Los Altos High School is a comprehensive four-year public education

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

located in the

bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

Hacienda Heights, California Hacienda Heights () is an unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated bedroom community, suburban community in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the community had a total population of 54,191, up from 54 ...

, United States, in eastern Los Angeles County.

History

The school was founded in 1958 as the second of seven high schools in the former La Puente Union High School District. It is now one of four high schools in the

Hacienda La Puente Unified School District The Hacienda La Puente Unified School District (HLPUSD) is a school district located in Southern California. It is the largest school district in the east San Gabriel Valley in terms of student population, serving 20,000 students from the uninco ...

, which was created in 1970 by a vote of the electorate unifying four high schools and the Hudson Elementary School District. Enrollment levels of the school have varied over the years. In 1978, it reached its highest enrollment, of 2,850 students. In the early 1990s the enrollment dropped to about 1,500. It currently hovers around 2,100.

Sports

Football

Los Altos High School Football has a long history of CIF Championships, especially during the coaching period of Dwayne DeSpain from 1966 to 1996. In August 2022, Los Altos High School dedicated the football field, re-naming it the 'Dwayne DeSpain Field'.

Boys' Volleyball

The Boys' Volleyball team won the CIF Division IV Title in 2019 for the first time in school history by defeating the Windward Wildcats. This was Los Altos' first championship appearance since back-to-back title losses in 1984 and '85.

Girls' Water Polo

The Girls' Water Polo team won the CIF Division V Title in 2015 for the first time in school history by defeating number one-seeded

Palm Desert High School Palm Desert High School is a secondary school located in Palm Desert, California. The school is a part of the Desert Sands Unified School District. Academics Palm Desert offers numerous Advanced Placement and Honors courses, amongst CP classes ...

8-7.

Los Altos Academy of Engineering

The Los Altos Academy of Engineering was founded in 1989 by Robert Franz, (a science teacher at the time). It started as a joint program between the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District and the La Puente Valley Regional Occupational Program. They have won awards for building and racing a solar car in international competition, and won 1st place in the DaimlerChrysler/Trellis Build Your Dream Vehicle Competition in 2005 and 2006. From 2007 to 2009 the Academy's engineering students competed in the Shell Eco-Marathon Americas, taking 1st place in the hydrogen division in 2007 and presenting the first hydrogen internal combustion engine to compete in 2008.

Los Altos Visual and Performing Arts Academy

The Visual and Performing Arts Academy (VPAA) is a cross-curricular program. The program is available to students for performing arts on a higher level. The five areas that comprise the VPAA (drama, dance, instrumental and vocal music, and technology) come together for spring productions.

Notable alumni

* Phillip Bladh -

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

winning production sound mixer of the film

Sound of Metal ''Sound of Metal'' is a 2019 American drama film directed and co-written by Darius Marder. It stars Riz Ahmed as a metal drummer who loses his hearing, and also features Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci, Lauren Ridloff, and Mathieu Amalric. ''Soun ...

* Travis Brown - former New Mexico Lobo standout (two-time 1st Team All-MWC) and NFL football player (St. Louis Rams) * Shaun Cody - Parade All American, former USC Trojan Star, former NFL player, now current commentator for the USC Trojans * Renae Cuéllar - former player for

Mexico Women's National Football Team The Mexico women's national football team (Spanish: ''Selección Nacional de México Femenil'') represents Mexico in international Women's association football, women's football. The team is governed by the Mexican Football Federation and compe ...

Jenn Im Jennifer Dohee Im (born September 22, 1990) is an American fashion beauty vlogger and fashion designer. She is best known for her YouTube channel, previously titled ''ClothesEncounters'', which began in 2010 and reached approximately 2.4 millio ...

- beauty vlogger and fashion designer * Bob May - former

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

golfer, lost to

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins, PGA Tour wins, ranks second in List of men's major championships winning golfers, men's m ...

in a playoff at the

2000 PGA Championship The 2000 PGA Championship was the 82nd PGA Championship, held August 17–20 at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky. It was the second time for the event at Valhalla, which hosted four years earlier in 1996. Tiger Woods won his second ...

* Michael Smith - former All-America basketball player at BYU and first-round pick of the Boston Celtics (13th overall), current television and color announcer for the

Los Angeles Clippers The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. The ...

Troy Tanner Troy Richard Tanner (born October 31, 1963) is an American former volleyball player and Olympic gold medalist. He was a member of the United States men's national volleyball team that won the gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. Ear ...

- former member of the national men's volleyball team, which played at the Seoul Olympic Games (1988) * Joseph Vargas - former US National Team water polo player; helped US National Team win silver at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

John Vargas John Vargas is an American actor best known for his roles in the films ''Primary Colors'' and '' Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan''. Early life John Vargas was born in the Bronx and moved to Puerto Rico when his father Juan A. Maldonado was kill ...

- former US National Team water polo player; helped US National Team to fourth place finish at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

;

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

Men's Water Polo Head Coach * Eric Winter - actor * Alan Foster - MLB Baseball Player

References

External links

Los Altos High School webpage
{{authority control Public high schools in Los Angeles County, California Hacienda Heights, California 1958 establishments in California Educational institutions established in 1958