Saratoga High School is a grade 9–12, public high school located in Saratoga, California. It is ranked No. 1 Best College Prep Public High School in California according to Niche.

Academics

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 The Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District (formerly Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District) is a high school district in the greater San Jose, California, U.S. area. It operates two high schools, and is ranked the Best Schoo ...

, 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 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 ...

and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Student enrollment averages around 1300, with a student-teacher ratio of 20:1. It is a diverse high school, with total minority enrollment of 75%. The school community includes families that speak 39 languages. In 2017, Saratoga High School was named a

California Gold Ribbon 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 ...

for the strength of its Student Support Programs and its focus on Social Emotional Learning.

Activities

Athletics

The Saratoga Falcons compete in the

Santa Clara Valley Athletic League Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) is a high school athletic conference and part of the CIF Central Coast Section of the California Interscholastic Federation. Its 14+ member schools are in the northern part of the Santa Clara Valley. Each ...

(SCVAL) of the

CIF Central Coast Section The Central Coast Section (CCS) is the governing body of public and private high school athletics in the portion of California encompassing San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, Monterey County, San Benito County, Santa Cruz County and a few pri ...

(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 Los Gatos High School (LGHS) is a high school in Los Gatos, California. It was founded in 1908 and is part of the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District, which in 2021 was ranked the best high school district in Caliifornia The sc ...

; 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 Monta Vista High School is a four-year public high school located in the Silicon Valley city of Cupertino, California, US. Part of the Fremont Union High School District, the school serves most of the suburban residential and industrial technolog ...

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. 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).

Campus

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, a quad, and an Olympic-size swimming pool.Burleigh, Nina.
Sexting, Shame and Suicide
" '' Rolling Stone''. September 17, 2013. Retrieved November 4, 2013. The McAfee Performing Arts and Lecture Center, a community facility, opened in 2006.

Notable alumni

* Mark Ames (1983) – journalist * Zach Gill (1993) – musician * Lance Guest (1978) – actor *

Lee Hancock Leland David Hancock (born June 7, 1967) is an American former professional baseball player. He played two seasons in Major League Baseball as a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Hancock was selected by the Seattle Mariners in the fourth round ...

(1985) –

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

player *

Bill Haselman William Joseph Haselman (born May 25, 1966) is an American professional baseball coach and former player. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 13 seasons between 1990 and 2003. A first-round selection in the 1987 MLB draft, h ...

(1984) – MLB player and coach *

Dan Janjigian Daniel Armen Janjigian ( arm, Դանիէլ Ջանջիգյան; born April 30, 1972) is an Armenian-American former bobsledder, former actor, and political candidate. He competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics, representing Armenia. He earned 33rd pl ...

(1991) – actor and bobsledder *

Alex Lagemann Alexander Robert Lagemann (born July 28, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter, TV personality, and former collegiate athlete. During his time playing football at UC Berkeley, he began making hip-hop music, which eventually led him to start the ...

(2007) – musician *

Beth Lisick Beth Lisick (born December 13, 1968 in Saratoga, California) is an American writer, performer, and author of six books. With Arline Klatte, she co-founded the Porchlight Storytelling Series of spoken word performances in San Francisco in 2002. H ...

(1987) – author *

Patricia Miranda Patricia Noriko Miranda (born June 11, 1979 in Manteca, California) is a former American collegiate wrestler. She is the first American woman in Olympic history to receive a medal in woman's Olympic wrestling, winning the bronze ...

(1997) – bronze medalist in wrestling at

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

* Cyndy Poor (1971) – 1976 Olympian and American record holder *

Anil Raj Anil Raj (April 1, 1984 – November 24, 2019) was an American human rights activist who served on the board of Amnesty International. He was killed on November 24, 2019 while working on the United Nations Development Programme when the vehicle ...

(2002) – human rights activist,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

board member, killed in Kabul while working on United Nations Development Programme. *

Kyle Shanahan Kyle Michael Shanahan (born December 14, 1979) is an American football coach who is the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). He came to prominence as the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, whos ...

(1993) – head coach of NFL's San Francisco 49ers *

Varun Sivaram Varun Srinivasan Sivaram (born 1989) is an American physicist and political advisor on clean energy technology and climate change policy. He is senior advisor to U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry as his senior director for ...

(2007) – Rhodes Scholar, CTO of ReNew Power, and author *

Ed Solomon Edward James Solomon (born September 15, 1960) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for writing the screenplays to ''Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'' (1989), ''Men in Black'' (1997), and '' Now You See Me'' (2013). Life and career Solo ...

(1978) – actor, director, writer and producer * Steven Spielberg (1965) – Academy Award-winning film director * Carrie Steinseifer (1986) – 1984 Olympic swimmer *

Mark Suciu Mark Suciu (pronounced Soo-Choo) (Born August 3, 1992) is an American professional skateboarder from Saratoga, CA, based out of New York City. In 2021, Suciu was named ''Thrashers Skater of the Year. Early life and education Mark Suciu ...

(2010) – professional skateboarder * Vienna Teng (1996) – singer-songwriter *

David Warshofsky David Warshofsky (born David A. Warner; February 23, 1961) is an American film, television and stage actor. Life and career Warshofsky was born David A. WarnerAccording to the State of California. ''California Birth Index, 1905-1995''. Center fo ...

(1979) – actor

Notes

External links

Saratoga High School official web site

Saratoga High School principals
{{Authority control Educational institutions established in 1959 Saratoga, California High schools in Santa Clara County, California Public high schools in California 1959 establishments in California