Coronado High School (CHS) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

in Coronado, California. It is the only high school in the Coronado Unified School District. The

California Department of Education The California Department of Education is an agency within the Government of California that oversees public education. The department oversees funding and testing, and holds local educational agencies accountable for student achievement. Its sta ...

gave it a

California Distinguished School California Distinguished School is an award given by the California State Board of Education to public schools within the state that best represent exemplary and quality educational programs. Approximately 5-10% of California schools are awarded t ...

award in 2011 and two Model Continuation High School awards in 2014 and 2018. The

Coronado School of the Arts Coronado School of the Arts (CoSA) is a school-within-a-school located on the campus of Coronado High School (Coronado, California), Coronado High School in Coronado (California), Coronado, California. The school currently enrolls 155 students, o ...

(CoSA) is located on the campus of CHS.

History

Coronado High School was established in 1913. In 1939, the original building was knocked down and rebuilt as part of

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

. It was renovated again in 1961 and 2006. In the 1970's, a group of students led by former Spanish teacher Lou Villar developed what became a $100-million dollar worldwide drug smuggling operation. In 2008, the school was named a

National Blue Ribbon School The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures ...

. CHS was the only school in San Diego County to win the award. In 2016, CHS was ranked 433rd nationally and 70th amongst California high schools in th
USNews
list of "Best High Schools", out of more than 27,000 public high schools. It was awarded the

New American High Schools The New American High Schools initiative, started in 1996 under the direction of the United States Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, is a national recognition program for United States secondary schools. Description In 1996, 1998, 199 ...

designation in 1998. It offers

Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...

Classes.

Sports

Coronado Sports, with the exception of Water Polo, Swimming, Tennis, Volleyball, Golf, Basketball, Cross Country, Baseball, and Softball are played at Niedermeyer Field which was completed in 2000. The Field, which hosts Football, Boys and Girls Soccer, and Boys and Girls Lacrosse was upgraded to field turf in 2005. The campus includes an aquatics complex named the Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Complex., Three Coronado High School graduates played on the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

waterpolo team for the

2008 Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nati ...

. In 1996, Adrian Taufaasau, a Coronado High quarterback, was tackled in a game and suffered what later was termed blunt force trauma to his head and neck, dying two days later. In 2007, Tennis Coach and Teacher Robbin Adair coached the Islanders to his 1,000th win.

Tortilla throwing incident

On June 20, 2021, the boys' basketball team forfeited the CIF Division 4A Regional Basketball Championship after members of the team threw tortillas at their predominantly Latino opponents from Orange Glen High School during a victory celebration after the championship game. The move, which had previously been condemned by the League of United Latin American Citizens, prompted an investigation by the San Diego County’s Human Relations Commission. The Coronado Unified School District apologized for "racism and classism" and fired head coach J.D. Laaperi over the incident. A 40-year-old alumni of the school who had no children of his own on the team or at the school claimed that he distributed the tortillas to team members and cheerleaders because tortilla throwing was a tradition at UC Santa Barbara where he and Laaperi attended at the same time. The UCSB Alumni Association has said tortilla throwing has had to be banned because of game interruptions and "associations with racist ideology." This followed an effort in 2020 to ensure that the school districts curriculum not be updated to include a focus on racial justice. On July 6, the school board voted to "initiate litigation" thereby "enabling the Superintendent to enter the appeal process within the 15 day window," claiming their independent investigation "found no evidence warranting forfeiture of the title."

Notable graduates

* Layne Beaubien –

water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with th ...

player, 2004, 2008 & 2012 Olympics * Lisa Bruce – film producer, ''

The Theory of Everything (2014 film) ''The Theory of Everything'' is a 2014 biographical romantic drama film directed by James Marsh. Set at the University of Cambridge, it details the life of the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. It was adapted by Anthony McCarten from the ...

'' * Don Davis – Florida politician * Ken Huff – former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

offensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numb ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

. * Genai Kerr –

player, 2004 Olympics *

James Maslow James David Maslow (born July 16, 1990) is an American actor, singer and dancer. He played the role of James Diamond on Nickelodeon's ''Big Time Rush'', had roles in '' Getaway'' and ''The Frozen Ground'', and is a member of the boyband Big Time ...

- actor, dancer, model, singer *

Karlyn Pipes Karlyn Pipes (born March 18, 1962), formerly Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen, is an American swimmer from Lompoc, California. In Masters-level swimming she is one of the most decorated athletes in the history of the sport and was inducted into the Intern ...

- decorated Masters-level swimmer and author * Alan G. Poindexter –

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

* Nick Reynolds – founding member of The Kingston Trio * Jesse Smith – Olympic

player *

William Witney William Nuelsen Witney (May 15, 1915 – March 17, 2002) was an American film and television director. He is best remembered for the action films he made for Republic Pictures, particularly serials: '' Dick Tracy Returns'', '' G-Men vs. the Bl ...

– movie director

References

External links

*http://chs.coronadousd.net {{authority control High schools in San Diego County, California Coronado, California International Baccalaureate schools in California Public high schools in California Educational institutions established in 1913 1913 establishments in California es:Coronado High School