San Juan Hills High School

San Juan Hills High School
Address
29211 Vista Montana San Juan Capistrano, California 92675 United States
Information
Type	Public High School
Established	2007
School district	Capistrano Unified School District
Grades	9-12
Enrollment	2240 (2013-2014)[1]
Color(s)	Navy Blue, Gold, White
Athletics conference	CIF-SS; South Coast League
Team name	Stallions
Newspaper	The Express
Yearbook	The Legacy
Website	www.sjhhs.org

San Juan Hills High School is a high school located in San Juan Capistrano, California, and it is the sixth high school of the Capistrano Unified School District. The school officially opened in the 2007-2008 school year as a new comprehensive high school and it serves the residents of San Juan Capistrano, Capistrano Beach, and southern Ladera Ranch in Orange County, California.

Test scores

In its opening year, San Juan Hills High School had an Academic Performance Index (API) of 748, and in 2009 it surpassed the district goal of 800 by reaching 810.^[2]

Controversy

There was controversy when Capistrano Unified School District was planning to open this school. The primary reason for the controversy was the changing of the district boundaries. Capistrano Beach residents, whose students previously attended San Clemente High School, feel that they are basically a part of San Clemente and some initially resisted the change. Many high school students from Ladera Ranch will now attend SJHHS, instead of Tesoro High School in Las Flores. A small number of high school students from Ladera attend Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo. There were changes to district wide boundaries, one result of which included sending all of the high school students in Mission Viejo from a split between Tesoro High School in Las Flores and Capistrano Valley High School, to just CVHS (due to the students from San Juan Capistrano, who previously attended CVHS now attending SJHHS). Dana Hills High School in Dana Point saw the loss of all its students from San Juan Capistrano and its boundaries shrunk. San Clemente High School's boundaries also became smaller, which was essentially a welcome change because the school was already overcrowded. They had over 3,000 students, now enrolling students from the growing Talega neighborhood in San Clemente.

Some residents of San Juan Capistrano have been concerned about the potential increase in traffic on Ortega Highway which leads to the school. It should be further noted that the main cause of the traffic congestion at the intersection of La Pata and Ortega Highway is due to ongoing construction—a widening of Ortega Highway (from the Antonio Parkway/La Pata intersection to Lake Elsinore) in an attempt to make that part of Ortega Highway a safer route to travel.

Now that the school is becoming more crowded residents of Ladera Ranch and the new community Rancho Mission Viejo (which is right at the intersection of La Pata and Ortega) are being sent to Tesoro High School.

Racial demographics

In 2013 the San Juan Hills student demographics were: White 54%, Hispanic 32%, Asian 3%, Other 13%^[1]

Arts and athletics

San Juan Hills has: an art program, volleyball, baseball, basketball, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, tennis, water polo, softball, cross country, surfing, swimming, and track & field teams.

References