Dana Hills High School is a high school in Dana Point, California. It is one of the oldest high schools in South Orange County, having opened in 1973. The school's enrollment of nearly 3,000 students is drawn from the nearby communities of Laguna Niguel, Dana Point, Capistrano Beach, and San Juan Capistrano.When Dana Hills was built in 1972-73, the area was an unincorporated area of Orange County. The school was named for its hilltop location over the unincorporated village of Dana Point, as well as the tip of the hill projecting south into the Pacific Ocean as the Dana Point headland. The school later became a part of the City of Dana Point, when the city was incorporated in 1989.Dana Hills now has over 155839sqft in permanent buildings, yet it still struggles with overcrowding. Two new science buildings have opened in 2007, and the math wing has been redone, featuring wider hallways and larger classrooms. These two improvements to Dana Hills have allowed for the removal of fourteen portables making the new portable count 38. The principal is Joshua Porter.STAR TestingDana Hills' Academic Performance Index (API) for the year of 2007 was 824. This was a significant improvement over 2006's API of 816. The high test scores in recent years have provided the school with partial funding for new science buildings, a renovation of the math department, an artificial turf football field / all-weather track, and over 150 new computers and flat screen monitors used in CECA, Career and College Planning, AP Computer Science, and Digital Photo. Incentives are given to the students to do well on these standardized tests.
