McKinley Technology High School

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McKinley Technology High School [1] is a public city-wide 9-12th grade high school in the District of Columbia Public Schools in Washington, D.C.. The school was originally an off shoot of Central High School (now Cardozo Senior High School), was called McKinley Technical High School and was located at 7th and Rhode Island NW in the District of Columbia. The United States Congress allocated $26 million in 1926 for the construction of the existing building at 2nd and T Street NE.

The school was exclusively for white residents of the City of Washington until integrated with other DC schools by an Executive Order by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in June of 1954. The school underwent a rapid change in the ethnic groups attending the school, similar to other schools in Washington, DC, and was a majority African-American school by 1960. The school continued to offer outstanding programs in printing, automotive technology, and other technical fields. Enrollment fell from a peak of 2400 in the late 1960's to approximately 500 in the mid-1990's. The school was selected for closure during the period of the Congressionally authorized Control Board. The school was shuttered in June of 1997.

During the mayoral election campaign of 1998 then Chief Financial Officer Anthony A. Williams promised the city a technology focused high school to connect city youth with the growing technology basis of the Washington metro area economy. After assuming the position of Mayor in January, 1999 planning began on a school that did not have a decided location. In 2000 a decision was made to place the new school in the closed McKinley facility. Plans at that time included placing incubator companies in the facility and using the facility for professional development for the DC Public Schools and growing charter schools movement. In July of 2001 opening was delayed from 2002 to 2003. In January of 2002 Daniel Gohl assumed the role of Founding Principal, coming from the Science Academy of Austin [2] in Austin, Texas. In October, 2002 the DC School Board delayed opening again to September, 2004. Another reason they closed was to renevate the older campus and to modernize the school. They thought a technology school should look top of the line. The school reopened on September 1, 2004 with grades 9 and 10. On August 28, 2006 the school had a complete program with grades 9-12 and an enrollment of 800 students.