Chapter 1 – Student / Community Profile
Santa Susana High School, Ventura County’s first magnet high school, opened on September 5, 1996. The class of 2005 marked Santa Susana’s seventh graduating class. As a school emphasizing Academics, The Arts and Information Technology, Santa Susana currently has students in grades nine through twelve, with a total enrollment of 1,288. The school provides students and families with an educational environment specifically designed to prepare students in areas of interest, while maximizing their success in a rigorous and relevant academic program.
Santa Susana High School is located in the City of Simi Valley (population, 122,485) which is approximately forty-five miles northwest of Los Angeles and encompasses the communities of Simi, Santa Susana, Community Center, the Susana Knolls, and Wood Ranch. The average household income in Simi Valley is relatively high because in most families both adult members of the household work. Simi Valley has served as a commuter community since the city’s growth began in the early 1960’s. However, the city, incorporated in 1969, is enjoying a rapid increase in light industry, technology and retail, thus providing an ever-enlarging job base in the city.
Simi Valley offers a talented and diversified labor pool with over one-third of the City's population designated as professional, technical or managerial. Others in the community are chiefly classified in skilled services, sales, crafts and clerical categories.
Seventy-eight percent (78%) of the housing is owner-occupied; twenty-two percent (22%) of the housing is rental. The median home value is $540,500 and the median rent is $2,000 dollars. The median household income is $78,156. The major employers in the city are Countrywide Financial (5,314 employees), Simi Valley Hospital (1,080 employees) and Farmers Insurance (1,000 employees).
Simi Valley is also centrally located to some of the country's most prestigious colleges and universities including UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, Cal Lutheran and California State University at Northridge, and the new California State University Channel Islands, just to name a few. Two community colleges are only minutes away and Simi Valley Adult School offers a variety of vocational programs.
Santa Susana High School is one of four high schools in the Simi Valley Unified School District. There are two traditional comprehensive high schools as well as one continuation school and Santa Susana Magnet High School. Santa Susana High School, as a school of choice, draws students from all over Simi Valley plus students from outside the district who are interested in the specialized programs of the school. The Santa Susana High School site is approximately 25 acres and the buildings date from 1970. The site was used as a junior high school (grades 7-8-9) until the spring of 1996 when the school began preparations to open as a high school the following September. As a whole, the Simi Valley Unified School District serves more than 21,533 students and is currently growing after twenty plus years of level enrollment. Santa Susana High School has received strong support for its specialized programs from district officials and the Board of Education.
As a school of choice with no attendance boundaries within the Simi Valley Unified School District, Santa Susana must recruit students who are interested in our three "Schools” of focus: The School of the Arts, The School of Academics, and The School of Information Technology. Students may enroll at SSHS through a formal procedure adopted by the Board of Education. Although there are no CIF athletic programs at Santa Susana, the school provides a full range of student activities including student government and clubs. Seventy -seven percent (77%) of our student body is comprised of Simi Valley students and thirteen percent (13%) from outside Simi Valley.
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