Great Oak High School is a public high school that lies at the base of Wolf Valley in Temecula, California, USA, in the Temecula Valley Unified School District. In 2009 and 2010, Great Oak High School was listed in Newsweek's annual top 1000 high schools in America. As of 2022, GOHS is ranked #1,097 nationally and ranked 157th in the State of California.[3] Great Oak High School has been a California Distinguished School since 2009[4] and is also a California Gold Ribbon School.

Great Oak High School
Address
Map
32555 Deer Hollow Way

,
92592

Information
Established2004
School districtTemecula Valley Unified School District
PrincipalAimee Ricken
Faculty120.78 (FTE)[1]
Grades9th - 12th
Enrollment3,043 (2022-23)[1]
Student to teacher ratio25.19[1]
Color(s)      True Red, Navy Blue, White
MascotWolfpack
RivalTemecula Valley High School[2]
WebsiteGreat Oak High School

In addition to an array of AP courses, Great Oak also offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. It has been an IB World School since 2006.[5]

Athletics edit

Great Oak High School's athletic teams are known as the Wolfpack and compete in California's CIF Southern Section. The school has boys' football, girls' and boys' basketball, girls' volleyball, girls' and boys' tennis, girls' and boys' water polo, girls' and boys' swimming, girls' and boys' golf, girls' and boys' soccer, track and field, cross country, boys' wrestling, baseball and softball, and girls' and boys' lacrosse. During the 2015-2016 school year, the school was able to include a Boys' Volleyball team which will compete against other schools in the CIF section.

State titles edit

• Boys’ Baseball: 2019 CIF — Division 3 California State Champions

Competition Cheer, Dance and Step Teams edit

Great Oak High School has varsity and junior varsity Competition Cheerleading teams that compete in the Southern California Varsity/USA and Jamz competitions. Also competing for GOHS are varsity and junior varsity dance and step teams. The Great Oak Step Team is nationally recognized and in 2015 received 3rd place at the National Step Association nationals in Florida.

National Titles edit

  • Varsity Competition Cheer: 2015 National Champion (Varsity Show Cheer Level 2 Large), 2015 Jamz School Nationals, Las Vegas, Nevada.[9]
  • Varsity Competition Cheer: 2014 National Champion, 2014 Jamz School Nationals, Las Vegas, Nevada.[10]

Activities edit

Great Oak High School features more than 120 clubs and student organizations to appeal to a wide variety of extracurricular interests. Of these, five are competitive (Cybersecurity, Academic Decathlon, Mock Trial, Science Olympiad, Speech & Debate) and three are academic (California Scholarship Federation, National Honor Society, Spanish National Honor Society).[11]

Great Oak High School's Speech & Debate Club regularly competes within the Citrus Belt Speech Region. They are currently ranked 19th in the National Forensics League Southern California District. In Debate they compete in Congressional Debate, Parliamentary Debate, and Public Forum Debate. For Speech the events they compete in are Original Oratory, Original Advocacy, Oratorical Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Thematic Interpretation, Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, and Impromptu. In 2010-2011, they sent two students to the California High School Speech Association's State Tournament while in 2011-2012 they sent one.

In 2022, Great Oak Cybersecurity won the California Mayor's Cyber Cup (CMCC) which was honored by the Temecula City Council.

At the California High School Speech Association's 54th State Tournament Great Oak had its first finalist win. One student placed 7th in the Speech Tournament against over 1,000 speakers from all over the state.[12]

Campus accommodations edit

The school, which opened in August 2004, has 124 classrooms, of which several are specialized to meet the requirements of the curriculum including 6 open-use computer labs; 2 business computer labs; 14 science labs; a library; a foods and nutrition kitchen; ROTC with office and wardrobe rooms; 3 art rooms (1 ceramics); a computer repair classroom; a TV Video production studio; a print shop; a drafting room; construction technology; automotive repair shop; a gymnasium (which includes a dance room, a wrestling room, and a weight room); and the performing arts complex (which includes a band room, a choir room, and a black box drama room). The campus also includes athletic fields for baseball, softball, and soccer, outdoor basketball and volleyball courts, sand volleyball courts, 8 outdoor tennis courts and a stadium with a synthetic turf football/soccer field and rubberized track. A swim complex was completed in 2005, and an addition was completed during the 2017-18 school year. During the summer of 2015, the school installed solar panels throughout campus and the senior parking lot to increase energy efficiency and save money.

Notable alumni edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c "Great Oak High". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  2. ^ Shultz, Craig. "Sugar Bowl Not Always Sweet". Californian. Retrieved August 9, 2012.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ "Great Oak High School in Temecula, CA".
  4. ^ "California Distinguished Schools Awardees 2009 - California Distinguished Schools Program (CA Dept of Education)".
  5. ^ "Great Oak High School".
  6. ^ a b "Past Championship Records and Results through 2014 :Cross Country" (PDF). California Interscholastic Federation. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 1, 2015. Retrieved November 29, 2015.
  7. ^ "- News".
  8. ^ "Repeat Champions & New Team Course Records Highlight 29th Annual CIF State Cross Country Championships - California Interscholastic Federation". www.cifstate.org. Retrieved February 26, 2016.
  9. ^ "20150220 - JAMZ School Nationals" (PDF). February 20, 2015. Retrieved July 4, 2015. Great Oak High School, Score: 92.77%, Rank: 1
  10. ^ BANDONG, PAUL. "GOHS Competition Cheer Wins Jamz Nationals – Looking Forward to USA National Championships". My Valley News. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  11. ^ "Great Oak Clubs". www.tvusd.k12.ca.us. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
  12. ^ FISCHETTI, PETER. "TEMECULA: Student wows speech judges". Press Enterprise. Retrieved May 19, 2012.
  13. ^ Stephanie Malherbe. nbcolympics.com

33°27′10″N 117°05′33″W / 33.45278°N 117.09250°W / 33.45278; -117.09250