Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior High School

For the high school in San Antonio, Texas named after Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., see Oliver Wendell Holmes High School.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior High School (HJHS) has been in the core of Davis, California at 1220 Drexel Drive since fall 1966.^[4] The mascot of the school is the Patriot. In the 2023–24 school year there were 621 students in grades 7–9.^[3]

Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior High School
Location
Coordinates	38.5566°N 121.7364°W / 38.5566; -121.7364[1]
Information
Established	1966
School district	Davis Joint Unified School District
Grades	7–9[3]
Enrollment	621 (2023–24)[3]

Namesake

The school was named after Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894), a well-known physician, poet and author from Cambridge, Massachusetts. His son, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., was a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Holmes was also a relative of one of the first American authors, Anne Bradstreet. His most renowned poem is "Old Ironsides". One of his most popular works is The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. He also developed the popular model of the stereoscope.

Courses

There is a variety of courses offered at HJHS varying from ceramics to computer sciences to assorted foreign languages. It also has the basic classes such as Math, English, and Science. The required courses throughout the three years are as shown below:

Classes	Seventh Grade	Eighth Grade	Ninth Grade
English	X	X	X
Math	X	X	X
Social Studies	X	X	X
Science	X	X
Physical Education	X	X	X

General elective courses include Spanish, French, art, ceramics, yearbook, jazz band, choir, concert band, orchestra, industrial technology, leadership, computer science, robotics, multimedia, fashion and textiles, food science, or being a teaching assistant for a teacher, the office, or the library.

Layout

The school is laid out in a fairly simple manner. There are bike racks for the students to put their bikes: one in the front of the school and one near the gym. There are six basketball courts to the west of the gym. The classrooms fit in around the basketball courts, the gym, the lunch eating areas and the quad. On most of the walls, there are banks of lockers. At the back of the school, there is an amphitheater, and near the basketball courts there is an outlying group of six or seven classrooms known as "Area 51".

Athletics

HJHS offers many sports programs such as cross country, volleyball, soccer, track and field, and basketball. Freshman students may take part in the same sports on the DHS teams, which also include field hockey, water polo, football, baseball, softball, cross country, and ski and snowboard teams.