Lowell High School (San Francisco)
(
San Francisco Unified School District Schools
)
- History
- Campus
- Academics and class stru..
- Admissions
- ''San Francisco NAACP v...
- ''Ho v. San Francisco Un..
- Lottery-based admissions
- Current application proc..
- Demographics
- Student activities
- Mock Trial
- Lowell Forensic Society
- ''The Lowell''
- CardinalBotics
- Junior Reserve Officer T..
- Athletics
- Notable alumni
- See also
- References
- External links
Lowell High School ( LHS) is a co-educational, magnet public high school in San Francisco, California, first established in 1856. It is a part of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). Situated on the West Side of the city, the school is south of Parkmerced and the Parkside district, west of Stonestown Galleria, north of San Francisco State University, northeast of Lake Merced, and east of Lakeshore Elementary School.
LHS uses merit-based admissions, unlike other schools in the district, which use a lottery system or receive students from a specified attendance area. The admissions process requires submitting scores from standardized testing from the previous school year and a writing supplement. Previously an entrance exam was required, but after reports of racism in the admissions department and the COVID-19 pandemic, the exam was waived in 2021. However, because academic performance of the school declined, it reinstated use of standardized test scores.
History
1853–1893
The Union Grammar School first opened on August 25, 1856, in rented quarters at the Wesleyan Methodist Church on Powell Street, between Clay and Sacramento. In 1860, the church was purchased and reconstructed as a school at the same location. The new two-story school building had four classrooms, an assembly room, and two rooms for gymnastics exercises and calisthenics. Dedication ceremonies for the new structure took place on September 19, 1860. The school in the new building was already referred to as San Francisco High School because it was generally recognized that the course of study was on the secondary level.
In May 1864, the Board of Education decided to form separate schools for boys and girls. Boys remained at the same campus at the Boys' High School, while girls were moved to their own school at Bush and Stockton streets (Girls' High School), where they would remain until the return of coeducation (in practice) in the 1880s.
1894–1962
The school relocated in January 1913 to an entire block on Hayes Street between Ashbury and Masonic. Lowell remained there for 50 years as the city's college preparatory high school. In 1952, the school sought a new location near Lake Merced and moved there (its present address) in 1962.
1963 and after
Lowell was the first SFUSD school to be temporarily closed during the COVID-19 pandemic in San Francisco due to a report of respiratory illness by a student's family member in March 2020.
The 2021 documentary film Try Harder! profiled Lowell students as they went through the college admission process.
In April 2022, Principal Joe Ryan Dominguez submitted his letter of resignation, which would go into effect at the end of the school year.
Campus
The campus of what was called the New Lowell High School was opened in the early 1960s and replaced the old brick campus building on Masonic Street that is still used by the district for offices and an adult school. The "new" Lowell campus itself consists of a main three-story academic building with two extensions, the easternmost extension being a single-story science building, which was rebuilt and reopened on September 21, 2003, after the original building from the early 1960s was demolished because the labs were antiquated. The second extension consists of a single-story free-standing building that replaced temporary classrooms.
The original single-story visual and performing arts building is the westernmost extension of the main campus and remains with the 1,000-seat Carol Channing auditorium, named for the famous actress who was an alumna. The main entrance to the theater and the school is below street level on Eucalyptus Drive.
The campus includes a library, arts and music classrooms, six computer labs, a foreign language lab, an indoor gymnasium, men's and women's locker rooms, a dance studio, a weight room, an American football field, a soccer/multipurpose field and baseball batting cage, ten tennis courts, eight , four volleyball courts, and a all-weather running track. The campus has two parking lots, one for students and the other for faculty. There is also a central courtyard inside the school.
There is an ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corp) facility built into the hill and located below the theater, accessed by a stairway down from the arts wing. The ROTC facility at one time included a rifle range where cadets practiced marksmanship with live ammunition.
Academics and class structure
Academics
Students have the opportunity to choose from a large number of Advanced Placement courses. Lowell has a graduation rate of nearly 100%, and it is the largest feeder school to the University of California system, particularly to the Berkeley and Davis campuses.
Arena scheduling system
While scheduling classes for the 2006 spring semester, one of the students who had volunteered to assist the running of arena was caught abusing the scheduling system to use early scheduling privileges, granted to volunteers by the administration, to let friends schedule before others. Honor society causes scheduling inequity. From The Lowell. Shield and Scroll must maintain high moral standards. From The Lowell. Five of six department chairs and dozens of teachers at Lowell called to eliminate arena scheduling and to replace it with computerized scheduling used in all other SFUSD schools. Critics characterized arena scheduling as an antiquated and inefficient system, and creates weeks of unnecessary work for teachers and counselors. Class scheduling methods put Lowell High in a tizzy. From the San Francisco Chronicle. Self-scheduling is fundamental to Lowell. From The Lowell.
Proponents of the arena argued that the system can prepare students for a similar selecting of courses in college.
After a student forum, committee meetings, several student petitions, and final deliberation by then-principal Paul Cheng and the administration, it was decided that arena would remain in place, with the modifications of the abolishment of early scheduling for Shield and Scroll and "mini arena," which allowed people with incomplete schedules another chance to complete them by opening up all the classes again with a few slots.
Under pressure from faculty and students, in 2013, the Lowell administration decided on an "online arena". Shift to online self-scheduling a success. From The Lowell. In 2012, the Lowell administration began preliminary testing by requiring students to submit their proposed classes for the next school year through an online form, designed and maintained by a few students from the computer programming classes.
During the pandemic, Lowell's arena system was finally terminated and has remained that way since.
Admissions
San Francisco NAACP v. San Francisco Unified School District (1980s)
The demographics began to disproportionately impact Chinese Americans in the 80s and 90s. As a result of this policy, effective in 1985, Chinese-American freshman applicants needed to score 62 out of a possible total of 69 eligibility points; Caucasian and other East Asian candidates needed only 58 points, and others needed fewer points.
Ho v. San Francisco Unified School District (1990s)
Critics of the diversity index created by Ho v. San Francisco Unified School District point out that many schools, including Lowell, have become even less racially diverse since it was enacted.
On November 15, 2005, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California denied a request to extend the Consent Decree, which was set to expire on December 31, 2005, after it had been extended once before to December 31, 2002. The ruling claimed "since the settlement of the Ho litigation resulting, the consent decree has proven to be ineffective, if not counterproductive, in achieving diversity in San Francisco public schools" by making schools more racially segregated.
Lottery-based admissions
The SFUSD did not rescind the vote, and the Friends of Lowell Foundation, Lowell Alumni Association, SF Taxpayers Association, and the Asian American Legal Foundation filed a complaint in the San Francisco Superior Court alleging that the SFUSD had violated the Ralph M. Brown Act when the Board of Education adopted lottery admissions. The school board had voted to make lottery admissions permanent; however, in November, Judge Ethan P. Schulman granted the petition challenging lawfulness of the adoption of lottery admissions and overturned that vote. The next month, the school board voted to extend the lottery system for one year, through 2022.
During the 2021–22 school year, the first in which the lottery system was in effect, 24% of freshmen students reported D or F grades, compared to 8% of freshmen from the previous academic year. Constituents petitioned for a recall election against three School Board Commissioners on February 15, 2022, who were ousted by voters in a landslide. Their replacements were named by Mayor London Breed. On June 22, despite SFUSD Superintendent Vincent Matthews recommending an extension of the lottery system, the Board opted to restore merit-based admissions for the 2023–24 school year in a 4–3 vote.
Current application process
Demographics
| +Students demographics | ||||||||
| 1,288 | 469 | 373 | 171 | 171 | 50 | 10 | 6 | 114 |
| % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % |
2008–2009 faculty demographics: SFUSD Profile 2008-09: Lowell HS
- 147 certified staff; 49.6% male, 50.4% female.
| +Certificated staff demographics !Latino ! White ! African-American ! Chinese ! Japanese ! Korean ! American Indian ! Filipino ! Other non-White ! Declined to state | |||||||||
| 8.1% | 56.4% | 2.0% | 13.6% | 3.4% | 0.6% | 0.0% | 2.7% | 4.0% | 8.8% |
Student activities
Mock Trial
Lowell Forensic Society
The Lowell
CardinalBotics
Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC)
The Lowell Cadet Corps was founded in 1882 and later became known as Lowell Army JROTC when it adopted the national JROTC curriculum. A photo of the Lowell Battalion's former rifle range, now converted into a classroom and indoor drill facility, was featured in the Army JROTC Cadet Reference Second Edition.Author: US Army Cadet Command, Ft. Monroe, VA. Title: Army JROTC Cadet Reference Second Edition, , Publisher: Pearson Custom Publishing, Boston, MA. Bill Hewlett was the Lowell Army JROTC Battalion Commander in the 1929–1930 school year.
Every fall, the Lowell Drill Platoon, Color Guard, Best Guidon Bearer, and Brigade Best Squad compete in the Annual Fall Liberty Bell Competition. In addition, every spring, Lowell's Exhibition Drill Teams, Flag Drill Teams, and Drum Corps participate in the Spring 91st Infantry Memorial Drill Competition. The Lowell Raider Challenge Team also competes in the San Francisco JROTC Brigade Raider Challenge, which consists of a physical fitness test, first aid obstacle course, land navigation, and a three kilometer run. Academic Bowl competes in two online competitions over the school year and a national competition in June in Washington, D.C.
Those who join JROTC will not be recruited into the army. The program offers leadership and team working opportunities through lessons related to first aid, money management, problem solving, and map reading. The program's motto is "to motivate young people to be better citizens."
Athletics
In 2004, Lowell's Boys Varsity Basketball team won its first AAA Championship since 1952. Following a runner-up finish in 2005, the 2006 squad went undefeated in league play and finished with a 30–3 record and a city championship. The 2007 squad also won the championships, while the 2008 squad finished high in the playoffs. The 2009 team once again won the 2009 AAA championships over Lincoln. The basketball, soccer, and football teams engage in an annual rivalry with Washington High School in a game commonly known to those in the city as the "Battle of the Birds" game, named after the teams' cardinal and eagle mascots.
Lowell's Varsity Baseball team, led by coach John Donohue, won eight of ten championships from 1994 to 2004 while posting a regular season record of 185 wins and only 11 losses 3 teams have caught Lowell in race for baseball supremacy. From the San Francisco Chronicle. during that span. Coach Donohue won his 300th AAA league game on March 7, 2003, and tallied his 450th win overall just two weeks later on March 21, 2003. Lowell baseball is amassing very big numbers. From the San Francisco Chronicle.
In 2004, Lowell's track and field and cross-country teams won the city championship in all four divisions for the seventh year in a row. The cross country team recently swept all three divisions at the city finals in Golden Gate Park, marking Lowell's 26th overall championship win in a row. In recent years, the track and field team has attracted about 150 athletes each season, and the cross country Team has attracted nearly 100 runners each season.
Lowell's Girls' Varsity Volleyball team has dominated the sport since its creation with the most city championships amongst other San Francisco public schools, and from November 1996 to November 2008, went on a record streak of 13 consecutive volleyball city championships. The girls' junior varsity volleyball team also owns 15 of the 18 city titles (as of November 2010). In November 2019, the girls' varsity volleyball team won the CIF State Division 3 Championship.
In April 2007, Lowell's varsity swim team won their 11th consecutive AAA Championship title, with an undefeated season and an undefeated girls' title, ever since girls have been admitted on the team. The close rivalry between the Cardinals' and the Washington Eagles ended with Lowell coming out on top of all the other SFUSD high schools participating, which included Balboa High, Lincoln High, and Wallenberg High School. In April 2008, Lowell's varsity swim team won their 12th consecutive AAA Championship title, with an undefeated season yet again. The rivalry between the Cardinals' and the Washington Eagles ended with Lowell coming on top with the varsity boys scoring 170–49 and the girls 122–62. The JV girls also were able to defeat Washington with a score of 104–67. However, the JV boys lost to their counterpart from Lincoln 93–69.
In April 2007, Lowell's dragonboat team competed in the California Dragonboat Association Youth Race at Lake Merced in San Francisco, California. They brought home three golds and two silvers. The Lowellitas, the girls' team, won their seventh consecutive gold medal. In the spring of 2010 the Lowell Dragonboat team won gold medals in the top division, breaking a five-year drought of golds for Lowell in the top division traced back to 2005.
, Lowell's Varsity Girls' Soccer has won the AAA Championship title for the past 21 years in a row. In 2012, they ended their season without being scored on in league games, a record of 101–0. Their most recent defeat was two seasons ago, a forfeit to Balboa on April 6, 2010. Aside from forfeits, the girls have remained undefeated for the past 10 years in league play. There is no JV team.
Lowell's JV Girls' Gymnastics team placed first in the NCVAL JV Gymnastics Finals from 2007 to 2010. At the CCS Varsity Finals, Lowell's Varsity Girls' Gymnastics team placed third in 2009 and second in 2010. Lowell does not have a boys' gymnastics team.
The Lowell Varsity Cheer Squad placed 1st in stunts and received a runner up medal in dance in the 2009 AAA competition. They also went to USA Nationals (2010) and placed in the top half of their division (4 points away from 1st place). In 2015, Lowell Cheer attended USA Nationals and won 4th place in the Super Novice Show Cheer Division. Lowell Cheer also performs at school rallies for football and basketball games.
Notable alumni
See also
- San Francisco County high schools
External links
- Lowell High School Online , official website
- SFUSD School Description, official profile and statistics of Lowell
- The Lowell On the Web, student newspaper
- The Lowell's Archive, over 100 years of back issues
- Lowell Alumni Association
- Lowell High School's Student Body Council, student government
- Lowell's Parent Teacher Student Association
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