User:Biancamsalgado/Sunnyside High School (Sunnyside, Washington)



Sunnyside High School, is a 4A public high school located in Sunnyside, Washington, United States. This high school serves around 2,169 students from grades 9–12 as of 2024. Sunnyside High School is fostered not only around it's academia but its school culture, as the Grizzlies. Sunnyside High School roots themselves in their mission of, "Together We Will" which says that learning not only occurs in the classroom and within the books but outside of it and within the use of other limitless amount of tools! Additionally, Sunnyside High School strives to assist students in building a life post high school.

Sunnyside High School Evolution and History
In the early 2000's Sunnyside High School once faced low graduation rates around 49%. Due to these low graduation rates, in 2010, Sunnyside High School was awarded a $6 million Federal School Improvement grant. With this grant, and a combination of new monitoring systems Sunnyside High School was able to improve graduation rates to 90% which have remained steady to this day.

Such systems included like implementation the All Hands On Deck Color Identification Monitoring Support System (AHOD). This is a system that allows for staff to monitor whether students are on track to graduate based off attendance, grades and other necessary requirements.

AHOD consists of placing students in a category of red, orange, yellow and green. If students were placed in red for example, this implied that they were failing classes and needed to meet other state requirements. If placed in orange, this implied that students needed to pass a state exam. If placed in yellow, this indicated that the student was making progress towards graduation but still needed some credits. And at last, if placed in green this indicated that students were on track to graduate! Overall, with the integration of this grant, and systems like the AHOD graduation rates were able to significantly increase. Therefore, Chuck Salina, Suzann Girtz in the School of Education (SOE) went onto write a book about this improvement book is titled, "Powerless to Powerful" alongside Joanie Eppinga.

Demographics
Within the 2023–2024 school year, 91.8% of the student body is Hispanic, while 6.8% are white. The rest (1.3%) is Black/ African American, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian or Two or More Races. In regards to the number of teachers at this school in the school year of 2022-2023 it was reported that were 106 teachers working here. In terms of classroom size each class holds about 20.4 students with a teacher to student ratio of 41.2.

Awards and Recognition
As previously mentioned, in 2008, the graduation rate of Sunnyside High School was 49.8%. This led to the school being awarded a School Improvement Grant, which therefore led to a dramatic increase in graduation rates around 89.2%. This grant has allowed for rates to remain consistent, in the last school year, in the 2022-2023 school year, graduation rates were 83.7%

In addition to this, Sunnyside High School was named a School of Distinction in 2015 and 2016. According to ESD105, "The Schools of Distinction Award goes to the top 5 percent of Washington schools that have attained the most outstanding levels of sustained improvement in English language arts, math, and graduation rates among their students over the past five years."

Sunnyside High School has also received awards for their staff, as former Principal Ryan Maxwell was named the 2016 Washington State High School Principal of the Year by the Association of Washington School Principals.

Academics (Career & College Prep/AP Courses Offered)
The Sunnyside High Schools offers opportunities for students to prepare themselves for a life after high school. From SAT & ACT prep, to college in the classroom courses, CTE Dual Start, and AP courses this high school provides resources to guide students for a life after college in whatever path they desire. This extends to supporting students in paths ranging from attending to college, trade schools, vocational schools, the military etc. The following section will discuss some of the resources offered:

One of the programs that this high school offers is the guaranteed admission program. This is a program that is partnered with several universities in Washington state, and guarantees admission to students who complete the following requirements: Attaining a 3.0 GPA or above, and having completed the courses necessary (College Academic Distribution Requirements, CADR) courses. Some of the universities partnered with Sunnyside High School are: University of Washington (Tacoma), Eastern Washington University (EWU), Washington State University (WSU), Central Washington University (CWU), Evergreen, and Western Washington University (WWU).

Resources extend as far as providing students with a variety of waivers when applying to take the PSAT, SAT and ACT. Not only that but this school offers extended lists of scholarship opportunities to ensure students are able to further afford college after getting there. In addition to this, students have the the opportunity to better advance their post high school career by receiving support in financial aid applications.

Due to the overpopulation of hispanics in this high school, Sunnyside High School offers informational courses in English and Spanish for students whose parents want to help think about their future.

As mentioned, this high school offers the opportunity to take college in the classroom courses from Central Washington University, which can be transferable to the students university of choice. CTE Dual Start is also offered here, where students are able to stay enrolled as a high school student, while taking community college courses at Yakima Valley College (YVCC). These courses can later be transferred to the college of the students choice, this is all depending on the requirements of the university as well.

Extracurricular Activities and Organizations
Below is a list of all of the


 * ASB Executive Council
 * Black and Red Newspaper Club
 * Cheer and Stunt Team
 * Dance/ Drill Team
 * DECA
 * Drama
 * FBLA
 * FCCLA
 * FFA
 * G1
 * Honor Society
 * JROTC
 * Key Club
 * Latino Culture Club
 * Link Crew
 * Marching Band / Orchestra
 * Math Club
 * Operation Hope (WE Club)
 * Pep Club
 * Project: Art Club
 * Science Club
 * Travel Club
 * Tri-M Music Honor Society
 * TSA

== Athletics ==

Fall Sports:

 * Bowling (girls)
 * Cheerleading
 * Cross Country (boys)
 * Cross Country (girls)
 * Dance/Drill (coed)
 * Football (boys)
 * Soccer (girls)
 * Swimming (boys)
 * Swimming (girls)
 * Volleyball (girls)

Winter Sports:

 * Cheerleading
 * Competitive Cheer (co-ed)
 * Basketball (boys)
 * Basketball (girls)
 * Dance/Drill (coed)
 * Wrestling (boys)
 * Wrestling (girls)

Spring Sports:

 * Baseball (boys)
 * Golf (boys)
 * Golf (girls)
 * Slow Pitch Softball (girls)
 * Soccer (boys)
 * Soccer (girls)
 * Softball (girls)
 * Tennis (boys)
 * Tennis (girls)
 * Track (girls)
 * Track (boys)

Notable alumni

 * Clint Ritchie, Actor
 * Ed Barker, former NFL player
 * Bonnie Dunbar, NASA astronaut
 * Jake Kupp, former NFL player
 * Scott Linehan, former NFL head coach
 * Irving Newhouse, Washington State Representative and Senator