) programs and vast array of performing, visual, and technical arts that art available. Depending on the academy of enrollment, students may take classes in music theory, photography, video production, music (orhcestra), dance, stagecraft, web design, drama, graphics design, or drawing/painting.

External links

* [http://www.santasusana.org Santa Susana High School Official Website]