Irvington High School (Fremont, California)


Irvington High School is an American public secondary school located in the Irvington district of Fremont, California, United States. It is one of the five public high schools in the Fremont Unified School District. Since 2011, Irvington has received full accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Campus

The campus is located in the Irvington district. Opened in 1961, it underwent major construction in 1968, resulting in the addition of a 150-seat theater, a second gymnasium, and ten and a half classrooms. Irvington underwent further campus beautification in 2009, with the installation of the prototypical solar panel on the southwest corner and re-sodding of the varsity and JV baseball fields. In the summer of 2010, further improvements were made to the main parking lot on the east side of campus. A two-story building was added in 2016 for math and science classes.

Academics

Irvington is a National Blue Ribbon School and California Distinguished School. In April 2017 U.S. News & World Report ranked Irvington as 78th in California, 468th in the United States, and 66th in the United States for STEM. 63% of Irvington students take at least one Advanced Placement exam, and 88% score a passing score of 3 or above. In 2013, Irvington's API score was 884. Its API score for 2012 was 874. Its API score for 2011 was 869.

Awards

Students must complete special benchmark projects at Irvington. Currently, IHS has three benchmarks, one at the 9th grade level called Change Project, one at the 10th grade level called World Issues Project, and one at the 12th grade level called QUEST. Benchmarks are long-term projects that allow students to demonstrate progress toward or mastery of the four School-Wide Outcomes: Communication, Critical Thinking, Personal Responsibility, and Social Responsibility. Benchmarks are intended to be consistently evaluated, "authentic," real life assessment projects which provide students, parents, and teachers information about student achievement across a range of important lifelong learning skills.

CHANGE Project

Freshmen complete a "Change" project in which they become introduced to the Irvington culture by working in teams of three to four to make a positive change regarding an environmental problem that they identify in the local community. They have approximately six months to complete the service project, volunteer at a local organization, write three drafts of a research report, and create a Powerpoint presentation to present near the end of the school year to their peers and teachers.

World Issues Project

Formerly known as "UN", World Issues adds a service component to Irvington education. Changes have been made to the process and objective of the project. Now, students are put into groups of four and are assigned a global issue. After covering a background of the issue in a group, students complete the rest of the project individually. The first half of the year is devoted to understanding and describing the issue, and the second half is spent proposing ways to fix the problem. Each student must research their assigned issue, write two papers on their topic, and participate in two discussions on their assigned topic. These topics include lack of access to clean water, refugee crisis, terrorism, child labor, climate change, infectious diseases, and inequality for women.

QUEST Project

QUEST is a five-component project designed and must be completed by all Irvington seniors in order to graduate. If all the components are not completed, the student will not graduate. QUEST benchmark was established in 1996. The student starts with a "Question," associated with "providing benefits to the community." Through "Understanding," an answer to the Question starts to develop through research, reading, writing, and hands-on activities. Students must then find a professional to act as their consultant and guide them through their experience and service hours. The student and his or her consultant then create an "Experience" plan related to the Question, which may include a variety of jobs that the student-chosen jobs that relate to the Question. Through "Service," the student designs and implements an activity which will allow the student to share his or her new knowledge with the greater community in a way that serves a real need in the community. They must write a paper consisting o all their findings throughout the year presenting their social contemporary issue with background information, research, and hands on experience on their QUEST topic. Finally, at the "Testimony," the student will present his or her entire QUEST experience to a panel consisting of staff, parents and experienced community members.

Demographics

According to US News and World Report, 84% of Irvington's student body is "of color," with 13% of the student body coming from economically disadvantaged households, determined by student eligibility for California's reduced-price meal program. 5.23% of Irvington's students are English Language Learners.

Attendance area

The attendance area includes the Fremont districts of Irvington, Warm Springs, and part of Mission San Jose. Along with Irvington High School, the attendance area also includes six elementary schools — Grimmer, Harvey Green, Hirsch, James Leitch, Warm Springs, and Weibel, as well as Horner Jr. High School. Students choosing to enter the high school who live outside the district lines may apply for a lottery or a transfer into the Irvington Arts Magnet Program. Applying for the Center For The Creative Arts Program is an art-oriented method of getting in the school if a student does not live within the boundaries. CCA has modified English, social studies, and science classes that are grouped together in a family that includes more artistic guidelines.

Extracurricular

Athletics

The Vikings Baseball Program had back to back NCS appearances in 2016 and 2017, after not having any playoff appearances in the prior 5 seasons.
We have had 10 players move on to play college baseball during the last 5 seasons and continue to have a remarkable GPA as a team!
Our very own Mark Mathias a 2012 graduate is currently in the Milwaukee Brewers organization and had a great chance to break camp with the team prior to the COVID 19 shut down.
Irvington has six concert band groups on campus: a freshman symphonic band, two symphonic bands, an orchestra, and two wind ensembles. Irvington also has a jazz ensemble which meets before school during zero period and several independent ensembles on campus. Wind ensembles have earned the prestigious Unanimous Superior ranking at multiple CMEA competitions. In addition, wind ensembles frequently send their members to California's All-State Honor Band and Northern California's All-Northern Honor Band. The entire ensemble was invited to perform at the Chabot Invitational since 2007. A wind ensemble placed first in the Class A concert competition at the 2007 Lincoln Tournament of Champions. In 2013, freshman symphonic band received unanimous superior during the CMEA Band Festival.
Irvington's marching band was composed of approximately 186 members during the year of 2013–2014 and has been steadily growing. During the 2014–2015 season, the band consisted of almost 250 members. In 2005, the marching band won first place in the Division B competition at the Tournament of Champions at Lincoln High School in Stockton. The color guard also took first place at Lincoln as well as at the 35th Annual Santa Cruz Band Review. In 2006, the marching band and color guard took second place for Division B at Lincoln. In 2007, the marching band and color guard took second place again for Division B at Lincoln, and the drum major placed 3rd in the Mace category. Irvington finished the 2009 season capturing first place in Marching Band, first place in Concert Band, and third place overall in Drumline at the Tournament of Champions at Lincoln High School in Stockton. In 2011, the marching band and color guard took sweepstakes in three of four categories competing in Division AA including music, showmanship, and overall parade. The color guard took first place in Division AA, and the drum major placed 2nd in the Mace category. The 2011 accomplishments at the Lincoln Tournament of Champions were the highest ever achieved by the Irvington marching band and color guard in the history of Irvington. In 2012, Irvington also took sweepstakes at the Feste Del Mar Band Review, with a score of 92.6. In 2012, the color guard also took sweepstakes at the Tournament of Champions at Lincoln High School in Stockton, and in 2014, the marching band took parade sweepstakes with a score of 92.55, beating Golden Valley, who are well known for their marching band and consistently place highly at band reviews. Owing to a large number of students in the marching band, it was split into two, JV and varsity, with auditions required to join varsity. At the 2017 Lincoln Band Review varsity marching band received music and overall sweepstakes. At the 2018 Santa Cruz Boardwalk band review Varsity Marching band earned overall and music sweepstakes.
Irvington's Marching Band also has an active drumline. In 2005, the drumline placed fourth at the Lincoln Tournament of Champions. In 2007, the drumline again placed fourth at the Lincoln Tournament of Champions and fifth at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk band review. In 2009, the drumline placed sixth at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk band review and second at the Lodi Grape Bowl Classic Band Review. They finished the 2009 season placing third overall at the Lincoln Tournament of Champions. In 2011, the drumline placed third overall at the Tournament of Champions. In 2012, drumline placed first overall at the Santa Cruz Band Review.

Journalism

Irvington's school newspaper, The Voice, reaches over 2,000 students a month. It contains seven sections and is the only school newspaper in the Fremont Unified School District to have a Humor section.
The journalism class is advised by English teacher Matthew Phillips. The staff is composed of over 25 students, with one or two editors for each section, a business manager, and two editors-in-chief.
Their website, redesigned in 2014, contains online editions of the paper as well as regular news and school updates. The Voice also has a broadcast news channel, VTV, and an Instagram account that documents daily life on campus. The website is currently headed by a single web editor.

Lamda

Irvington houses a Lamda program named the Irvington Conservatory Theater in the Valhalla theater. The school holds a partnership with the local community college, Ohlone College. Recent productions include:
The Irvington High School Robotics Club, founded in February 2010, is an information technology club. The club's first-time participation in the 2010 Northern California Botball Tournament held in San Mateo earned first place in the Alliance Competition and won a plaque for Outstanding Documentation.
In the fall of 2010, the club expanded from a single competition team to three teams: Team Bluescreens, EndOfLines, and the Red HoloRAMs. In its first year of participation, the Red HoloRAMs dominated the FTC Regional Qualifiers, winning first place in the Fremont Qualifier. All teams advanced to the 2011 Northern California FTC Championships, winning eighth, 10th, and 19th place out of 26 teams.
The club returned to Botball in the spring of 2011, with Team Bluescreens winning the Judge's Choice Award for Most Creative Design for using an "Omni-wheel" for steering its robot. EndOfLines won second place in the Alliance Competition.
In fall 2011, the newly formed Team Terrorbotics received second place at Brentwood qualifications. They advanced to regionals, placing 19th.
As of 2012, Team Bluescreens won first place at the Brentwood qualifiers. Team EndOfLines was replaced by Team NuclearEndermen.
As of 2015, Team Bluescreens is the only competition team remaining in the club, and has withdrawn from FTC. For the current season, the team is participating in the VEX competition.
In the fall of 2016, the club decided to form two VEX competition teams, one regular team and one "varsity" team, which utilizes techniques taught in Project Lead the Way's engineering courses.
In February 2018, the club hosted its first-ever VEX Robotics Competition qualifier, the winner of which qualified for the Northern California state championships.
The club also makes annual trips to Maker Faire, which are highly anticipated within the club.
On occasion, the club has hosted the FLL competitions on campus.

Student life

On June 12, 2017, the Senior prank required seniors to clean up for preventing vandalism.
On May 4, 2019, MechA's Mr. IHS celebrated 10th anniversary of success. The performance ended over an hour late at 10:40pm instead of 9:30pm, and most of the audience remained in anticipation to hear the final winner.

Notable alumni