Warren High School (Downey, California)

Warren High School
Address
8141 De Palma Street Downey, California 90241 United States
Information
School type	Public, Secondary
Established	1955
School district	Downey Unified School District
Grades	9th - 12th
Color(s)	Blue and Gold
Athletics conference	San Gabriel Valley League
Mascot	Bear
Rival	Downey High School
Website	http://warren.dusd.net

Warren High School, formerly Earl Warren Senior High School, is a public secondary school located in Downey, California (United States). Warren High School enrolls students in grades 9-12 and is a part of the Downey Unified School District.

In 1963, the Downey Unified School District Board of Education voted to change the name of Earl Warren Senior High School to simply "Warren High School." Del Ward was the first principal of Warren High school, in 1955, and the current principal is Laura Rivas.

Earl Warren Senior High School was originally instituted by the Downey Union High School District, which operated Downey Union High School where grades 7-12 were taught. When that district built and began to operate separate junior high schools teaching grades 7-9, Downey's only high school was redesignated as Downey Senior High School and comprised grades 10-12. Eventually, in 1956, Downey incorporated as the City of Downey and a few years later, the Downey Unified School District was formed from several elementary school districts in Downey and the Downey Union High School District, which continued the junior high school and senior high school model until the early 1970s. At that time, the junior high schools in Downey became "middle schools" teaching grades 6-8 and the senior high schools became 4-year high schools comprising grades 9-12.

After its inception, class sizes grew gradually larger as a reflection of the Post-War Baby Boom. The class of 1970, with 715 students graduating was the largest to date and, by then, extra classrooms were needed. A new library was built, thus freeing up former library space for classrooms. A new physics laboratory was constructed alongside existing classrooms, as was a new electronics laboratory. The band room was remodeled, made windowless and soundproof and outfitted with an air conditioning system. Two prefabricated, freestanding modular classrooms were added next to the library in the late 1960s to help accommodate the growing student body. At the same time, a swimming pool was finally constructed for aquatic sports.

In the mid-1960s, the student body raised funds to save an old olive tree that was going to be destroyed to make room for new construction somewhere in Downey; the tree was transplanted to the Warren campus and became a symbol of school spirit.

Originally, the campus had a central hot-water heating system, which was impractical because of the many disjunct buildings, mostly with four classrooms apiece, served by covered, outdoor hallways. The heating pipes had corroded in the ground and at various points resulted in pools of boiling mud where the pipes had ruptured. Many classrooms were without heat. In 1971, new forced air heating systems were retrofitted into the original classrooms which were served by the defunct hot-water heating systems.

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