For the first time in Gilroy's history, two high schools - the seasoned Gilroy High School Mustangs and newcomer, the Christopher High School Cougars - will be vying for the town's attention, resources and workforce. Without a precedent to guide them, school officials are psyching themselves up for the challenge of creating a brand new high school.

Now that John Perales, 34, currently South Valley Middle School's principal, has been named head of CHS, he'll have to surrender his blue and gold GHS football jerseys and learn to love teal and black, his new school's colors. A GHS and Gavilan College graduate, Perales is truly a product of Gilroy, Superintendent Deborah Flores pointed out. After graduating, he returned to his alma mater to coach football and teach history for four years. After moving on to Mount Madonna Continuation School, he was promoted to principal before hopping over to SVMS. In his third year as their principal, he's gearing up for another change of scenery. A big one.

Although he's loved his time at SVMS, Perales said he's "a high school guy."

"I've learned a ton here," he said, looking around his office at SVMS. During his time there, he's seen state test scores jump 24 then 26 points, consecutively. But he's ready and more than willing to begin this new endeavor.

"I was really excited to start from day one," he said. "Right now it's just dirt. That's really cool."

Ready to get the ball rolling on recruiting staff, he's hoping Sandi Daeumler, his current office administrator at SVMS who will be retiring this spring, will help him with the high school's opening.

"I'm going to recruit the best," he said. "I think I'm really good at that."

Next year, Perales will be doing double duty, acting as principal of both SVMS and CHS. His vision for the new school is impressive, with high academic expectations accompanied by a wide range of program offerings.

One of the school board's goals is to create two high-quality high schools with comparable programs, yet distinct in their own way.

Additionally, their ultimate goal is for GHS and CHS to be considered two of the best in the county. Lofty goals, but doable, Perales said. Since the opening is still more than a year off, many details need to be hammered out, but he plans on gauging the high school turnout for sports, band and other programs by closely monitoring participation at the middle schools. The turnout at the middle school level will give him an idea of what programs students will be looking for.

"There's going to have to be some flexibility. We haven't quite addressed it to the full extent yet," he said. "It's going to be a difficult process."

However, CHS will house a performing arts and digital media program, funded by a career technical education grant, while GHS has recently received a grant to fund a biotechnology career path.

Although CHS will not open its doors with a full fledged stadium, Flores said having a viable sports program should not be a problem. Football players and other athletes will share sports facilities with GHS students until its own facilities are complete.

"But that will be our challenge the first few years," Flores said.

In its inaugural year, the $124-million high school will open its doors to about 600 ninth and 10th graders. A common practice when opening a new high school, Flores said the student body forms a close relationship. The school will eventually accommodate up to 1,100 high schoolers until $57 million of extra space is added between 2012 and 2015, when the capacity will grow to 1,800. Currently, GHS houses almost 2,800 students - significantly over capacity, Flores said. Like CHS, the GHS campus was originally built for 1,800 students.

The school will be financed in part by the sale of a 10 acre, $6 million land donation bestowed upon the school district by Garlic Festival co-founder Don Christopher. In exchange, the school district decided to name the city's second high school after the generous donor.

Flores plans to have a full list of offerings the first year, like band and choir. Some of the GHS staff may have to pitch in to coach CHS students but Flores is determined to make it work.

"The ninth and 10th graders bonded in such an amazing way," she said of the students who attended the new high school in her previous district. "At the risk of sounding corny, it was such a beautiful thing. The first graduating class was really a special group of kids. They helped create a new school with a new personality."

Granted, it took the new school about four or five years to win their first football game, but when they did, it was a success for the whole community, she said.

Bonnie Tognazzini, deputy superintendent of business services for the Morgan Hill Unified School District said a similar bonding experience took place when her school district recently opened a second high school. Sobrato High School opened with a ninth and 10th grade class that "really had ownership" of their new school, she said. However, many students were reluctant to attend a school that had no reputation, no history to its name.

"They were in front of the school board begging to go to Live Oak (High School)," she said. "It took a while, but they really made Sobrato their school."

And as far as rivalries, "they'll be way down the road," she said. "It takes time to establish yourself as a school first."

But a little friendly rivalry never hurt anyone and having two schools in the town will create that, Perales said.

"I'm very competitive," he said. "My motto is be the best or die trying. But being a member of the community, I don't want a rivalry to divide the town. I'm going to have to guard myself against that. It's a sensitive issue and I need to lead by example. I don't want to be in a place that's negative. The bottom line is we are Gilroy."

And who will be attending the shiny new school? Another delicate issue is the placement of boundaries and, as a member of the boundary committee, Flores is committed to being fair, she said.

"Boundaries can be very controversial," she said. "People worry that we'll create a school of the haves and the have nots. The boundaries will create two schools that represent our community."

"I'm very hopeful that that (having a school of the haves and the have nots) is not, in fact, the case," said Trustee Jaime Rosso. "We have to be careful that we're not creating elite schools. But the superintendent is very conscious of these issues. We will ensure that GHS is just as high."

Although the boundary committee has not yet made a recommendation to the board, Flores said that no neat line exists to split the community in half. The committee can't use variables like gender or ethnicity to set the boundary line, so it's looking at accurately representing Gilroy's different socioeconomic groups at both high schools.

"There's not a nice, clean line," she said. "If you draw the line down any main street, the numbers don't work."

Boundaries aside, Flores said that her goal is to build a successful new program at CHS while constantly improving GHS.

"We want to have two equally attractive high schools, two high schools with very rich curriculums," she said. "We want more rigorous courses of study at both high schools. I'm very committed to that, having two equal high schools. Those aren't just words. It can be done."

In fact, Perales is hoping to set the academic standards at CHS at a very high level from the get go.

"We're going to offer focused programs that are very good," he said. "Not many programs that are just OK." He's even considering exploring the option of raising graduation requirements to match the state university entrance requirements, so that every student that graduates from CHS is eligible at a four-year state university. Currently, those requirements do not match up at GHS.

"When you raise the bar, kids rise to the occasion," he said.

"CHS will be a new treasure in our community," Flores said. "Just like GHS."