Granada Hills H.S. Wins 2015 Academic Decathlon for the 4th Time in the Last 5 Years

Granada Hills H.S. Wins 2015 Academic Decathlon for the 4th Time in the Last 5 Years

Tuesday, April 21, 2015 / No Comments

Granada Hills High School has done it again winning the National Academic Decathlon for the 4th time in the last 5 years on April 18, 2015 which is simply ridiculous. Granada earned 53,592 points out of 66,000 beating 46 other high schools from across the nation. I didnt see any mention of El Camino of Woodland Hills which won last year's competition so I am assuming they didnt make it this year. 

This is another testament to the health of the SFV school system, well at least in the good areas. Congrats to the students and teachers for sacrificing Facebook and Instagram to focus and study up to 30 hours per week. You can read more about the 2015 victory here. You can also read about El Camino's 2014 victory and Granada's 2011, 2012, and 2013 victories. 

El Camino and Granada Hills Take First and Second Place in 2014 U.S. Academic Decathlon

El Camino and Granada Hills Take First and Second Place in 2014 U.S. Academic Decathlon

Friday, May 30, 2014 / No Comments

Image courtesy Daily News

I am about 4 weeks late on this one but better late than never as the SFV dominated the U.S. Academic Decathlon again with El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills winning the entire event on April 26, 2014 which was El Camino's seventh win. And in second place was the reigning three time champs Granada Hills Charter high school. The difference between El Camino and Granada Hills was 208.7 points or a mere 0.4% from the winning score of 52,601.10. 

Between El Camino and Granada Hills, those two schools have won 10 times since 1998 which is downright ridiculous considering its a national competition. The level of consistency is unheard of especially with Granada almost making it 4 in a row after winning in 2011, 2012, and 2013. What the heck is in those water fountains on campus? This should definitely make real estate prices in Granada Hills and Woodland Hills/West Hills levitate even further.

You can read more at the LA Daily News. 

Granada Hills Academic Decathlon Team Wins For Third Time In A Row

Granada Hills Academic Decathlon Team Wins For Third Time In A Row

Wednesday, May 1, 2013 / 1 Comment

The Granada Hills Charter High School team has done it again for the third time in a row, winning the national championship which is simply unheard of in 2013 (2011 & 2012). Congrats to the team and I am wondering what the heck are the drinking over there that is making them so damn successful. Need to start sharing that stuff with the rest of the schools. 

Unfortunately what might be overshadowed with this victory is the fact the El Camino Real Charter High school, a six time national winner, finished in second place. They were able to compete this year after a rule change which prevented more than one school from the same state attending at the national level. So congrats are in order to that school as well. Finishing second at the national level is practically like finishing first. 

This news is a testament to the strong schools in the SFV in particular El Camino and Granada Hills High. 

San Fernando Valley Youth Grabbing National Headlines

San Fernando Valley Youth Grabbing National Headlines

Tuesday, May 29, 2012 / No Comments

Image courtesy KTLA.com (Left) and CBS Los Angeles (Right)

Continuing from last year's accomplishments, the San Fernando Valley Youth are once again grabbing national headlines dominating various competitions locally and at the national level. Consider the following accomplishments:

1. Granada Hills Charter High School wins the LAUSD Super Quiz [Daily News, 2/09/2012], California Academic Decathlon [Daily News, 3/18/2012], and the more challenging and competitive National Decathlon [Daily News, 4/28/2012]. Amazingly, this was the second year in a row!
2. More than a dozen San Fernando Valley High Schools rank among the nation's best including Cleveland High (Reseda), Community Charter Early College High (Van Nuys), Calabasas High, Granada Hills Charter, Northridge Academy High, Magnolia Science Academy (Reseda), and Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies amongst others. [Daily News, 5/10/2012]
3. North Hollywood High wins 18th annual LADWP Science Bowl [Daily News, 2/28,2012] and second place at the National Science Bowl [Daily News, 4/30/2012] 
4. Chaminade Students Have Science Experiment Aboard SpaceX Flight. Freshman Max Holden and Sophomore Paige D'Andrea are one of 12 student teams across the U.S. whose science experiments won a spot on the flight to see if wine ferments faster in space than compared on earth. Uhmm...just one question, why are high school students experimenting with wine??? [Daily News, 5/23/2012]
5. Sherman Oaks Teens Arjun Mahajan, Maya Flannery, and Jonathan Berman are finalists in the Google Science Fair for developing a tool to help repetitive behaviors in autistic children. [Google]

The above list once again demonstrates that the SFV is a safe area for raising children and is a prime location for education which hands down beats out any other area in Los Angeles County let alone the whole nation based on the list above. This also refutes the article I sarcastically wrote, Dont Raise Your Kids In The West Valley: A Retrospective Review of Young Adult Crime In The West Valley, which showcases three major crimes committed by SFV Youth over the past twenty years.

[Update]:San Fernando Valley Youth Excelling In All Walks of Life

[Update]:San Fernando Valley Youth Excelling In All Walks of Life

Thursday, July 14, 2011 / No Comments

[Update: July 14, 2011]: Another San Fernando Valley Youth reported by Studio City Patch was Amy Weissenbach of Harvard-Westlake High won the Gatorade National Track & Field Athlete of the Year award. She had achieved a national federation record in the 800 meters competition at the CIF state finals in June.

Originally Posted on  June 24, 2011 at 9:00 AM PST:
In popular culture, the mention of the the San Fernando Valley conjures up immediate descriptions of Porn Capital of the World, Valley Girls with their Valspeak, and is considered second rate to the Westside. While these stereotypes may be true, they suggest that Valley residents are incompetent, lazy, sexually promiscuous, airheads, etc. It just occurred to me that something remarkable happened in the San Fernando Valley in the past couple of months that refutes these negative connotations.

Despite all the negative news you hear everyday of robberies, murders, fraud, etc occurring in the San Fernando Valley, the Youth have stepped it up big time this past year. Take note of the following

1. Granada Hills Charter High School won the National Academic Decathlon in April
2. San Fernando High School Baseball won the L.A. City Section championship beating Chatsworth, neighboring city in the SFV in June
3. Alyssa Campbell of Sherman Oaks (although she was born and raised in New Jersey) was crowned Miss USA in June.

I am sure I missed other achievements that occurred during the past school year but this is what I can remember at the moment so I mean no disrespect. If you ask me, this is quite a set of accomplishments for the SFV to be proud of. Parents, teachers, coaches, mentors, etc are playing a significant role in the lives of the San Fernando Valley youth and their hard work and dedication can be seen from the list above. Keep in mind this is happening in the face of high unemployment, massive cutbacks in the school systems, and a housing market in the dumps.

ValleyBites: Rocketdyne Cleanup Ruled Unconstitutional, Granada Hills Charter High School in National Decathlon

ValleyBites: Rocketdyne Cleanup Ruled Unconstitutional, Granada Hills Charter High School in National Decathlon

Saturday, April 30, 2011 / No Comments

• Assuming I read this correctly and I am not hung over from last night, the fine folks at chatsworth.patch.com have just published an article stating that the Federal Court overturned the cleanup of Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Lab (SSFL) up in the Simi Hills near Chatsworth. It was almost  one month ago that I talked about the SSFL here on this site (with cool links to videos and cleanup sites) in response to the Fukushima disaster in Japan which has become probably worse than Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.