Arcadia High School (California)

Arcadia High School is a four-year comprehensive secondary school located on a 40acre site in Arcadia, California, United States. It is part of the Arcadia Unified School District.The high school was opened in 1952. The incoming freshman classes consist of students that feed in from Arcadia's three middle schools: First Avenue Middle School, Richard Henry Dana Middle School, Foothills Middle School.It is among the few public high schools in California to receive a distinguished Great Schools Rating of 9 out of 10. In 2010, BusinessWeek ranked Arcadia as the best place to raise children in the state of California for the second year in a row, citing the city's school system and its low crime rate.The school has a teaching staff of 148. Four hold doctorate degrees, and 110 have master's degrees. The administrative staff consists of the principal, four assistant principals, and one dean of students. A staff of eight full-time and two part-time counselors hold master's degrees and Pupil Personnel Service Credentials, with two of the counselors licensed Marriage/Family/Child Counselors. Arcadia High School is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and received another six-year accreditation in June 2010.HistoryArcadia was once part of the Spanish Empire and part of a 21sqmi area called Rancho Santa Anita. In 1845, Hugo Reid, a pioneer from Scotland, bought Rancho Santa Anita from Governor Pio Pico. Through the years, several early settlers occupied Rancho Santa Anita. In 1875, Elias Jackson "Lucky" Baldwin bought the land. The city of Arcadia's destiny was entwined with the fortunes of Baldwin, who expanded his property holdings to 63000acre in the San Gabriel Valley. Baldwin went on to oversee Arcadia's incorporation in 1903 and became the city's first mayor. The Arcadia School District came to be at the same time as the incorporation of Arcadia in 1903.