Piner High School

History

Piner High School was built in 1966 in Santa Rosa, California. Initially it was surrounded by orchards, local farm land and pastures. By 1975 the City of Santa Rosa expanded to the back fence of the compound. In the late 1980s further expansion included more housing on two sides and Youth Community Park (including an award winning skate park) across the street.

Piner High School was opened with 9th, 10th, and 11th grades in the fall of 1966. The next year it became a four year high school, with the class of 1968 being the first graduating class of the school history. Prior to the first graduating class, William McCrossen, an adult, finished his high school education and was in fact the very first graduate of Piner High School. The class of 1975 was the last of the four year classes until 1996, when Piner was reestablished as a four year high school to alleviate overcrowding of local middle schools.

Construction and Modernization

Piner High School is unusually designed in that, until recent additions, there were no indoor hallways, and student lockers are located on the outside of buildings, secured during non-school hours with hurricane fencing. Each building was constructed with wide overhangs and interconnecting covered walkways between buildings to shelter students from the weather.

All original classroom buildings are constructed with all classrooms accessed directly from the outdoors with main entrances on the outside of the square and secondary entrances through an atrium in the center of the building. Each classroom building was designated for a group of related academics, such as the Language Arts building, the science and math building, the social studies and business building, and the arts and shop building.

During restructuring in the 1990s the use of the buildings was altered so that some of the classroom buildings were designated for the use of one of five specialty schools within the larger school, including a small specialized school for those with learning handicaps.

In the past four years, Piner High School has remodeled more than half of the buildings, as well as adding new structures.

Administration

Tim Zalunardo is currently the principal of Piner High School.

Mascot

Piner High School's mascot is Prospector Pete. Prospector Pete is symbolic for the gold miners that came during California's Gold Rush. He was a popular attendee at the Sonoma County 2010 Human Race walking with members of the Piner High School's PTSA group. He was also featured prominently on Piner High School's float in the 2010 City of Santa Rosa Rose Parade.

Early College Magnet Program

In the 2006-2007 school year, the Early College Magnet Program started. This program prepares students for college and by the time they finish high school, they will have completed a year of college. This is in part with the Santa Rosa Junior College.

Freshman and sophomore years the students will take accelerated and in depth classes denoted Honors classes at Piner, which will prepare them for rigorous college courses. In their Junior and Senior years, they will take four classes, including Honors and AP classes, at Piner and, at lunch, will be bussed to the Junior College to take two classes, earning up to a year of college credits.

Athletics

Piner High School is a member of the Sonoma County League of the North Coast Section of the California Interscholastic Federation Sports that Piner High offers are:

Clubs

Piner High School has several student-organized and teacher-supervised student groups as of the 2010-2011 School Year:

Parent Involvement

Piner High School offers a variety of groups and ways for parents to be involved in their student's education. Groups include the Parent-Teacher-Student Association (PTSA) PTA, Piner Boosters, ELAC, Piner Foundation, and Project Grad.

2013-2014

The school's population for the 2008-09 school year was approximately 1282 students, down from the 2006-07 enrollment of 1530, which reflects a general pattern of declining enrollment in the area. This trend continued with the 2013-14 enrollment down to 943 students.

Notable alumni