BERKELEY HIGH SCHOOL (BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA)

'Berkeley High School' is the only public high school in Berkeley, California.It is located one long block west of Shattuck Avenue and three short blocks south of University Avenue in Downtown Berkeley, and is recognized as a Berkeley landmark. Berkeley High School has a current student enrollment of approximately 3,400, drawn from a city of about 100,000 residents. The school mascot is the yellowjacket.

Contents

History

Administration and organization

Principal

Minischools

Departments

Campus and architecture

Notable alumni

Fictional alumni

Athletics and Extracurriculars

Publications by or about Berkeley High School

See also

References

External links

Alumni

Extracurriculars

History

The first public high school classes in Berkeley were held at the Kellogg Primary School located at Oxford and Center Streets adjacent to the campus of the University of California. It opened in 1880 and the first high school graduation occurred in 1884. In 1895, the first high school annual was published entitled the ''Crimson and Gold'' (changed to today's ''Olla Podrida'' by 1899.)
In 1900, the citizens of Berkeley voted in favor of a bond measure to establish the first dedicated public high school campus in the city. In 1901, construction began on the present site of the high school. On Arbor Day of 1902, noted naturalist John Muir joined Berkeley's mayor William H. Marston in planting a giant sequoia in a yard south of the new high school buildings. [1]
The main building of the high school suffered minor damage in the form of toppled chimneys as a result of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.
In 1964, the West Campus of Berkeley High School was opened in the buildings of the former Burbank Junior High School at Bonar Street and University Avenue. It served all ninth graders while the main campus served grades 10-12, except for an interval from the mid - 1970s to the early 1980s when it was 7-9 to accommodate construction at Willard Junior High School. It was turned over to the Berkeley Adult School in 1986 which used it until 2004. West Campus is currently closed.
Berkeley High School has been innovative in its high school curriculum. In the Fall of 1970, a school within a school opened at Berkeley High called Community High School. It was "alternative", in keeping with the sixties culture which permeated life in Berkeley at the time. Berkeley High School was also the first public high school in the United States with an African American Studies department.

Administration and organization

Principal

The current principal is Jim Slemp, who is in his fourth year at the head. In the years preceding Slemp, Berkeley High was plagued by the lack of a consistent principal, and arson fires, most of which remain unsolved, which catalyzed the remodeling of several buildings (C, A), the demolition of one (B), and the building of a new administrative center and food court (D).

Minischools

In 2005, in an attempt to better serve the large student body, BHS was reorganized into of a number of minischools:

★ The Arts and Humanities Academy (AHA)

★ Communication Arts and Sciences (CAS)

★ Community Partnerships Academy (CPA)

★ The School of Social Justice and Ecology (SSJE).
In addition to the smaller schools, there are two Comprehensive Learning Communities which contain a larger percentile of the student body. These are referred to as the "Larger Schools" within BHS. Academic Choice (AC) and the recently developed Berkeley International High School (BIHS)--part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program as of 2007--make up this Comprehensive Learning Community.

★ The School of Academic choice (AC)

Departments

★ Academic Choice

★ African American Studies Department (The Daily Californian article)

★ Computer Technology

★ ESL/ELL

★ English

★ World Language

★ History

★ Mathematics

★ Physical Education

★ Science

★ Special Education

★ Visual and Performing arts

Campus and architecture

The Berkeley High School campus covers four city blocks between Milvia Street and Martin Luther King Jr Way. It contains several buildings, built between 1901 and 2004, which display a variety of architectural styles.
In the late 1930s, Berkeley High was remodeled and old buildings were replaced with newer ones. The Florence Schwimley Little Theater, The Berkeley Community Theatre, and the science buildings are prime examples of the Streamline Moderne style designed by architects Henry H. Gutterson and William G. Corlett. The rebuilding was financed largely in part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal program the WPA.

Notable alumni

''By Last Name (graduation dates, if any, unknown)''

★ Chidi Ahanotu - is an American football defensive end for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL.

★ Phil Chenier - basketball player for the Washington Bullets in the 1970s

★ Aaron Cometbus - Legendary punk drummer of east bay bands such as Crimpshrine and Pinhead Gunpowder, author of widely acclaimed Cometbus fan zine.

★ Philip K. Dick - author of ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'', on which the movie ''Blade Runner'' was based, and many other books

★ Joe and Eddie (Joe Gilbert and Eddie Brown), folk singers

★ Timothy Hutton, film and television actor

★ Geoff Tyson - Acclaimed guitarist and record producer.

★ Shelley Jackson - author of ''Patchwork Girl.''

★ Leslie Katz - politician/lawyer/businesswoman, elected to San Francisco Board of Supervisors 1996 - 2000. Democratic Party County Central Committee; County of San Francisco; Assembly District 13

★ John Lambert - basketball player at U.S.C. and in N.B.A. for multiple teams

★ Ursula K. Le Guin - science fiction author of the Earthsea series, The Left Hand of Darkness, and many other books

★ Jesse Michaels - son of writer Leonard Michaels, most notably the singer of highly influntial east bay punk band Operation Ivy, Common Rider

★ Lenny Pickett - Saturday Night Live Saxophone player

★ Bobby Seale - co-founder of the Black Panther Party

★ Claudell Washington - baseball outfielder in the 1970s and 80s

★ Kent Whiteaker- 1966 -San Francisco Police inspector credited with saving the lives of 8 people held in hostage situation-1987

★ Daphne Zuniga - film and television actress, most notably in TV show "Melrose Place"

★ Thomas Pridgen - Current drummer for The Mars Volta
''By Class''

★ Eli Marienthal, 2004 - movie actor, in "American Pie", "Iron Giant", "Country Bears", "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen"

★ Andy Samberg, 1996 - Cast member of Saturday Night Live

★ Leah Meyerhoff, 1997 - Student Academy Award nominated filmmaker.

★ Hannibal Navies, 1995 - American football player

★ Rebecca Romijn, 1990 - model, actor.

★ Dave Meyers, 1990 - music video/film director.

★ Pei-Yuan Wei, 1986 - (魏培源, pinyin: Wèi Péiyuán), created ViolaWWW, one of the first graphical web browsers.

★ Joshua Redman, 1986 - jazz musician

★ Anastasia M. Ashman, 1982 - author

★ Yule Caise, 1982 - actor and writer [2].

★ Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, 1982 - author of books on raising multilingual children

★ Benny Green, 1980 - jazz pianist

★ Peter Apfelbaum, 1978 - multi-instrumentalist/composer of Hieroglyphics Ensemble

★ Timothy Hutton, 1978 - film and television actor

★ Shooty Babbitt, 1977 - Major League Baseball Player Oakland A's

★ Nina Hartley, 1977 - Adult movie actress

★ William Rabkin, 1977 - television writer/producer

★ Harold J. Williams, II, 1976 - President, Urban Village Development Corporation

★ Glenn Burke, 1970 - baseball player.^[1]

★ Kent Whiteaker,-1966 Decorated SFPD Inspector and Viet Nam war hero

★ Audie Bock, 1963/64?, California politician and film scholar

★ Gregory Hoblit, 1962 - television and film director

★ Sylvia and Stephen Sharnoff, 1962 - nature photographers

★ Richard Gant, 1961 - television and film actor

★ William Gatewood, 1961 - artist

★ David Gordon, 1961 - economist and syndicated columnist

★ Jim Harris, 1961 - professional football player, member of 1969 Super Bowl champion Jets

★ Dave Mitchell, 1961 - former publisher of the ''Point Reyes Light'' & Pulitzer Prize winner

★ R. Kent Rasmussen, 1961 - author and authority on Mark Twain

★ Bob Avakian, 1960 - head of Revolutionary Communist Party

★ Galen Rowell, 1958 - wilderness photographer and climber

★ Stephen Bishop, 1958 - classical pianist known as Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich and as Stephen Kovacevich

★ Phil Lesh, 1957 - Grateful Dead bass player

★ Tom Blackaller, 1957 - World Star boat champion sailor, America's Cup skipper

★ John Froines, 1957 - Chicago 7 defendant, state track title team member, UCLA professor

★ Michael Ritchie, 1956 - film director

★ John Brillhart, 1948 - mathematician, author of books on large-number factorization

★ Robert Culp, 1947 - actor

★ Kenneth Cameron, 1946 - U.S. Navy captain and pilot who was a POW in the Vietnam War

★ Billy Martin, 1946 - second baseman for five Yankee World Series champs in the 1950s, and manager of four playoff teams, (Twins, Yankees, Detroit, A's) including one championship

★ Carl Van Heuit, 1945 - All-American defensive back for University of California football team

★ Don Barksdale, 1941 - All-American basketball player at UCLA; first African American on U.S. Olympic basketball team (1948); first African American to play in NBA All-Star Game (1953)

★ Jack LaLanne, 1935 - fitness educator

★ Richard Bolt, 1928 - a physics professor at MIT with an interest in acoustics; Created BBN ("Modem" and "e-mail")

★ Thornton Wilder, c. 1915 - novelist and playwright whose works include Our Town (1938)

★ Charlotte Wilder, c. 1915 -poet and sister of Thornton Wilder

Fictional alumni

★ In the Danzy Senna novel ''Caucasia'' [3], the character Cole Lee reveals in the final section, ''Wonders of the Invisible World'', that she attended Berkeley High in the early 1980s.

Athletics and Extracurriculars

Berkeley High School has gained national and state-wide prominence in a few sports and extracurriculars.

★ The 'girl's basketball team' won the California State Division 1 Championship in 1991 and 1997, and advanced to the final in 1990, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2006, and 2007. (In 1998, the winning team was later forced to vacate its title due to an ineligible player).

★ Berkeley High School was the first public high school west of the Mississippi River to have a 'crew team'. In 2006, the Men's Lightweight 4 won the US Rowing Nationals. In the same year, the Women's Varsity 8 came in second at the Scholastic Nationals.

★ The 'chess team' won the CalChess State Championship in 1996, 1997, and 2002

★ The 'track team' won the California state championship 1957. (both boys and girls won state championships during the 1980s)

★ The 'girl's volleyball team' has won the ACCAL league title from 2000-2006.

★ The Berkeley High 'women's field hockey team' won the BVAC Championship from 2002-2005.

★ The school newspaper, the Berkeley High Jacket, went to print in 1958 and was one of the first daily high school newspapers in the U.S.

★ The 'Jazz Ensemble' and 'Jazz Combo' have won state-wide competitions at the Monterey Jazz Festival, Redwood Empire Jazz Festival, Cosumnes River College Winter Jazz Festival, and Folsom Jazz Festivals. In 1997, the Jazz Ensemble performed by invitation at the Montreux and North Sea Jazz Festivals.

★ One of the first high schools to have a school supported mountain bike team. The head coach, Matt Fritzinger, is also responsible for the NorCal High School Mountain Bike Racing League.

Publications by or about Berkeley High School

★ The Communication Arts and Sciences Program at Berkeley High School has compiled and published a dictionary of youth slang, available to the greater public.^[2]

★ A book titled ''Ask Me If I Care: Voices from an American High School'' by Nancy Rubin addresses teen social issues and is compiled entirely of journal entires by anonymous Berkeley High School students written during their Social Living classes (a mandatory course at the school). Nancy Rubin taught Social Living at Berkeley High from 1977 through 1996.^[3]

★ The book Class Dismissed by Meredith Maran followed three Berkeley High seniors for the 1999-2000 school year.

★ The 1971 Jimi Hendrix concert film ''Jimi Plays Berkeley'' was filmed on May 30, 1970 at the Berkeley Community Theatre, on the grounds of Berkeley High School.

★ In 1994, Frontline (PBS), produced a controversial four-hour documentary about racial politics at Berkeley High School entitled ''School Colors'' [4]. The documentary was filmed throughout the 1993-1994 school year and aired on October 18, 1994. Teachers at Berkeley High School were instructed not to assign homework on the night of the airing so all students could watch the documentary.
In 1959, Berkeley High School was awarded the Bellamy Award, as the top school in California. One state each year selects the top high school for that state. The school that receives the award retains it for 50 years. Bellamy wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.

See also

★ Berkeley Unified School District

★ Berkeley Parents Network

References

1.
2. Rick Ayers, ''Berkeley High School "Slang Dictionary"; most recent ed. 2003 (North Atlantic Books); ISBN 1556435207; ISBN 978-1556435201.
3.
Ask Me if I Care, , Nancy J., Rubin, Ten Speed Press, ,

External links

★ Berkeley High School

★ BHS Athletic Fund

★ BHS PTSA

★ Berkeley High School parent reviews

Alumni

★ Berkeley Alumni Association

★ Class of 1977

★ Class of 1998

Extracurriculars

★ Basketball

★ Crew

★ Cross Country

★ Football

★ Jazz Ensemble

★ Men's Lacrosse

★ Women's Lacrosse

★ JSA