Terra Nova High School is an American public

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 Pacifica in San Mateo County,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States. It serves grades 9 through 12 as part of the

Jefferson Union High School District The Jefferson Union High School District (JUHSD) is a high school district in northern San Mateo County, California which serves the cities of Daly City, Brisbane, Pacifica, and the town of Colma. Its district office is located at the former ...

History

Terra Nova High School was established in 1961 to serve the growing population in the Linda Mar district of southern Pacifica. Students attended from Vallemar, Rockaway Beach, Mori Point, Fairway, Sharp Park and Pacific Manor districts until

Oceana High School Oceana High School is a small public high school in northern Pacifica, California. Offering an alternative college preparatory program, the school serves just over 600 students in grades nine through twelve. The school is one of five public s ...

was completed the following year.

Campus

The original buildings and campus were designed by Mark Falk & Corwin Booth (of Falk & Booth). The main building originally had only two stories when the school opened in 1961. Portables were added to the rear of the school campus to accommodate the increase in students and need for more classrooms. A major facilities remodel was completed in 1998, and construction of a 400+ seat theater and a new science building began in early 2010 and was completed in 2012.

Demographics

According to '' U.S. News & World Report'', 62% of Terra Nova's student body is "of color," with 22% of the student body coming from economically disadvantaged households, determined by student eligibility for California's

Reduced-price meal Reduced-price meal is a term used in the United States to describe a federally reimbursable meal, or snack, served to a qualified child when the family of the child's income is between 130 and 185 percent of the US federal poverty threshold. Scho ...

program.

Academics

Curriculum

Terra Nova 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 ...

courses in

US History The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely ...

, European History,

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

Environmental Science Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geograp ...

US Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

, Language and Composition,

Literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

Studio Art An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. Art schools can offer elementary, secondary, post-seco ...

Music Theory Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

, and Calculus AB.

Standardized testing

In 2011, Terra Nova scored an

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standa ...

of 801, the sixth highest in

San Mateo County San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the county seat, and the third most populated city following Daly ...

. By 2013, the last year on record, the school had scored 792, the second highest in the Jefferson Union school district. The state of California replaced the API system with the California School Dashboard system in 2017, in order to provide "a fuller picture of how districts and schools are addressing the needs of their students while also identifying the specific strengths and areas in need of improvement." For the school year 2018-2019, Terra Nova scored 6.3 points above the state average in English Language Arts, but 40.4 points below standard in Math. It ranked above average for both Campus Climate - with an annual suspension rate of 5.6% - and Academic Engagement - with a graduation rate (measured by the percentage who received a high school diploma within 4–5 years of entering 9th grade or completed their graduation requirements at an alternative school) of 94.7%.

Extracurricular activities

All-School Marching Band walking into Tiger Stadium

Terra Nova has an award-winning marching band, which won first place in their division at the Foothill Band Review in 2007 and 2009. The marching band received the Sweepstakes award at the 2008 and 2009 Fog Fests. Most recently the marching band won 2nd place at championships 2016 in Napa The Terra Nova drama department performs spring and fall productions, often produced in conjunction with directors from the local theatre company, the Pacifica Spindrift Players. The school's student-run newspaper is the ''Terra Nova Times'' and has won awards from the Peninsula Press Club. Terra Nova has had a team on the Bay Area's ''

Quiz Kids ''Quiz Kids'' is a radio and TV series originally broadcast in the 1940s and 1950s. Created by Chicago public relations and advertising man Louis G. Cowan, and originally sponsored by Alka-Seltzer, the series was first broadcast on NBC from Chic ...

'' show since the show's debut. Terra Nova also offers a wide variety of sports, including

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

cheer leading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

, cross country,

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

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 the ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

, and

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

. Numerous teams have won PAL championships yearly and CCS. FOOTBALL -CIF CCS Championships 1982- II North Head Coach Bob Lotti - Terra Nova(11-1) 27-6 vs.Westmoor(7-4) 1988- II North Head Coach Mike Gunning - Terra Nova(9-3) 7-6 vs. Carlmont(10-2) 2010- Division III Head Coach Bill Gray - Terra Nova(9-4) 35-13 vs. Monterey(11-2) 2014- Division IV Head Coach Tim Adams - Terra Nova(7-6) 43-23 vs. Monte Vista Christian(10-3) Baseball has sent several players to the Majors, including

Greg Reynolds Gregory Adam Reynolds (born July 3, 1985) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball for the Colorado Rockies and the Cincinnati Reds. Amateur career Reynolds was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies ...

Bob McClure Robert Craig McClure (born April 29, 1952) is an American former professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher from 1975 to 1993, most notably as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers with whom he ...

, and

Keith Hernandez Keith Hernandez (born October 20, 1953) is an American former Major League Baseball first baseman who played the majority of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets. Hernandez was a five-time All-Star who shared the 1979 NL MVP ...

(11-time 1st Base

Rawlings Gold Glove Award The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as simply the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position in bo ...

winner,

Major League Baseball All-Star Game The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual professional baseball game sanctioned by Major League Baseball (MLB) and contested between the all-stars from the American League (AL) and National ...

player, and hitting champ for several years).

Notable alumni

Mike Buskey Michael Thomas Buskey (born January 13, 1949) is an American former professional baseball infielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies in . Buskey batted and threw right-handed. During his playing days, he sto ...

, Class of 1967, former

Major League Baseball 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 for

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

, attended during his freshman year in 1967-1968 but transferred to nearby Capuchino High School for the remainder of his high school years; Major League Baseball first baseman for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

and

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

Royals' coach McClure pride of County baseball
''

Oakland Tribune The ''Oakland Tribune'' is a weekly newspaper published in Oakland, California, by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of MediaNews Group. Founded in 1874, the ''Tribune'' rose to become an influential daily newspaper. With the declin ...

'', August 22, 2007. "McClure and Hernandez played together at Terra Nova High before Hernandez transferred to Capuchino." *

, Class of 1970, Major League Baseball relief pitcher for seven teams, most prominently the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

Rob Schneider Robert Michael Schneider (; born October 31, 1963) is an American actor, comedian, and screenwriter. A stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'', he went on to a career in feature films, including starri ...

, Class of 1982, actor, comedian, and screenwriter *

Sara Zarr Sara Zarr (born October 3, 1970) is an American writer. She was raised in San Francisco, and now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband. Her first novel, '' Story of a Girl'', was a 2007 National Book Award finalist. She has subsequently ...

, Class of 1988, writer * Mike Lockwood, Class of 1989, professional Wrestler *

, Class of 2003, the

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fie ...

' No. 1 draft choice in 2006 (Major League Baseball), and Rockies starting pitcher in the 2008 season *

Eugene Gu Eugene Gu (born March 5, 1986) is an American physician and social media personality. While he was in medical school, he founded a company called Ganogen to develop methods to use fetal tissue implants in organ transplantation. Work at Ganogen ha ...

, Class of 2004,

Physician-scientist A physician-scientist is traditionally a holder of a medical degree and a doctor of philosophy also known as an MD-PhD. Compared to other clinicians, physician-scientists invest significant time and professional effort in scientific research and ...

and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the

Ganogen Research Institute Eugene Gu (born March 5, 1986) is an American physician and social media personality. While he was in medical school, he founded a company called Ganogen to develop methods to use fetal tissue implants in organ transplantation. Work at Ganogen ha ...

* Anthony Gordon, Class of 2015, Quarterback for the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

formerly for

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...

References

External links

Terra Nova High School website

Terra Nova High School sports page

JUHSD website

Great Schools profile

Terra Nova Robotics
{{authority control Jefferson Union High School District schools Educational institutions established in 1961 Pacifica, California High schools in San Mateo County, California Public high schools in California 1961 establishments in California