For the fourth consecutive year since the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. News and World Report’s annual rating of campuses nationwide ranked Sunny Hills among the Top 100 public high schools in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, prompting a surprise visit from a Disney official. 

“It’s just always good to hear the validation of what our students are doing in the classroom and our teachers and how hard everybody’s working,” said principal Craig Weinreich, who also received a bouquet of balloons from the Disneyland Imagination Campus Sales team in honor of the recognition. “Surprised and happy to know that our neighbors noticed this honor, and it was a pretty awesome surprise for them to come because they’ve never done that before.” 

The principal said a member of the Disney Imagination Campus Sales team who went by the name Matthew stopped by Room 4 on Thursday, Sept. 7, with three Mickey Mouse balloons and a card to congratulate the school, about a day after Weinreich learned about the news. 

“The methodology for identifying the top-ranked Best High Schools was developed with a core principle in mind: that the top schools must serve all students well and must produce measurable academic outcomes that support this mission,” according to a Monday, Aug. 28, post from usnews.com. “While the six measures that determined each school’s rank were broadly the same as those in prior years, we adjusted how three were calculated because of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on schools in 2020-2021 – the most recent school year for which assessment data was available.”

Sunny Hills ranked in the yearly Top 1,000 high schools nationwide — No. 923 in national rankings and No. 137 in California — out of 17,680 campuses, according to U.S. News and World Report.

With an index based on Advanced Placement [AP] and International Baccalaureate exam rates and quality-adjusted proportion from the scores, Sunny Hills received a college readiness score of 55.2 out of 100 and 66% AP participation. The school secured its place in the nationwide ranking with an overall score of 94.78 out of 100.

“From what I hear from students, they’re very much ready for college, and that came out through the number, but I didn’t specifically dissect the numbers,” Weinreich said. “We’re doing things to provide good education and a good experience for our students here; that’s what’s important, and the results will take care of themselves.” 

Although the school’s ranking sits below its average placement over the past three years of 903rd nationwide and 125th statewide, the principal said he isn’t worried because the change depends on the students and schools’ performances each year.

“I don’t think it really does matter because we tend to get that kind of fluctuation over the years,” he said. “It really depends on what thousands of other schools end up doing, and each class of students they’re measuring is different from year to year, so some year’s students are very different than other years.”

However, Weinreich said last year had one of the highest AP participation rates with over 2,200 exams and 1,100 students.

“I feel great about it,” the principal said. “It’s nice to see so many students challenging themselves, taking the most rigorous curriculum that they can and trying their best at it and giving an effort — I think it’s the best part about it.”

Weinreich said he doesn’t plan to increase the AP participation rate but leaves it up to the students. 

“There are some places where they want to force everybody to take an AP test, and there’s some value in taking a test, but students need to pick and choose what’s important for them,” he said. “We don’t want them overly stressed over something.”

Senior Abhijit Sipahimalani said it would be nice to have a little celebration as a school, such as in assemblies, and thought the ranking was accurate based on his experiences at Sunny Hills over the years.

“I wasn’t surprised because it’s an academic school where a lot of people care about their classes,” said Sipahimalani, who learned about the ranking through the principal’s weekly newsletter on Friday, Sept. 8. “I just thought it made sense because of the number of honors and AP classes offered at the school.”

Senior Bella Gomez said she also thought the Disney Imagination Campus Sales team’s visit was interesting. 

“I saw it on Instagram, and I thought it was pretty nice that they sent us balloons and congratulated us,” Gomez said. “I also was happy to see that our school ranked that high because it shows how well we are doing as a school with our students’ achievements and how the staff and teachers help make it possible for us to learn every day.”

Although sophomore Mahathi Prabhu didn’t know about the Disneyland team’s visit, she said she felt proud to attend Sunny Hills.

“I reacted by saying aloud to myself, ‘No way, that’s so cool!’ and told my friends at Sunny Hills that we were a top-ranking school,” Prabhu said. “This prestigiousness has pushed me to always do my best in whatever I do, especially academics and sports.”

Before coming to Sunny Hills, she said she was nervous after hearing from an SH graduate about the academic rigor.

“Although Sunny Hills is a great school, I find myself staying [up] late at night studying, just to do well on tests, but it also means Sunny Hills helps me challenge myself more, whether it be doing an extra credit project or running an extra mile when I’m exhausted,” the sophomore said. 

Weinreich said he would like to keep things consistent and continue the high rankings in the future.

“Our goal is to continue being good at what we do and keep encouraging our students to just always do their best on the things that they do,” he said.