by Jennifer Tipton
First up – Buena High!
Located at 5670 Telegraph Rd., Buena High School opened in 1961. Providing grades 9 – 12, student enrollment is currently 1,895 and Buena is recognized as a California Distinguished School.
22% of Buena grads go directly to a 4-year university and another 47% attend junior college or something similar.
In her 7th year at Buena, principal Bobbi Powers is proud of “the fantastic music and drama programs and the unique AP (advanced placement) classes in science.” Buena even offers law pathway classes for a career in criminal justice.
Everyone knows the mascot is the Buena Bulldog, and when asked about the school’s bragging rights for sports competition I am told that just last year the girls’ softball team won the CIF championship, the girls’ basketball team got their thousandth win – first one in the state to accomplish this! There’s also a lot of wrestling championships.
And how about students that became famous? Well we know Kevin Costner attended Buena (but did not actually graduate from there as clarified in an earlier Breeze update). There’s Freddy Keiaho, a star athlete who played football at Buena and went on to be part of the Super Bowl XLI victory! There’s also Zac Levi the actor, Robert Weiss the screen writer for Shrek and Buena has a physical education teacher John Siman who was himself a former Olympian!
When asked about the amount of homework the students are given, principal Bobbi Powers states, “I do think our teachers are very aware the students have outside interests and a life, they don’t just give busy work, the homework they are given is to enhance the learning that’s happening in the classroom.”
For more information venturausd.org/Buena/HOME.aspx.
