Miramonte High School Background

Community

Miramonte High School was founded in 1955 by the Acalanes Union High School District as a comprehensive public high school serving grades 9-12. With an enrollment of about 1200 students, Miramonte offers a wide variety of academic and elective courses to encourage students to explore diverse avenues of learning. In addition to a strong college preparatory curriculum, we offer a broad spectrum of Advanced Placement and Honors classes to challenge students and prepare them to excel at the college level.

The school year consists of two 18-week semesters. The school week class schedule is a modified block plan with an “Anchor” day on Monday where students attend all of their classes for 45 minutes each.  On Tuesday through Friday, students attend three or four classes for a 90 minute “Block” class.  Wednesday and Friday feature an Academy period for students to seek individualized support from their teachers.

Located 20 miles east of San Francisco, Orinda is a family-oriented suburban community of 17,600 on the east side of the Oakland/Berkeley hills. Demonstrating a strong commitment to education, the community and parents continue to give significant financial support to the academic and extracurricular programs at Miramonte. Three parent organizations work together to enhance the high school experience for all students by conducting fundraising activities and recruiting volunteers to support student programs and activities that otherwise would not be available. The Educational Foundation of Orinda also makes a substantial yearly contribution to many school wide programs. The Rotary Club of Orinda sponsors a yearly Career Night for students to explore career options.

Miramonte ranks in the top 5% of comprehensive public high schools in California and received a 6-year accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). MHS has been recognized as a California Distinguished School, a Blue Ribbon School, appears on the Gold Medal List of Best California High Schools and is routinely acknowledged in US News and World Report’s ranking of the Best High Schools in the country.

Mission Statement

The Miramonte High School community provides a supportive environment for students to grow intellectually, socially, physically, and emotionally, and challenges them to positively contribute to their community.

Vision Statement

Miramonte students will be creative and innovative learners, collaborators, and communicators. We challenge our students to become compassionate and knowledgeable citizens who actively participate in our global community.

Specific Learner Outcomes (SLO)

Miramonte High School graduates will be:

Learners who:

• Demonstrate achievement of learning standards
• Are self-directed and are self-aware
• Use their creativity to solve problems
• Reason abstractly and quantitatively
• Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
• Construct viable arguments and can analyze the reasoning of others
• Apply appropriate strategies, including technology, to learn new concepts and skills
• Set goals and employ time-management skills to maintain high standards

Communicators who:

• Identify and appropriately address diverse audiences
• Effectively integrate oral, written, and research skills into their work
• Listen objectively and empathetically
• Express themselves logically and creatively
• Utilize technology appropriately to convey information and ideas

Collaborators who:

• Solve problems cooperatively within diverse groups
• Use appropriate leadership skills to develop and maintain relationships
• Respectfully consider all viewpoints and are culturally sensitive
• Leverage appropriate technologies to enhance their work

Citizens who:

• Take responsibility for their own actions
• Act with integrity and compassion
• Respect diversity and the opinions of others
• Practice ethical behavior in regard to the use of information technology and academic honesty