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Birmingham High School

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School name Birmingham High
School Type Public
Established 1953
Website [link]
Principal Marsha Coates
School District Los Angeles Unified
Enrollment approx. 4,000
Location Los Angeles, California
Mascot Patriots
Colors Blue and Gold

Birmingham High School is a coeducational high school in Lake Balboa in Los Angeles, California. The school is a part of District One of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). It was founded in 1953 as a 7-12 grade high school, and became a senior high school in 1963.

Contents

History

This school was built on the site of Birmingham General Hospital. This facility was a U. S. Army hospital that operated primarily as a rehabilation center for soldiers injured during World War II. It was named after Col. Henry Patrick Birmingham, a senior officer in the Medical Corps who died in 1930. In 1948, the hospital was closed. The site was acquired by Los Angeles City Schools in the early 1950s (for the token price of $1), and became the home to Birmingham Junior High School in 1953. The school expanded to a six-year campus until 1963, when the northern part of the campus became William Mulholland Junior High School.

The original name of the teams was the Braves; this name was changed to the Patriots in the late 1990s when the LAUSD Board of Education voted to do away with team mascots depicting native Americans.

Birmingham High School has been used as the backdrop for many music videos and commercials, such as the music video for Gwen Stefani's song "Hollaback Girl".

In January 2006, The Los Angeles Times published a series of articles discussing the graduation/dropout rate at the school and how it relates to the rate for the rest of LAUSD.

Academics

Birmingham High School offers students a full range of subjects in its academic curriculum. All students study a core curriculum of math, English, science, social studies, and foreign languages. In addition, elective classes in a variety if subjects are offered, including music, drama, and the visual arts. The school has recently created a number of Small Learning Communities (SLCs). Some of these include: In addition, many other progems such as AVID are available to students.

Sports

Birmingham High School has a long tradition of producing championship teams in a variety of sports. Among the many outstanding teams are Football (1963, 2002, and 2004 L A City Champions), Basketball, Volleyball, Baseball, Softball, Soccer (2006 L A City Boys Champions), Cross-country, Tennis, Golf, Track and Field, and Swimming and Diving.

Many students participating in sports come from throughout the city of Los Angeles specifically to play sports at Birmingham. This is especially true for those on the Swimming and Diving teams, since Birmingham is one of the few schools in LAUSD with its own pool.

The current Basketball coach is Andre McCarter, MVP for the Rochester Zeniths of the Continental Basketball Association in the 1978-9 season.

Arts

Drama has been one of the programs that has drawn students to Birmingham throughout the years. The Drama Academy is the latest embodiment of this program, which has seen teams from Birmingham win competitions throughout the world.

The visual arts are supported through a digital video and animation program run through the Communications Technology Magnet, as well as graphic art programs taught through the host school.

Notable alumni

This is a selective listing of notable alumni.

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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