June 17, 2005

Silver Creek High School graduates 485 students

The 36th annual graduation held June 9 for Silver Creek High School was one event that Dr. Ana Lomas, former principal of Silver Creek, was not going to miss.

Graduates and long-time friends Allison Ackard and Amber Nelson attended the 36th annual graduation at Silver Creek High School.

About six months ago, she was asked to fill the principal’s spot at Andrew Hill. But since the graduating seniors at Silver Creek were freshman when she first arrived on the East Side Union High School District scene, she felt very attached to this class and made sure to return for their big milestone.

This graduation celebration, under warm blue skies on the track field, was also Ed Fox’s last graduation as associate principal, because he’s retiring. And little did anyone know, that just days later, Art Darin, the current principal of Silver Creek would announce his retirement.

Despite all the administrative and budgetary flux, Silver Creek is a school that its 485 graduating seniors can be proud of. Here’s why:

Based on a formula calculating the ratio of Advanced Placement classes offered to the number of seniors, a recent study by Newsweek/MSNBC ranked Silver Creek in the top 2.2 percent and top 1,000 schools in the nation.

Ana Lomas, former principal of Silver Creek High School, returned to graduate the Class of 2005.

Silver Creek offers 38 AP classes, more than any other ESUHSD school.More than 20 percent of Silver Creek students are enrolled in AP classes, including 33 percent of the senior class.

Silver Creek has the highest percentage of UC and CSU-qualified graduates in the district.

Silver Creek’s four-year Japanese language program has proven itself as the best in Northern California by dominating the annual Japan Bowl competition. It is widely recognized as one of the best programs in the nation.
In addition to traditional advanced coursework in math and science, Silver Creek offers leading edge technology course in biotechnology, forensic science and electronics.

The school’s Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program enjoys a 98 percent success rate at mentoring, coaching and supporting under-represented students through a specialized system of four-year dedicated teacher-student teams.

The school has funding and technology partnerships with several local businesses including IBM, Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard.