Amador Valley High School

Region and districts Amador Valley High School, originally Amador Valley Joint Union High School, As of 2022, the Pleasanton Unified School District contained two comprehensive high schools (Amador Valley and Foothill), one continuation high school (Village), three middle schools, nine elementary schools, one preschool, and an adult education program. The school grounds are bordered on the east and southeast by Santa Rita Road, a Union Pacific railroad track on which the Altamont Corridor Express runs, and Arroyo Valle. In protest of a breakdown in negotiations, Amador Valley teachers went on a rolling strike in 1986. Amador Valley teachers are unionized under the Association of Pleasanton Teachers, California Teachers Association, and National Education Association. Amador Valley administrators censored 1999 Salutatorian Nicholas Lassonde's graduation speech for being "too religious", claiming that it "violated separation of church and state". == Academics ==

Enrollment As of the 2023–24school year, the school had an enrollment of 2,574students and 112.43classroom teachers , for a student–teacher ratio of 22.89. Seven percent of Amador Valley students are involved in special education, three percent qualify for English language learner support, and eight percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. School enrollment grew 27% between 2000 and 2005, primarily because of new residential development. After 2005, enrollment growth slowed to an average of four percent per half-decade as of 2020. Enrollment across the Pleasanton Unified School District peaked during the 2018–19schoolyear, with yearly declines since 2021–22. The enrollment decline accelerated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Amador Valley reached a peak enrollment of 2,744 students during 2020–21schoolyear. The school district forecasted that enrollment at Amador Valley would fall by nearly 500 students by 2028. A school board trustee attributed a decline in interest in the district's Spanish dual immersion program with the increase in Asian students. The school is a four-time California Distinguished School and a three-time National Blue Ribbon School. Nine of Amador Valley's teachers have been recognized as a Pleasanton Unified School District teacher of the year; one of those honorees was designated an Alameda County teacher of the year. As of 2022, the largest teaching departments at the school were English language, social sciences, and mathematics, with 18–20teaching staff each (on a FTE basis). As of 2023, 96.5percent of the school's four-year adjusted cohort achieved the graduation standards, with 77.0percent achieving the more stringent University of California and California State University requirements for entry. As of 2021, the school's curriculum offered 24Advanced Placement (AP) classes. This includes courses in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), social sciences, visual and performing arts, and AP Language courses and their literature complements in English, French, Japanese, and Spanish. Amador Valley's AP program is participated in by 45.4percent of its students, of which 94.3percent receive at least one score of 3 or greater. . The school offers specialized instruction through vocational education as part of the Tri-Valley Regional Occupational Program. As of the 2021–22school year, 28.6percent of seniors participated in a vocational education program. Business class students at Amador Valley have been selected as one of three California high schools to pitch Got Milk? advertising campaign ideas to the California Milk Processor Board. The Amador Valley science department initiated Project Creek Watch in 1994. The project provides students with resources for the long term study of Arroyo Valle; these resources include information about the chemistry in the creek, images of the creek, a guide to flora and fauna, and student projects on aquatic species. The project received a Golden Bell Award for excellence in education from the California School Boards Association. A Project Creek Watch co-founder won a 2001 "Internet Innovator Award" from National Semiconductor for development of the website and associated curricula. == Extracurricular activities ==

Athletics . Amador Valley has offered athletic programs since 1932. Athletics at Amador Valley are funded by parental donations and the Athletics Boosters. The school district provides facilities and an athletic trainer for the sports programs at Amador and Foothill, but has provided no monetary support to athletics since 2008 due to statewide cuts in funding. Several school teams have won multiple North Coast Section Division I titles since 2010, including baseball/softball, cross country (girls), golf (girls), track (boys), and volleyball (boys). The school's basketball teams were runners-up for the CIF State Division II title in 1993 (boys) The national We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution competition takes place each spring in Washington, D.C. At the competition, students compete to "demonstrate their constitutional knowledge and understanding of federal government in mock congressional hearings". The Amador Valley "We the People" team has represented the state of California at the national competition 20 times since 1992, The Judiciary of California, as part of its Civic Learning Initiative, awarded the Civic Learning Award of Merit to Amador Valley in 2014, in part because of the "We the People" program. The East Bay Times called Amador Valley's "We The People" team "one of the top programs in the country". Math and computer science clubs at Amador Valley host outreach events and participate in competitions. The Mathematical Association of America placed Amador Valley High School on its School Honor Roll in 2019 (one of 26 nationwide), 2020 (one of 15 nationwide), and 2021 (one of 33 nationwide) for performance on the American Mathematics Competitions 12A series; multiple Amador Valley students qualified for the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad in those same three years. The Math Team has ranked in the top10 teams seventimes in the nationwide Fall Startup Event since 2012, including a 2ndplace finish in 2018. The Math Team hosts the Amador Valley Geometry Bee, modeled after the Scripps National Spelling Bee. This competition invites students from Amador Valley, Foothill, and the district's three middle schools to compete in timed rounds. The style of the competition consists of rounds of tenquestions each, deviating from the traditional spelling bee format. As of 2017, the band program had 320students. The band and colorguard have been invited multiple times to perform at the annual London New Year's Day Parade and Fiesta Bowl National Band Championship. Robotics diver guides the Amador Valley AUV during the International RoboSub competition at the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific in San Diego. Amador Valley features at least two separate robotics teams, both competing in different international and collegiate-level autonomous vehicle competitions hosted by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). The Amador Valley Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) team, founded in 2018, participates in the annual AUVSI Student Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) Competition. The UAV team develops a drone to compete aerial missions, including autonomous flight, remote sensing, obstacle avoidance, robotic mapping, and air delivery. In 2022, the Amador Valley UAV team placed second among collegiate teams in its inaugural competition. The team's drone, Boreas, is a coaxial octocopter able to fly at a full speed of for up to 30 minutes. Since 1997, the Office of Naval Research and RoboNation (previously the AUVSI Foundation) has sponsored an annual, international Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) competition called RoboSub. The Amador Valley AUV team, founded in 1999, participates annually in this competition. Amador's AUV team was the "first high school team at the competition", and each year develops an autonomous submarine that can maneuver an underwater obstacle course. In 2001 and 2022, the Amador Valley AUV team placed second among collegiate teams in the main competition. == Notable alumni ==

Notable Amador Valley alumni include former National Football League players Nate Boyer, Chris Geile, Rick Kane, Greg Kragen, Scott Peters, and Joe Terry. Other athletes that graduated from Amador include soccer player Jacob Akanyirige, soccer player Kevin Crow, golfer Joel Kribel, basketball player Kevin Laue, and softball player Danielle Williams. American-Canadian game show host Jim Perry, Broadway singer and actress Donna Theodore, health advocate for ethnic minorities Janet Liang, journalist and community activist Abby Martin, Alameda County district attorney Tom Orloff, novelist Francine Rivers, and shooting victim Kate Steinle. == References ==