Bartlett-Begich High School

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Bartlett-Begich High School is a high school in Anchorage, Alaska. It has 2,015 students and 125 certificated staff members as of 2005 according to A.S.A.A.. The school was built in 1971.

Bartlett's attendance area includes Fort Richardson and Elmendorf Air Force Base. Approximately 25% of the students are military dependents. The student intake is ethnically diverse, with 59% Caucasian students, 16% African-American; 10% Alaska Native or American Indian; 8% Asian or Pacific Islander, and 7% Hispanic.

The school district's 2003-2004 Profile of Performance reported three goals: "Improve school climate" (attained), "increase percentage of students passing HSGQE Math by 5%" (partially attained) and "reduce dropout rate" (attained). The dropout rate in 2003-4 was 7.3%.

The school is named for Alaskan politicians Bob Bartlett and Nick Begich. "Bartlett" was originally the high school and "Begich" was a junior high school sharing the same building, as also occurred at other area schools of the period, but the Begich name has not yet been transferred to a separate middle school.

A new middle school is being build named after Nick Begich called Nicholas J. Begich Middle School.

Bartlett is part of the Anchorage School District and is accredited by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges.

[edit] Vandalism

Bartlett High School has been the target of several elaborate cases of vandalism. One notably horrific incident of this was when a portable classroom was burned down in the winter of 2003. Though the defendant claims he did not intentionally vandalize school property. He stated openly in court that he was merely trying to blow up a portable toilet by filling it with gasoline, the portable classroom just happened to be a little too close.

[edit] Sex scandals

Bartlett has an unfortunate and long history of teachers sleeping with students. Former teachers Gordon "Satch" Carlson and Richard Von Kennen were both fired in disgrace for having relations with female students. Carlson faced felony criminal charges in 1989 which were eventually dropped in part because all of his victims were above the age of 16, the age of legal consent at the time. A judge ruled that the laws didn't apply to teachers. Von Kennen struck a plea bargain in 1996 and was sentenced to five years in prison. Although the allegations came to light in the '80s and '90s, inappropriate relationships involving Carlson stretched back to the '70s.