St. Margaret's Episcopal School
From Stmargarets
St. Margaret's Episcopal School is a K-12 college preparatory school with a history as rich and controversial as any European Dynasty. This website has been created as an attempt to document and organize SMES' colorful past. Feel free to contribute anything, so long as it won't cause a lawsuit.
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Early History
According to various speeches and unread books and articles, St. Margaret's was founded in 1979 by the Rev. Canon Ernest D. Sillers aka Father Sillers. The school began with only 79 students (that's one away from 80), with kindergarden through grade six.
The first couple of years were rough indeed, with graduating class of no more than 10 or 15 students and virtually no textbooks or school equipment. The first 10 years of St. Margaret's might be compared to the current state of affairs at Junipero Serra High School, Sage Hill, or even CVCS. But through a combination of luck and skill the school would soon grow to the point of national notoriety. Much celebration came with the school's inclusion in Princeton Review's prestigous top 443 private schools in the United States book. Other high points including multiple CIF championships confirmed the school's importance.
Over it's 25 year history, St. Margaret's slowly opened up new schools and new buildings.
Then, in the past couple of years, the school has taken on a new mission statement of, "if you build it, they will come". Realizing they already had students, they changed it to a long and boring 'philosophy' that is rumored to never have been read.
Recent History
The past ten years of SMES history have been marked by a number of controversies and a seemingly unstoppable desire to expand the school. One of the earliest controversial decisions was to replace Upper School Principal, Tim Quinn with Steve Balak. Before the switch took place there was a period better known as "The Dark Ages" in which no true headmaster was in position and Mr. Cullinan served as a temporary headmaster. Martial law was issued throughout the school until finally Balak came into power. The move deeply upset the student body and engendered an inevitable hostility towards Balak.
During the Balak administration a number of new scandals erupted including the Lost Soul Incident, Prank Night Nightmares, the Tom Knight Off-Campus Lunch situation, and the attempted Upper School Constitution. For further controversies on the SMES campus, see controversies.
Eventually Steve Balak resigned as upper school principal and was replaced by Dr. Rothman who would only last in the position for three months. At the same time, the school's long-time headmaster Mark Campaigne was replaced by Marcus Hurlbut, who would spearhead the school's ambitious expansion program.
A highlight of the Balak Administration were the impromptu Jack Bartlett convocation performances which recieved high praises.
David Boyle would become principal following the short-lived reign of Dr. Rothman, and he remains the current SMES principal. As with his many predecessors, the student body is having difficulty coping with some of Mr. Boyle's policies including a wrath of suspensions during the 2004-2005 school year.
Student Life
Students at SMES are notoriously preppy and cliqish. While all students are generally cheery and polite to visitors, social allegiances run deep among the entire student body.
Food
SMES boasts a world class dining facility featuring a weekly rotated schedule of catered food. Students are required to prereserve their catered food from In 'n Out, Pick up stix, Tannins (formerly Tre Vigne), Baja Fresh, and Ball Park Pizza
For second semester juniors and seniors, the options are far larger. For those who are bold enough to dare getting to class late, many fast food restaurants are in close proximity to the SMES campus, notably Carls Jr., Jack in the Box, Taco Bell, Del Taco, and Arby's. Some students have even dared to venture all the way to Pat&Oscars in Foothill Ranch, or Phillys Best Cheesesteak in Aliso Viejo
A far more popular option in recent years has been to walk the short distance from campus to the Ortega business center, which features Bad to the Bone although subject to change yearly, Fred's, Ballpark Pizza and Bravo Burgers. These restaurants not only add to the amazing off-campus experience but the aroma and atmosphere as well.
Facilities
The SMES campus is expanding at a rapid pace, buying up all land available in the surrounding Ortega Business Center. SMES was originally founded with a very small amount of land with no plans for expansion into a preschool, lower school, middle school, and upper school. Already space is woefully inadequete and the adminstration has had to canibalize the senior lot and the [meadows] to build their new gym and classrooms. SMES has a 'master plan' somewhat similar to the plans for the Death Star to create a moon orbiting earth where students will be educated "without the drawbacks of gravity", whatever that means
Athletics
St. Margaret's has a storied athletic past with CIF championships in nearly every major sport. Recently, a soccer team led by CIF MVPs Parker Redmond and Hutch Parker won the title in 2002. The girls volleyball team managed to win an unprecedented four consecutive titles from the years 1999-2003. St. Margaret's football last won a CIF title in the 1980's, though 2004 and 2005 saw a trip to the semi-finals. The St. Margaret's golf team has recently established itself as a powerhouse, not only in Southern California, but in the nation.
It was common for there to be a Junior Varsity team for each sport. While many of these were just mediocre counterparts with less experienced players, a few examples stood out above the rest, like Team Grind of the tennis team and the Coach Perry's JV basketball.
Clubs
The high school was filled with student run clubs and organizations, ranging from the Ecology club to the coveted Caribbean Mediterranean Cultural Appreciation Club (C MI CAC), but none had the success or popularity of Tom Knight's The Simpsons ULTIMATE Fan Club. Sponsored by Larry Rice, meetings were characterized by repeated chanting of "PANDA!", fighting over who got to eat pizza, and Mr. Rice not being paid for the pizza. Occasionally, an episode of the show would be watched. The episode where Sideshow Bob ran for mayor was played way to much.
The club situation at the school has been severely changed under the iron fist of the Boyle administration, as non-educational clubs have been forbidden and there is a weekly mandatory club attendance period. There are, however, a few exceptions. Most notable is The First Olympic Official American Varsity Professional Intercontinental Interscholastic Hide and Seek Team©.
While not necessarily a club, several student bands have formed over the history of SMES including The Goofs, Apocolypse Radio, Bound for Riverside, The Party Crashers/Chet, THE FOURDS, and some kids called The Cavalry.
Traditions
For the past 3 years, we have been blessed with the annual Kyra Rogers Male Model Walk-Off. Around 8 of the most flamboyant or sexy men are chosen to compete on the runway. In the 2003 competition, Will Mcgraw won the hearts of everyone with his keyboard playing and Outkast singing. In the 2004 competition, there was much controversy as crowd favorite Aidan Logan was immediately disqualifed by Johnny Marmelstein for doing innappropriate humping of the runway(lunch tables). Another incident that seems to happen in every competition, is the first round vote out of the egotistical Ryan Brunswick and Scotty Edgcomb, apparently taking your shirt off to show-off your body doesn't get you points with the judges.
Advisory
A complete waste of time but good in theory like communism. Mr. Allen's Advisory
School Retreats
There was a tradition of having a school retreat at the beginning of every school year which was required of all the students in a given class. Surely, the administration must have been able to foresee that gathering all the students at the time when they're most energetic and giving them the autonomy of their own private quarters would result in disaster, but alas, retreats still continue to this day, much to the amusement of the students.
Class of '03
2002-2003 Senior class Big Bear retreat
2001-2002 Junior class Catalina retreat
2000-2001 Sophomore class San Diego retreat
1999-2000 Freshman class Joshua Tree retreat
Fads
In an effort to alleve boredom, students cycled through more fads than an episode of I Love the 80's. Notable fads included Speed Chess, Stratego at lunchtime, Hearts in the school library, Four Square in the senior parking lot, and a short-lived dodgeball craze. There is still a great deal of controversy over the trendsetter responsible for introducing theres various pastimes to the student body. For more on this, see Sam Araabi
Little Known Facts
The true bible at SMES is actually Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
Very few students openly admit to what a Tartan really is, a fabric.
David Boyle now has E's posted on the gym walls, similar to what baseball fans put up when there pitcher strikes a batter out in baseball, for expulsions during his reign.
In 2006 school year Michael Phelps, a history teacher and advisor, challenged another advisor to Ultimate Frisbee. Since his first victory, he has started an endless trend of faculty publicly challenging other faculty members during convocations; the students feel that these challenges must end. NOW!
SMES is one of few schools to have more men than women as teachers, one of even fewer schools to have more African American teachers, than African American students. It is the only school to have a teacher who has a daughter in the band Bright Eyes and another teacher who has a son in the band Thrice.
School Spirit has always been a slight downer at Saint Margaret's however whenever CVCS, aka the hated ones, came to our gym to play for the 2006 academy league chamionship, Tartan fans rocked the gym off its foundations in the last minutes of regulation. Duke fans would have been proud.
