DIAMOND RANCH HIGH SCHOOL

'Diamond Ranch High School' (or 'DRHS') is a high school (secondary school) operated by the Pomona Unified School District (PUSD) in California, USA, located on the hills where Diamond Bar and Phillips Ranch (a community located in the southwestern portion of the city limits of Pomona) meet. In 2003, Diamond Ranch was titled a California Distinguished School by the California Department of Education. In April 2007, it was announced that Diamond Ranch would have their California Distinguished School title renewed.

Contents

Architecture

Academic performance

Timeline

Gallery

Movie appearances

References

External links

Architecture

The school received popularity from its appearances in movies such as ''The Cell'', ''Orange County'', ''Serenity'' and ''Live Free or Die Hard'' . The school's unique architectural design was recognized in the book ''Morphosis/Diamond Ranch High School'' by Jeffrey Kipnis and Todd Gannon. The architectural interest of the school is attributed to odd property formation and the necessity for funds to be spent on construction, as outlined in claims for the high 62.3 million grant. Controversy on high architectural costs have were raised, as PUSD typically utilized portable mobile units rather that actual constructed buildings for their low costs. If full funds were not used, the district risked losing portions of the grant.

Academic performance

The construction of Diamond Ranch High School was originally controversial because of the inequities in the rest of the school district. Diamond Ranch's Academic Performance Index scores are substantially higher than at the other high schools in the PUSD. The construction of Diamond Ranch permitted the district to stop busing students to Ganesha High School, in the western part of Pomona. As a compromise, the district allows any other interested student within the district to transfer to Diamond Ranch on a space-available basis, and operates a lottery that reserves spaces for Garey High School students to go to Diamond Ranch. Ultimately, this serves as a damper to the performance of Diamond Ranch, because Pomona-based students typically have lower scoring mean APIs based on middle school performance.
Diamond Ranch boasts itself for being a California Distinguished School for 2003 and 2007.

Timeline

★ June 1992 - PUSD voters approved $62.5 million dollars in school facilities bonds to build Diamond Ranch. In addition with the money provided by the district, the City of Industry provided $5.4 million dollars, and sold 80 acres of undeveloped land on a hill for a dollar.

★ November 1993 – The school district hires Morphosis to design the school.

★ September 5, 1997 – The school was officially opened for students, while construction continues.

★ September 8, 1997 – The inaugural of the first principal, Albert Webb

★ 1999–2000 – The school is established and students move from the Portables to the permanent facility.

★ June 8, 2001 – The first graduating class of Diamond Ranch.

★ 2003 - DRHS wins California's Distinguished School Award.

★ 2007 - DRHS awarded the Honor of California's Distinguished School.

Gallery

Movie appearances

★ ''The Cell'', 2000

★ ''Orange County'', 2002

★ ''Serenity'', 2005

★ ''Live Free or Die Hard'', 2007

References

★ Jeffrey Kipnis and Todd Gannon. ''Morphosis/Diamond Ranch High School'' The Monacelli Press; 2001 ISBN 1-58093-079-4

External links

★ Pomona Unified School District: Diamond Ranch High School

★ Panther Pride

★ Diamond Ranch High School's Movie Appearances