El Camino Fundamental High School
El Camino Fundamental High School is a public high school in Arden-Arcade, California, near Sacramento. It is part of the San Juan Unified School District. Built in 1951 as El Camino High School, "Fundamental" was added to the name in the late 1970s to signify the school's intention to focus upon basic (fundamental) characteristics of successful schools, in particular a return to a strong disciplinary emphasis, a stripped-down college preparatory curriculum, and a contract-supported, enroll-through-application-only process.
El Camino Fundamental High School
Academically, as measured by their Academic Performance Index, El Camino finally broke the important "800" barrier in 2009 after two years of changes implemented by its former principal, Mike Stockdale. El Camino has continually met the requirements of the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) outlined under No Child Left Behind mandates, since their inception.
El Camino has, for over 20 years, participated with the state's "California Partnership Academy" program through the Eagle Polytechnic Institute (EPI) which focuses on engineering and manufacturing.
Curriculum[edit]
The school offers Advanced Placement courses in Chemistry, English, Government, Psychology, Biology, Environmental Science, Calculus, Statistics, Spanish, and History. Currently, AP 2-D Studio Art has been added in 2023. They had AP courses in French and Physics before, then it was terminated.
El Camino Band[edit]
El Camino Fundamental High School has four academic bands and one Pep Band. All four bands are under the leadership of Band Director Gabriel 'Victory' Read.
El Camino Choir[edit]
Choral Director David Vanderbout, a 2005 graduate of El Camino High School, led the school's choirs from 2012 to 2022. He led a beginning choir, and intermediate choir, and an advanced Jazz choir. He has since left to teach at Jesuit High School.
El Camino Theatre[edit]
El Camino Fundamental High School offers two theatrical classes, Beginning, and Advanced Drama. The program has also put on 3 productions every year while offering students the option of being a part of the cast or crew.
EPI (Eagle Polytechnic Institute)[edit]
The EPI program is for 10th-12th students who wish to have a different high school experience. EPI is a California Partnership Academy that runs as a School within a School format. EPI students share 2-4 classes with each other every year. These classes strive to feature cross-curricular core content and activities focused around manufacturing and engineering.
Academic Decathlon[edit]
El Camino won the Sacramento County Academic Decathlon back-to-back in 1984 and 1985. The 1989 and 1990 year teams are widely regarded as the best El Camino ever fielded.[3]
Sports[edit]
Several El Camino Fundamental High School's sports teams at one point were ranked nationally including the El Camino E-gals dance/drill team who won the UNITED Spirit association's national competition in the dance/drill category in 2004. The school competes in the Capital Athletic League.
Principals[edit]
Randy Holcomb, formerly the principal of Foothill Ranch Middle School in Sacramento, CA is the current principal of the school. Shelley Friery, formerly a vice principal of the school, served as principal until 2017, having served since 2013. Jill Spears, formerly a vice principal at the school, was the principal until 2013, having served since 2010. Michael Stockdale, formerly a vice principal at Woodcreek High School in Roseville, CA was the principal from 2007 to 2010. Ernest Boone, formerly the principal at River City High School in West Sacramento, CA and Vacaville High School in Vacaville, CA was the principal of El Camino from 1993 to 2007.
