Burbank High School (Burbank, California)

Burbank High School is the flagship public high school in Burbank, California, USA. It opened on September 14, 1914, and its inaugural class had 334 students. It is a part of the Burbank Unified School District. The area had previously been served by the Glendale Union High School District.

Burbank High began an extensive facility update in 2003, and its first phase of reconstruction was a building housing new classrooms for the entire school. By 2005, the campus also had a new gym, pool, visual and performing arts center, parking structure, athletic field, and tennis courts.

In addition to a core curriculum that satisfies the University of California A-G requirements, Burbank High offers 17 Honors and Advanced Placement classes, a wide variety of visual arts classes, career technical classes and nationally recognized performing arts.

In the past several years, the Academic Performance Index score (derived from State Testing) has risen by 95 points to a score of 806. No other school in the State with similar demographics made this amount of gain.

History
Burbank High was first established in 1908. Previously students attended Burbank schools until the high school level, when they moved onto Glendale Union High School District. After 1908 the Burbank School District withdrew from the Glendale High School district.

Show Choir Program
Burbank High is known for its nationally ranked advanced mixed show choir called In Sync, directed by Brett Carroll. Also directed by Brett Carroll, is the advanced women's group, "Impressions", the advanced men's group, "Sound Dogs", and an intermediate mixed group, "Out of the Blue". Burbank High School also had an intermediate women's group, "Sapphire", directed by Donna Dandino, but no longer does as of 2014. The Burbank High School show choir program was recently ranked number one in the country for 2009 and 2010 and is ranked number one on another ranking list for the 2009 to 2010 season. Burbank High School hosts its own non-competitive show choir competition called Burbank Blast, intended to be held annually starting 2008; starting in 2011, Burbank Blast will be a full-fledged judged competition, the first Burbank High has ever hosted. Burbank High Show choirs finished the 2010 competition season ranked in the top five overall in the nation. This marks the third straight year for this accomplishment.

Journalism
The students and staff publish a newspaper and a yearbook, the Ceralbus. "Ceralbus" means "blue and white". In 2010, Burbank High's 2009 yearbook reached the finalist round in the National Pacemaker Award for the first time. The school newspaper, The Burbank Bulldog, produces a paper monthly, and covers events concerning both Burbank High School and the Burbank Community.

Academic Decathlon
Burbank High School runs two competitive Academic Decathlon teams, ranked in 2007 23rd in the United States, and currently holding 12th overall in Los Angeles County Office of Education.

The Roberta Kordich award was given to coach Valerie Beidelman for her support and dedication to the Burbank High School Academic Decathlon Team.

Athletics
Burbank High School ("The Bulldogs") fields a full range of high school interscholastic athletic teams including both men's and women's basketball teams, tennis, American football, cross country, baseball, softball, golf, track and field, swimming, water-polo, volleyball and soccer. It competes in the California Interscholastic Federation's Southern Section as a member of the Pacific League.

Notable alumni

 * Kelly Blatz, actor
 * Ralph Botting, baseball player
 * Rob Bowman, director
 * Jack Burditt, TV writer
 * Tim Burton, director
 * Dove Cameron, actress
 * Paul Cameron, football player
 * Jason Chandler, baseball player
 * Mark Covert, c/o 1968, distance runner
 * Cathy Ferguson, Olympic swimmer - 2 Gold Medals at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics
 * Kim Fields, actress
 * Jaimee Foxworth, actress
 * Seychelle Gabriel, actress
 * Gary Grimes, actor
 * Blake Lively, actress
 * Masiela Lusha graduated at the age of 15, before being privately tutored on the set of George Lopez
 * Nena Manriquez, two time All American distance runner at Cal State Northridge
 * Chris Marquette, actor
 * Larry Maxam, Medal of Honor recipient for heroism during Vietnam War
 * James Mouton, baseball player
 * Jeff Nelson, held national high school record for two mile run 1979-2008
 * Evan Peters, actor
 * Debbie Reynolds, actress and singer
 * Randy Rhoads, guitarist for Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne
 * Theresa Russell, actress
 * Freddy Sanchez, baseball player
 * Lon Simmons, sportscaster
 * Frank Sullivan, baseball player
 * Vic Tayback, actor, producer
 * Matthew Timmons, actor
 * Mitch Vogel, actor
 * Anson Williams, actor, producer
 * Laura Ziskin, producer

Publicity
The Nickelodeon TV show Victorious used digitally altered images of Burbank High School as a model of the front of Hollywood Arts, the fictional high school in which most of the series took place. The interior of the school, however, was filmed at Nickelodeon on Sunset. Also, the Disney Channel TV show A.N.T. Farm used only the front of the school as transitions between scenes.