Mark Keppel High School

Last updated

Mark Keppel High School
The Aztec.jpg
Address
Mark Keppel High School
501 East Hellman Avenue

Alhambra
,
California
91801

United States
Coordinates 34°04′12″N118°06′59″W / 34.069996°N 118.116524°W / 34.069996; -118.116524
Information
TypePublic Secondary
OpenedFebruary 5, 1940;84 years ago (1940-02-05) [1]
PrincipalAlejandra Perez
Staff84.15 (FTE) [2]
Grades9–12
Enrollment2,205 (2022-23) [2]
Student to teacher ratio26.20 [2]
Color(s)  
Athletics conference Almont League
CIF Southern Section
Nickname Aztecs
Rival Alhambra High School
NewspaperThe Aztec
Website mkhs.org
[3]

Mark Keppel High School (MKHS) is a four-year California Distinguished School located in the city of Alhambra, California, in the Alhambra Unified School District. [4] The school is in a residential neighborhood, directly south of the abutting Interstate 10, and just across the street of the northern boundary of Monterey Park. Mark Keppel serves students from portions of Alhambra and Monterey Park. [5] [6] Mark Keppel has been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges—for the first time in 1965 and most recently in 2020, for a fixed term after each evaluation. [7]

Contents

History

Mark Keppel High School is named after Mark Keppel, Superintendent of Los Angeles County Schools from 1902 to 1928. Construction began December 19, 1938, three days after the ground-breaking ceremonies. The school was one of the thousands of projects built by the Public Works Administration during the Great Depression.

Keppel's Four Flags Mkhs Flags.JPG
Keppel's Four Flags

Awards

Demographics

As of the 2023–2024 school year, the student body was 70.2% Asian American, 24.2% Hispanic or Latino (of any race), and 1.3% non-Hispanic White. The remaining 4.3% consisted of Filipino, African-American, Native American, Pacific Islander, and other students. The predominant languages spoken at students' homes are Cantonese, Mandarin and Spanish. Approximately 50% of the student population participates in a free or reduced lunch program. [10]

Extracurricular activities

Visual and performing arts

In 2007, band and orchestra teacher Dr. Carla Bartlett won the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County's Bravo Award as an in the Arts Specialist division, one of the highlights of her career. [11] Leading the District Band along with rival Alhambra High School's Mark Trulson and San Gabriel High School's Tammy Cognetta, Dr. Bartlett and the marching band qualified to participate in the 2009 Tournament of Roses Parade.

Justin Lee, a UCLA graduate, now directs the school's band and orchestra, following Dr. Bartlett's retirement in December 2016.

The school has an active theatre arts program led by Nadine Page Phillips. Plays, musicals, and other performances occur throughout the school year, often in conjunction with the school orchestra. In 2015, Mark Keppel High theatre students were invited to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland where they performed in a rendition of Peter Pan. Various UC "A-G" certified programs such as AP Art History are offered.

Previously, the school also had their own concert choir and show choir, led by their teacher and director Tony Azeltine. The competitive advanced group, known as "Aztec Singers," competed in various show choir competitions across Los Angeles. About once a year, the students would travel out-of-state to perform or compete with other show choir and concert choir students across the continent.

Athletics

The Varsity football team, under coach Eddie Wagner, beat Pasadena High School 19-13 for the 1944 CIF-SS Championship at the Los Angeles Coliseum. [12]

Mark Keppel has established itself as one of the premier co-ed Badminton schools in Southern California in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. The badminton team has won CIF-SS championships in 1987 (3-A), 1990 (3-A), 1991 (3-A), 1992 (3-A), 1993 (I), 1994 (I), 1996 (I), 1997 (I), 1998 (I), and 2010 (I).

Both the Aztec Boys and Girls Varsity swim teams won back-to-back CIF-SS Division IV championships in the 2007 and 2008 season. [13] [14] The Girls Varsity swim and dive team won the CIF-SS Division III championships in the 2010 season. [15] In addition, the Aztecs have captured the Division 3 CIF-SS championship 2011 in both Boys and Girls.[ citation needed ]

The boys Varsity soccer team of 1979 won the CIF-SS Division III championship by beating Orange County's University High School by the score of 4-2. This was the first CIF title for the school in any sport during the previous 25 years.

Publications

Mark Keppel High School's journalism class runs the monthly newspaper, The Aztec. The yearbook is Teocalli, named after the Aztec temple, and comes out once a year several months before summer break begins. Until June 2016, "Idea Magazine" was a student-run, biannual compilation of Mark Keppel students' work in literature and art, advised by AP English teacher Mrs. Patrice Flores. "U Magazine" is a registered student publications club, also advised by Mrs. Flores, for the school year 2016–2017.

Architecture

Mark Keppel High School is designed in the Streamline Moderne architectural style, a variant of the Art Deco, and a product of the Great Depression. While the Art Deco celebrated the mechanization of the Jazz Age with big, bold, vertical designs, exotic materials, and elaborate decorations, the Streamline Moderne was a more reserved and utilitarian style. The Streamline Moderne mimicked the fast, dynamic look of machines with sleek, aerodynamic and nautical forms, low horizontal designs, rounded corners, and shiny materials.

The architecture of Mark Keppel High School features rounded corners in and outside the auditorium, on the staircase leading up to the front entrance, and in all the interior stairwells. Incised horizontal lines cut through the brick stringcourse which wraps the lower part of the building and the brick pillars between the windows. The stucco texture coat of the facade features designs that emphasize horizontal shapes; blocks between the windows on both floors and along the top of the building contribute to the geometric, yet sleek look of the building. The uppermost block is bounded by a horizontal brick band, and the building is crowned with a small inset ledge. Extra handrails are found in front of the windows in the second floor hallways, in front of the display cases around the administration offices, and on the north wing exterior staircase.

Murals

Mark Keppel High School features three bas relief murals made by native Southern California artist, Millard Sheets.

The three enamel on stainless steel murals entitled "Early California" decorate the exterior of the auditorium, and depict the founding of California as well as the regional features of Los Angeles County. The second image show the placement of the two smaller murals on the auditorium.

The largest mural crowns the entrance to the auditorium and depicts the three main groups that colonized and populated California: the Spanish Conquistadors, the Catholic Missionaries, and American Pioneers. The mural features a golden California on a backdrop of green mountain ranges, dotted with golden Redwood trees, and capped with a large reflective stainless steel sun wrapped with a sunburst decoration. On the left, the Conquistador goes before his ship, claiming the new land in the name of Spain. In the center, a Missionary kneels down, gingerly placing a mission in Southern California. On the right, a Miner 49’er pans for gold while his wife holds their child and rifle, their covered wagons behind them.

The two smaller murals are located on the southern facade of the auditorium, facing toward Hellman Ave. The mural in the center right depicts early Los Angeles County with the San Gabriel Mountains to the north, the San Gabriel Mission surrounded by orange groves in the center, a dairy farm with Cowboy below, and the Long Beach Harbor in the south.

The mural on the right showcases the entire state of California. From north to south: a lumberjack cuts down a Redwood tree, two miners pan for gold, and a farmer harvests oranges from his orange grove. A cowboy gallops in on a white horse from the east, while a large ship sails in majestically from the west.

Notable alumni

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torrance High School</span> Public school in Torrance, California, United States

Torrance High School is a high school located in Torrance, California. Founded in 1917, it is one of the oldest high schools in continuous use in California and is the oldest of the five high schools in the Torrance Unified School District. Four of its buildings are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Francis High School (La Cañada Flintridge, California)</span> Private school in La Cañada Flintridge, United States

St. Francis High School is a Catholic college preparatory high school for boys, located in La Cañada Flintridge, California, USA. Founded in 1946 by the Capuchin Franciscan Friars, St. Francis High School is a Catholic, college preparatory school for young men in grades 9-12 and is fully accredited by WASC and WCEA. St. Francis High School of La Canada-Flintridge, a non-profit religious corporation, is operated by the Board of Directors under the sponsorship of the Capuchin Franciscan Order of the Western America Province.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Monica High School</span> Public school in California, United States

Santa Monica High School, officially abbreviated to Samohi, is a public high school in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1891, it changed location several times in its early years before settling into its present campus at 601 Pico Boulevard. It is a part of the Santa Monica–Malibu Unified School District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Camino Real Charter High School</span> Charter school

El Camino Real Charter High School is an independent charter secondary school located in the Woodland Hills district of the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. The school, founded in 1969, was designed to emulate a small college campus, with a large central "quad" and an open campus policy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Alamitos High School</span> Public high school in Los Alamitos, California

Los Alamitos High School is a public school for grades 9 to 12 located in Los Alamitos, California, and also serving the city of Seal Beach and the community of Rossmoor. It is the only traditional high school in the Los Alamitos Unified School District; the far smaller Laurel High School serves as a continuation school and as the district office site. Both Oak Middle School and McAuliffe Middle School feed into Los Alamitos High.

El Dorado High School is a 9th–12th grade public high school located in Placentia, California. Established in 1966, El Dorado is one of four high schools in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, and serves the northern parts of Placentia, and Yorba Linda far eastern Fullerton,, and a small portion of Brea. The EDHS campus is located at 1651 Valencia Avenue, approximately 29 miles from downtown Los Angeles and 18 miles from the California coastline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reseda Charter High School</span> Charter school

Reseda Charter High School (RCHS), established in 1955, is located in the Reseda section of the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California, United States. In the fall of 2018, the school became a charter and is now Reseda Charter High School. In the fall of 2020, the school added middle grades becoming 6-12. It is in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The school's Police Academy Magnet and Science Magnet were named a national Magnet School of Distinction by the Magnet Schools of America in 2017, 2018, and 2019. As of July 2017, the school was issued a full six-year term of accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges' accreditation process.

Westminster High School is a public high school located in Westminster, California. It is part of the Huntington Beach Union High School District. It is currently the only school within the Huntington Beach Union High School District to have a working farm as well as the largest school in Orange County. Westminster High School has a rivalry against Ocean View High School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arnold O. Beckman High School</span> Public school in the United States

Arnold O. Beckman High School is a public school in Irvine, California, United States, serving 3,013 students from grades 9 through 12. The $94 million facility was opened on August 30, 2004. The World Languages Building - a new, $17 million, two-story, 30,000-square-foot facility - was unveiled on September 1, 2015. The school is commonly known as Beckman and is named after Arnold Orville Beckman: a scientist, chemist, and philanthropist famed for inventing the pH scale during his tenure at Caltech and funding Silicon Valley's first semiconductor company.

Temple City High School is a four-year comprehensive secondary school located in Temple City, California, in Los Angeles County. The high school was awarded the California Distinguished School award in 1996 and in 2019, and a California Gold Ribbon School award in 2017. Temple City High School was ranked #209 in the distinguished Newsweek list of America's Best High Schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monrovia High School</span> Public school in Monrovia, California, United States

Monrovia High School is a public high school located in Monrovia, California, a northeastern suburb of Los Angeles, United States. Monrovia High School is the only grades 9–12 comprehensive high school in the Monrovia Unified School District. Established in 1893, the campus is located in an environment of neo-Spanish architecture, green lawns, hundred-year-old oak trees, and is nestled against the San Gabriel Mountains. The portion of the campus designed in 1928 is the work of noted Los Angeles architect John C. Austin.

Esperanza High School (EHS) is a public high school located in Anaheim, California and is part of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Clemente High School (California)</span> Public school in San Clemente, California, United States

San Clemente High School is a high school in southern Orange County, California, in the town of San Clemente. San Clemente High's attendance boundaries include the City of San Clemente and parts of Capistrano Beach and San Juan Capistrano. The school has approximately 3000 students.

Ocean View High School (OVHS) is a public comprehensive college-prep academy located in Huntington Beach, California. OVHS was established in 1976; their mascot is the Seahawks. Currently, there are approximately 1,350 enrolled students. It is part of the HBUHSD school district, with five other high schools. The school is unique in that it features the only IB Program in the district. The implementation of “embedded tutorial” at the end of each period two years ago resulted in the biggest drop in the total number of D and F grades for students in the district. It features a business academy that has 170 participants, the sole Mandarin Chinese foreign language program in the district, and a college preparation curriculum. OVHS is also a two-time California Distinguished School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westlake High School (California)</span> Public secondary school in Thousand Oaks, southern California, USA

Westlake High School is a public high school in the Westlake neighborhood of Thousand Oaks, in Ventura County, California. Westlake High School serves grades 9–12 in the Conejo Valley Unified School District. Middle schools that feed into Westlake include Colina Middle School and Los Cerritos Middle School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John F. Kennedy High School (La Palma, California)</span> School in La Palma, Orange County, California, United States

John F. Kennedy High School is a public, four-year high school and International Baccalaureate (IB) World School in the city of La Palma, California. Kennedy gets most of its students from the junior high school across the street, Walker Junior High School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glendora High School</span> Comprehensive, public school in Glendora, California, United States

Glendora High School (GHS) is located in Glendora, Los Angeles County, California, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arroyo High School (El Monte, California)</span> Public school in El Monte, California, United States

Arroyo High School, located in El Monte, California, United States, is a school in the El Monte Union High School District. The attendance area served by Arroyo High School consists of four different communities: El Monte, Temple City, Arcadia, and an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County.

Liberty High School is a public co-educational high school located in Bakersfield, California, United States. Its athletics teams are known as the Liberty Patriots and the school colors are navy, red, and silver. Liberty High School opened its doors in 1999. Liberty High School is currently the most populated high school in the Kern High School District with a student body of 2,801.

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. Great Oak High School has been a California Distinguished School since 2009 and is also a California Gold Ribbon School.

References

  1. ↑ "1940's". Mark Keppel High School. Retrieved May 19, 2024. Mark Keppel High School opened its doors to its 1,526 students on February 5, 1940.
  2. 1 2 3 "Mark Keppel High". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved May 19, 2024.
  3. ↑ Mario Villegas, A 'Classic' for many reasons, ESPN Los Angeles, November 4, 2010
  4. ↑ City of Alhambra 2008-2014 Housing Element, June 2009 (PDF), City of Alhambra, p. 77, archived from the original (PDF) on June 8, 2011, retrieved June 25, 2010
  5. ↑ "Zoning Map". City of Monterrey Park. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  6. ↑ "High School Zoning Map" (PDF). Alhambra Unified School District . Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  7. ↑ "Directory of Schools" (PDF). Accrediting Commission for Schools Western Association of Schools and Colleges. 2019–2020. Retrieved August 7, 2024.
  8. ↑ "Mark Keppel Science Olympiad team advances to state competition with a record performance". Archived from the original on April 15, 2012. Retrieved April 26, 2012.
  9. ↑ Alicia Banks (February 13, 2014). "Mark Keppel named champs in L.A. County Academic Decathlon". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 14, 2014. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Mark Keppel High School in Alhambra, California". U.S. News. Retrieved January 29, 2024.
  11. ↑ "Bravo Awards - 2007 Highlights". Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County. February 28, 2007. Archived from the original on February 20, 2008. Retrieved March 30, 2008.
  12. ↑ "CIF Southern Section Record Book; All-Time Football Champions" (PDF). cifss.org. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 15, 2012. Retrieved December 5, 2008.
  13. ↑ "SWIMMING: Congratulations to the Keppel boys and girls swimming teams for winning CIF-SS Division IV team titles on Thursday. It's la Canada's boys turn on Saturday - High School Sports Blog -- from the Sidelines with Miguel Melendez". Archived from the original on June 16, 2009. Retrieved May 14, 2009.
  14. ↑ "California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Division IV High School State Championships". Swimming World News. May 21, 2008. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  15. ↑ "SWIMMING: Keppel girls win third title in four years". Archived from the original on March 13, 2012. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  16. ↑ Copley, Robert E. The Tall Mexican: The Life of Hank Aguirre — All-Star Pitcher, Businessman, Humanitarian. Houston: Piñata Books/Arte Público Press (1998).
  17. ↑ Hilburn, Robert (July 22, 1990). "Mazzy Star: Shining 'Brightly' : The personal visions of David Roback and Hope Sandoval have fueled a fast-moving album on the alternative-rock charts". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on February 11, 2020.
  18. ↑ "NFL Players | Past & Current NFL Players". NFL.com .
  19. ↑ Ryan, Harriet. "Wayne Hughes, self-storage titan and USC megadonor, dead at 87". LA Times. Los Angeles Times . Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  20. ↑ "KANG Wei". hkfilmdirectors.com. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
  21. ↑ LA Times - May 24, 2009
  22. ↑ "Larry Burright Minor League Statistics & History". baseball-reference.com. Retrieved 2010-11-05.
  23. ↑ "Justin Young - Giải bóng rổ chuyên nghiệp Việt Nam". vba.vn. Archived from the original on September 6, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.