Campbell Union High School District

Campbell Union High School District (abbreviated as CUHSD) is a school district based in San Jose, California, serving the Silicon Valley communities of San Jose, Campbell, and Saratoga.

It operates five main campuses, Branham, Del Mar, Leigh, Prospect, and Westmont, serve more than 7800 students, and employ 550 teachers and staff. Since 1986, schools in the district have been recognized as distinguished schools 7 times, the last being in 2007. As of 2016, the Superintendent is Robert Bravo.

Schools[]

The following are schools operated by the CUHSD:

Note: Student enrollment figures based on 2002-2003 school year data

The following are now closed schools formerly operated by the CUHSD:

Board of Trustees[]

The five-member Board of Trustees, which establishes policies for the district includes Stacey Brown, Matthew Dean, Wendy Dillingham-Plew, Kalen Gallagher, and Linda Goytia. Members are elected to staggered four-year terms. [1]

• Stacey Brown's term expires in 2018
• Matthew Dean's term expires in 2018
• Kristiina Arrasmith's term expires in 2018
• Kalen Gallagher's term expires in 2016
• Linda Goytia's term expires in 2016

History[]

Campbell Union High School District was organized on August 13, 1900. The first high school to open its doors as part of the district was Campbell High School (now closed) on September 14, 1900 with a registration of 35 students, consisting of 23 girls and 12 boys. Two teachers were hired to educate the students: Professor E. A. Powers and Miss J. M. Newton. The first graduating class was one student, Charles Beardsley, who went on to Stanford and became a lawyer, thus proving Campbell High School's academic merit. [2]

In the late '50s, the district began to plan for the baby boom after World War II, and began building additional campuses. First was Camden High School (closed in 1980), which opened in 1955, after which followed Del Mar, which opened in 1957, then Blackford (now closed under that name) in '59, Leigh in '60, then Westmont in '65, Branham in '66, and Prospect in '68. The largest campus is Leigh, the smallest is Prospect. Most of the campuses built in that era follow the same general design plan, including a quad as an important fixture, and rows of wings of classrooms. [3] The superintendent of the CUHSD at the time of the district's expansion, Larry Hill, made a deal with the brickyard adjacent to Del Mar High School, (which is now Del Mar's football Bowl), to get the 'clinker' bricks at a discount. These were used in all the schools the district was building at the time, which is why many of the older buildings have a lot of brick in them. [4]

Larry Hill, (a.k.a. Laurance J. Hill), was also Campbell High School's principal, beginning in 1946, and is credited with much of the district's growth and planning in his years in office, which ended in 1969. An award in his name is given out every year at each high school in the district.

Campbell High School, although the namesake school of the district, was closed in 1982, because of declining enrollment in the area and in the district. Westmont and Del Mar's attendance boundaries subsequently expanded to pick up the slack. In 1985, after some negotiating, the City of Campbell purchased the campus, including the historic Heritage Theater, (built in 1938), and it became the Campbell Community Center. [5]

Branham High School was closed in 1990 and leased to Valley Christian until 1999, when the district decided it should be reopened. The result of its closure is that many of the other schools in the district still use equipment designated as belonging to Branham, although it is now open again. The first year Branham only had classes of freshmen and sophomores. The redistricting that took place for Branham in 1999 affected Leigh and Del Mar the most, the attendance boundaries stretching north to Campbell, and west to Camden. [6]

Blackford as a comprehensive high school closed in 1990, and became a continuation high school. In 2002, the district built a new facility on the same site as Blackford, and moved the continuation high school there, renaming it Boynton, after its street address. [7] They now lease out the Blackford campus to various other tenants. [8]

Technology[]

The District network consists of 10 Gbit/s connections providing students and staff access to internal resources and 20 Gbit/s internet connection. All students and teachers have a district email account, which is run from the servers at the district office, and all teachers enter final grades electronically through AERIES, which allows students to access their transcripts and other official documents . [9] Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, the district has been using Canvas as the main platform in which teachers enter grades, communicate with students and parents.

References[]

• Miskulin, George F. A History of The Campbell Union High School District (1900-1988). pp. 25–26.
• Kirwan, Aidan K. Branham: A Passionate History. 2018.
• The CUHSD website
• The History of Campbell High Schools on Campbell.net

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Campbell Union High School District.

• Campbell Union High School District (official website)
• Boynton High School (official website)
• Branham High School (official website)
• Del Mar High School (official website)
• Leigh High School (official website)
• Prospect High School (official website)
• Westmont High School (official website)
• Attendance Boundaries