Now in his sixth year as principal, Greg Louie is seeking to fill a void in recognizing extraordinary contributions to the school with the creation of a Saratoga High Inaugural Hall of Fame event.
“At a school like ours, we have a number of prestigious graduates, staff members and community members, but we don’t have anything established to recognize them,” Louie said. “We want to honor parents who have been instrumental in making our school a great place, but predominantly it’s to celebrate our graduated alums who have gone through our school and done something magical for the community and society.”
After Louie shared his idea with the booster presidents about a year ago, most of the groups were highly interested, so they began meeting, discussing plans and consulting staff.
While this event has been a vision for many years, planning began in earnest last June and is picking up speed with twice-monthly meetings beginning in January.
The event is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 4 at Villa Ragusa but has yet to be finalized. It will consist of a dinner, silent auction and honorary ceremony verbally recognizing all awardees. Everyone in the community, including students, parents, alumni, staff and administrators, will be invited to attend.
The event is sponsored and funded by the five school booster organizations — the Saratoga High School Foundation, Saratoga High School PTSO, Music Booster SMB, STA Theater and Speech and Debate boosters. Funds acquired from the event will be dedicated toward funding Saratoga booster programs to cover school facility upgrades, classroom equipment and more.
Two committees will be created to split the planning of this event — the nominations committee and the organization committee.
The nominations committee — led by Louie — will be responsible for receiving applications and nominations for the candidates. Given that the school opened in 1959, the committee anticipates sifting through decades worth of potential applicants. Afterward, the committee will evaluate the credentials and contributions of the applicants to select the final honorees. The committee hopes to induct around 10 people for the event’s first time.
The organization committee — led by the five booster presidents — is responsible for organizing logistical details such as event schedule, date, location, food, auction items and more.
The nominations committee is working on finalizing bylaws that will outline an overview of all event details including the qualifications to be nominated and the entire process from applications to final nominations. Once the bylaws are finalized, the nomination committee will be recruited and inductions for honorees will formally begin.
The committee has been working closely with Tim Taylor, a former superintendent who is now the executive director of the California Small School District’s Association. Taylor has experience launching Hall of Fames in multiple districts.
In addition, Former assistant principal Karen Hyde had attempted variations of a Hall of Fame during her time, so the committee took that into consideration as well.
Event advertising will begin in the spring via multiple platforms, including Parent Square, the Saratoga Weekly newspaper, Kstar, Facebook groups of booster organizations, alumni groups, alumni reunions and more.
One of Louie’s key visions in organizing the event is to create a sustainable source of documentation for past and future students.
“We want something sustainable that generations of students can look back on and be proud of their recognized peers,” Louie said. “Simultaneously, future generations can be ambitious about wanting to be part of it.”
SHS Foundation president Steven Zhu says the event will accomplish three main goals: recognize contribution, build community and create awareness.
“Our number one goal is to recognize the efforts of people who have done a lot for our school. Second of all, we want to build a positive and uplifting community where people can share and admire these experiences. Third, we want to create awareness for all our boosters and volunteers,” Zhu said. “If you ask around, many parents are unaware of boosters like Saratoga Foundations and PTSO, so we encourage all the boosters to partake in this event for people to recognize the great things our boosters are doing for our community.”
