Galileo Academy of Science and Technology

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Galileo Academy of Science and Technology (formerly Galileo High School) is a public secondary school located in San Francisco's Russian Hill and Marina District neighborhoods. The school is a part of the San Francisco Unified School District.

Contents 1 About Galileo 2 History 3 Location 4 Football 5 Reputation 6 Tardy policy 7 JROTC 8 Academic Performance Index (API) 8.1 Comparison By Years (Galileo) 8.2 Comparison with other San Francisco high schools (2005-2006)* 9 Student population 10 Related links

[edit] About Galileo

• Galileo Academy of Science & Technology is located in the historic north end of San Francisco, and was originally built in 1921.

• Galileo currently has a staff of more than 100 and serves more than 2,000 students.

• The lion is the official mascot of Galileo. In Latin, Galileo means "Gallic Lion." Thus, in sports and other inter-school activities the team members are known as the Galileo Lions.

• The official school colors are Purple and Gold, although gold was replaced by orange for a period of time.

• The school is commonly known as just "Gal" or "G-House".

• It is the only Bay Area school with its own observatory.

• Galileo is "California's blogging high school." [1]

• Galileo received the 2005 California Distinguished School Award along with the 2005 CTE Award - one of the very few schools that were awarded this.

• The school motto is "Eppure si muove." Italian for "And yet it moves." As the story goes, Galileo was told to deny his scientific findings that the earth moved, or be punished - so he did as he was ordered. But on his way out he mumbled to himself, "And yet it moves."

• Galileo has a handful of special celebrities that have attended the school. Some include Joe DiMaggio, O.J. Simpson and NFL star Bobby Shaw.

[edit] History

On December 10, 1920, Major Joseph P Nourse, who had been actively engaged in educational work in the city for many years, became the first principal of Galileo High School. Throughout the summer, carpenters were busy converting the Red Cross Building, located on Fulton Street near the Civic Center. On August 1, 1921, Galileo High School welcomed its student body into the remodeled facilities. The ceremony of "breaking ground" for the new building occurred on November 4, 1921 ' Dedication of the Van Ness Building took place on March 30, 1924. At the same time, plans were underway for a new wing which would double the capacity of the school.

Back in the 1920s, the Galileo High School building was considered an outstanding example of modern architecture. Planned with the idea of housing one of the best educational institutions in the country, it was equipped to offer the highest type of academic curriculum in addition to training in commercial and technical branches.

During the 1970s, Galileo went through an extensive seismic retrofit where most, if not all, student facilities were moved across the street onto Fort Mason. Before the seismic retrofit, there were rumors that the Galileo campus would permanently be moved onto the Fort Mason site. Though the student population, then, did not indicate whether the move and larger facilities would be justified, the land that Galileo sits on was quite valuable, which could have made the move plausible. It can not be said whether this rumor is true, but can only be verified with the staff and faculty who worked at the school during that time.

Since school year 1995-96, Galileo has transformed itself to the Galileo Academy of Science and Technology. The new program provides students with six career pathways in biological science, biotechnology, environmental science, space science/aeronautics, computer science/engineering technology, and creative media technology.

[edit] Location

1150 Francisco Street, San Francisco, CA Aerial View

Galileo is located in the Marina district with nearby bus stops including the 19, 28, 30, 47, 49, and more. Less than half of the students reside near the school, but school buses are provided by the district for transportation. Facilities include:

• 4-story Western Wing
• 5-story Easten Wing
• 1 Observatory
• 5 Computer Labs
• Schoolwide surveillence
• 3 Gymnasiums
• 2 Basketball courts
• 1 Tennis court
• 1 Football Field

[edit] Football

Largely due to the fame of former football player and actor O.J. Simpson, Galileo was well known for its football team. Galileo's arch enemy is reputed to be the Eagles of George Washington High School, though the Cardinals of Lowell High School have been a rising challenge.

The football field that dominates the second block of Galileo was formely named in honor of O.J. Simpson. However, after Simpson's infamous trial in 1995, the football field was subsequently renamed to George White Field. The two twin apartment buildings that face the northern side of the football field are the Fontana buildings. The design of the twin buildings were actually built to echo and magnify the sounds of the football games.

Galileo's Football has gone undefeated twice in the school's history in 1990 defeating cross town rival Washington Eagles and in 2002 was the second time in school history to go undefeated with a final record of 16-0 and a league record of 12-0 defeating the Washington Eagles that year at the Turkey Day Championship.

[edit] Reputation

Galileo was previously known for its bad reputation with low test scores and criminal events occurring in school, but in more recent years it has become one of the most improved school in San Francisco (see Academic Performance Index below). Since the installation of surveillance cameras in 2005, criminal acts at Galileo have declined as a serious issue. Math scores remain one of Galileo's best academic strengths. Galileo's reputation is rising due to its academics, its technology inside the school, and assignment of many incoming freshmen from high-standing middle schools. It has risen to become one of the better schools in the SFUSD.

[edit] Tardy policy

On January 30, 2006, Galileo's administration implemented a new tardy policy. The policy forces any student that is late, after 8:00 a.m., to their first class to report to the attendance office. Any student that doesn't have their school I.D. on them is forced to pay $2 for a replacement, even if student may have the original elsewhere. Though this new policy is used as a tardiness deterrent, it has brought much controversy, to teachers and students alike. Teachers and students have complained of how a student will arrive at 8:01 a.m., but will not actually arrive for class for at least another half an hour. Initially, the administration wholly underestimated the large number of students who are late every day, which caused extremely long waits for a tardy slip. Lines would stretch from the attendance office and round the entire length of the auditorium.

More recently, administrators have changed their policy on how to deal with tardy students. Students who are late, receive a hall pass stamped with the corresponding day of the week, instead of waiting in line for a tardy slip. The hall pass will note that the student arrived late to school. This currently applies to students who are at most 15 minutes late. Students who are late after 15 minutes will report to the attendance office.

[edit] JROTC

Galileo's Army JROTC Battalion is an Honor Unit with Distinction in San Francisco's JROTC Brigade.

Instructors:

SAI: LTC M.Thore

AI:SFC S.Hardee

Galileo's JROTC has many award winning teams such as:

Color Guard - 1st Place

Guidon - 1st

Fall Competition Overall - 1st

Individual Drill Down - 1st

Galileo JROTC is seen often in various parades (Columbus, Veterans, Lunar, etc.) Marching down. and competes every year in two major SFUSD Brigade Competitions; Fall Competition and Spring Competition which is also known as 91st.

[edit] Academic Performance Index (API)

[edit] Comparison By Years (Galileo)

The Academic Performance Index of Galileo High School has since been steadily improving and in the last two years it has risen to become one of the top schools in San Francisco in terms of API scores.

Score Type	2002-2003	2003-2004	2004-2005	2005-2006
Schoolwide API	606	674	744	763
API Statewide Rank	3	6	8	n/a
API Similar Schools Rank	2	8	9	n/a

[edit] Comparison with other San Francisco high schools (2005-2006)*

Score Type	Lowell	Galileo	Washington	Lincoln	Wallenberg	Burton
Schoolwide API	947	763	748	742	713	680
API Statewide Rank	10	8	9	9	7	3
API Similar Schools Rank	10	9	8	8	9	1

Source

• New API Statewide and Similar Schools rank have not yet been released for 2005-2006.

[edit] Student population

• 2005-2006:
  • 2050 students; M/F (57.1/42.9)
  • Ethnic profile:

Latino	White	African-American	Chinese	Japanese	Korean	American Indian	Filipino	Other Non-White	Declined to State
12.8%	5.1%	9.4%	51.1%	0.9%	1.1%	0.4%	6.2%	12.1%	0.9%

[edit] Related links

• Galileo Academy Website
• Galileo Sports Website
• Galileo Alumni Association