By: Eduardo Galindo
Since the start of San Mateo Union High School District, many schools have been added to the district as well as students graduating from these schools, now the district is celebrating their 120th anniversary at San Mateo High School next month.
In the 1920’s the district opened up a new school in Burlingame for the growing student population, and that school became Burlingame High School. Burlingame High School originally was a part of San Mateo High School under the name San Mateo High School Burlingame Branch, but became its own school in 1927.
During the 1950’s and the 1960’s a total of five schools opened. Capuchino High School in 1950, Hillsdale High School in 1955, Mills High School in 1958, Aragon High School in 1961, and Crestmoor High School in 1962 which closed in 1980. Some of the buildings of Crestmoor High School were reused for a new high school, Peninsula High School.
Eight years ago in 2014, Design Tech High School was founded also known as D-Tech. When D-Tech started it had a temporary campus at one of Mills High School halls. Now they have a campus in front of a waterfront at Oracle campus in Redwood City.
With all these schools being around for so long they would of course have had students that reached incredible success after graduating. Here are some of our alumni that have accomplished that success.
These people who graduated from our district have remarkable achievements in sports. Ann Kiyomura from Aragon High School is a tennis champion and has won the Wimbledon, a tennis tournament. DJ Sharabi from Burlingame High School is a baseball player that has played for the olympics. Billie Patricia Daniels from Capuchino High School became a track and field national champion.
Another person who graduated from our district is Merv Griffin from San Mateo High School. He is the person who made the game shows like Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune among others. Merv Griffin also donated 250,000 dollars to SMHS so they named the quad after him.
Some of our alumni have worked in entertainment, like Brad Lewis From Aragon High School, the film producer of Ratatouille. Darick Robertson from Aragon High School joined Marvel and DC comics as an artist. Thomas Schumacher from Hillsdale High School became a Disney theatrical producer. Lee Mendelson from San Mateo High School the producer of the cartoon strip Peanuts.
Other mentions from our district are Bill Neukom from San Mateo High School, a managing general partner of SF giants. Darell Steinberg from Capuchino High School, was the 56th mayor of Sacramento and a mental health advocate. James Van Holfton from Mills High School, was a NASA astronaut, and Ted Dabney from San Mateo High School co-founded Atari.
The 120th anniversary of San Mateo Union High School District celebration is planned to be held at San Mateo High School on October 8th. It will begin in the performing arts center at 11 am and there will be a slideshow of San Mateo High School history. There is going to be a campus tour along with student performances at the event.
