Quartz Hill High School

Campus

The basic layout of Quartz Hill High School's 80-acre (320,000 m²) campus is a courtyard surrounded by several quads and athletic buildings, a design that is typical of high schools in Southern California. The school's campus was originally designed for 1,800 students, but over two times that number are currently enrolled. In the school year 2008-2009, there is a reported number of over 3000 students now attending the school, some being foreign exchange students.

From the summer of 2003 to the fall of 2004, Quartz Hill High School's campus underwent a $15 million modernization that updated a majority of the school's classrooms.

Student body

Quartz Hill High School consists of approximately 3,200 students and growing. Most of the school's students live in Quartz Hill, Palmdale and Lancaster, cities in the Antelope Valley of northern Los Angeles County.

Academics

Quartz Hill High School is one of 65 high schools in California to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme, which began at the school in 1998. Advanced Placement (AP) classes are also available in nearly all academic departments.

Activities

Activities at Quartz Hill High School include on their website

Sports

The sports program at Quartz Hill High School includes football, baseball, softball, basketball, soccer, cross country, track and field, tennis, swimming, wrestling, volleyball, golf and dance. The mens cross country team is known as the most successful and most accomplished sports programs in the past ten years at Quartz Hill. Under the helm of Head Coach Matthew Bierowicz, the Quartz Hill cross country team has risen to one of the most prominent and dominant cross country programs in all of California.

In 2015, boys volleyball went undefeated in league play. The team competed in the CIF Southern Section playoffs where they went to the finals.

The mascot of Quartz Hill High School is the Rebel, a Confederate soldier. Rebel teams began interscholastic competition in the mid-1960s.

Cross Country

The Men's cross country team has been one of the most successful sports programs to come out of Quartz Hill in the past decade. Competing in the CIF Southern Section division 1, notorious for being the most competitive, and the deepest talent-based in all of the United States, the Quartz Hill team has found considerable success within the division. Quartz Hill has dominated its league, winning eight of the past championships, and counting. Notable alums such as Bradley Wiggs have donned the prestigious 'Yellow Headband'. In Rich Gonzalez 2014 Prep Cal Track, hot 100 teams of California, he ranked Quartz Hill 23rd in the state, having this to say: "A program that has quietly yet consistently scaled the Division I hierarchy in recent years is now in the thick of battle state meet qualification as the Rebels return five from last year's CIF-SS Finalist lineup. Seniors Travis Cetti and Jacob Branch are cornerstones within a squad with plenty of experience. David Moreno and siblings Kyle and Brendan McRoberts add further to an explosive attack up front, with sophomore Cade Ruble looming as a big-time contributor by season's end. The writing has been on the wall: Quartz Hill only gets better, and better, and better and 2015 could be their year to shine!" Coached by the bald and lonely Matthew Bierowicz, He has gone on to not only coach, but literally build the program from a small dozen runners to fifty plus runners coming out to compete each season.

Mission statements

Mission Statement: The mission of Quartz Hill High School is to produce responsible citizens who are able to communicate effectively, set and achieve realistic goals, and who become lifelong learners.

Vision Statement: Quartz Hill High School desires to provide the staff with training, instruction and modeling to improve the instructional strategies, curriculum offerings, and learning for all students. It is the school’s vision that all students will reinforce their fundamental academic skills through the use of appropriate instruction, current technology, and an environment most conducive to learning. The school desires to equip staff with the skills which will assist in providing all students opportunities for post-high school success.

Planned school attack

On December 15, 2005, two former Quartz Hill students were arrested for planning a Columbine style massacre at the school. The two youths allegedly intended to attack the school on February 14, 2006. News reports described them as goths and indicated that they had accumulated knives, ammunition, a gas mask and bomb-making instructions. They were charged on December 19, 2005 with conspiracy to commit murder.

Tensions flared again on January 13, 2006, when a rumor that the former students who had been arrested would again attempt to attack the school using pipe-bombs. According to Principal Mark Bryant, the planned attacks were merely "rumor, upon rumor, upon rumor." This "Friday the 13th" rumor was passed between students via internet messages and cell-phone text messages. In response to the threat, nearly 50% of the student body was absent from the campus by the time the school day had finished. In the end, the only disruption to the day was a firecracker explosion within a trash can during the school's lunch break.

Notable alumni