Ontario High School (California)

History

In 1882, founders of the City of Ontario George and William Chaffey began the Chaffey College of Agriculture and an on-campus secondary school with assistance from the University of Southern California (USC). The local community was granted control of the secondary school in 1901 and named it Ontario High School. Ten years later, in 1911, the school was renamed to Chaffey High School.

In 1967, a campus 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Chaffey High School was named Ontario High School.

The Ontario Jaguars' rival school is the Chaffey Tigers; they both settle their duel in a football game known as "The CatBowl!"

CIF Championships

Men's Baseball 1991

Men's Soccer 2013

In 2014 the school was remodeled to include a completely new, modern campus, a new two story building with 32 classrooms, and for the first time in 47 years, its first football stadium known as "Jaguar Stadium". The current principal is Eduardo Zaldivar. The previous principal was Cary Willborn. OHS is currently the last high school with lockers in the Chaffey Joint Union High School District.

Campus

Ontario High School was built on 40 acres (160,000 m²) of land on the south side of Ontario, California. The campus has eight permanent classroom buildings, along with 34 portable classrooms, for a total of 110 separate classrooms, an auditorium, cafeteria and multi-purpose room, library, gym, locker room facilities, two pools, and fine arts and vocational facilities. In 2014 an extensive modernization with the help of "Measure P", constructing a new campus, 2 story building, solar panels in the parking lot, and finally after 47 years the school will be able host its first home football games in a new stadium,

Academics

Ontario High School follows a standard California high school curriculum as defined by the California Department of Education's High School Graduation Requirements and tests students with the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program and the California High School Exit Exam.

Students have the opportunity to earn college credit through College Board Advanced Placement (AP) courses. In addition, Ontario High School has many honors classes, supports the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program, the National Honors Society, and participates in the nationwide Renaissance program.

Arts

Ontario High School supports a wide array of fine and performing arts including art, art history, music appreciation, drama, choir, dance, band, percussion, ceramics, and color guard classes.

Band, percussion, and color guard

Ontario High School's instrumentalists, percussionists, and color guard performers compete in the Southern California Judging Association (SCJA) circuit for marching season during the first three months of the academic year. For the remainder of the year the Color Guard competes as a "winter guard" against other guards while the instrument and percussion sections have their orchestral season. The band's major performances are the Holiday Showcase, Music Americana, and Pops! concerts. The Music Americana concert is unique because the band performs with the United States Marine Corps Band. The Color Guard also has several acts during the Holiday Showcase, the Pops! concerts, and their end of the year show, the Color Guard Spectacular. For most of its history, the marching season group was known as the Ontario High School Jaguar Band and Color Guard. They won many awards in band tournaments and marched in several parades throughout southern California. At a point between 2000 and 2008, the group was renamed the Ontario High School Pride.

On November 1, 2008 the Ontario High School Pride entered the Surf City Open marching competition and won the highest "sweepstakes" awards and an invitation to the 2nd Annual California State Championship. This is the first time in its history that the combined marching band, percussion, and color guard competed in a state level competition. On November 22, 2008 the Ontario High School Pride won the 5A Division of the California State Championships for their performance titled "The Lion King Goes Broadway" and became the 2008 Division 5A California State Champions.

Long-time band director Dave Berry retired at the close of the 2008-2009 school year. Ontario High School hired alumni Elyse Doremus to replace him and carry on his legacy in the 2009-2010 school year.

Dance

The school's dance classes—Dance Fundamentals, Core 2, Dance production and Dance Company—perform an end-of-the-year show to songs such as Bad Romance by Lady Gaga, Heads Will Roll by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fuego by The Cheetah Girls, We Got the Beat by The Go-Gos, Street Lights by Kanye West, Hush Hush by The Pussycat Dolls, Send Me On My Way by Rusted Root, The Beautiful People by Marilyn Manson, Scars by Kelis, What's This from Nightmare Before Christmas, and I Took the Night by Chelly.

Drama/Theater

The school's drama productions were formerly directed by Mr. Hansen, now being directed by Jessica Larson. Past performances include Rumors, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Nerd, Touchtone "M" for Murder, Night of the Living Dead, Little Shop of Horrors, Alice in Wonderland, and Area 51 the Musical, The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.. For the 2011-2012 school year the productions are The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged. Ontario High School is currently doing Seussical The Musical. Due to debut on February 23-26 2017 at 7pm with an understudy show on February 25 at 2pm. There are 2 matinee performances on February 25 & 26 at 2pm.

The theater, built in the 1960s, seats about 1200. There is no fly space as it has a shared roof with the gymnasium. Starting in 2012, the theater will be going through a small face lift to restore the venue to its former beauty.

Culture

Ontario High School is committed to providing students a clean and safe environment which fosters learning and promotes student responsibility and citizenship.

Demographics

The Ontario High School student population is primarily Hispanic/Latino, followed by the rest. Between 2005 and 2009, the number of students categorized as English Language Learners decreased slightly. During the same period came a sharp rise in the number of students participating in the Free/Reduced School Lunch program. This data is reported by the school district as part of their annual California Basic Educational Data System (CBEDS) submission. Enrollment figures are released annually by the California Department of Education.

2009

Student Enrollment: 2,841
Free/Reduced School Lunch: 55.9%
Socioeconomic Disadvantaged: 75.8%
English Language Learners: 26.4%
Census Characterization: Mid-size City
Ethnic Breakdown:
American Indian/Alaskan Native: 0.2%
Asian: 2.4%
Pacific Islander: 0.4%
Filipino: 0.5%
Hispanic/Latino: 85.8%
African American: 4.2%
White: 6.1%
Other/Declined to State: 0.5%

2005

Student Enrollment: 2,591
Free/Reduced School Lunch: 17.3%
English Language Learners: 29.8%
Census Characterization: Mid-size City
Ethnic Breakdown:
American Indian/Alaskan Native: 0.3%
Asian: 2.7%
Pacific Islander: 0.3%
Filipino: 0.7%
Hispanic/Latino: 77.6%
African American: 6.5%
White: 10.7%
Other/Declined to State: 1.2%

Clubs

Students and faculty members often work together to form clubs that serve the community and participate in extra-curricular activities.

Events

Ontario High School holds dances including homecoming, prom, and Sadie Hawkins dance. Homecoming Dance themes include "Around the World in One Night" and "Circue Du Extravaganza." A recent Prom theme is "Midnight Masquarade." OHS has recently had its 5th annual Halloween Carnival in 2013. The staff and students from different clubs bring fun carnival games and also a variety of different foods they sell. Main event at the carnival is the 2 scary mazes, one is hosted in the OHS auditorium, and the second maze is hosted in building A. This event is open for all age groups.

Notable faculty and alumni

Like many high schools throughout Southern California, Ontario High School has its share of notable faculty and alumni.