Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Schools/Archive 1

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Contents

Highgate School

I was just updating my school's page - and i've now got a header at the top of the page saying the article reads too much like an advertisement...how do I go about remedying this?

Conforming to Template

I recently updated the wiki page for Columbia High School and in the process conformed to the template set forth by this article. I was hoping to add it to the list of schools in this article that conform to the template. Should I do this on my own, or is someone else watching over this article that should do it? Metromoxie

Disambiguation - Naming Convention

I was recently shocked to discover that the second oldest public school in the US, Philadelphia's Central High School, does not have an article on Wikipedia. I was going to create a stub for it, but I realized that there was a disambiguation issue: Central High School concerns a school located in Traverse City, Michigan. Is there a naming convention that should be used here? func(talk) 21:51, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I doubt that there is a specific convention for schools yet, but I would recommend using parenthetical disambiguation rather than a comma format--if only for the reason that it is easier to use the pipe trick to create links without the parenthetical dab than it is to remove the stuff following the comma. So, I'd suggest something like Central High School (Pennsylvania) and Central High School (Traverse City). older≠wiser 22:17, Nov 14, 2004 (UTC)
I just ran into this as well. We should standardize this and put it on the main page. I propose parenthetical, based on disambiguation. Starting from the most broad Foo High School (United States) vs. Foo High School (Australia), to the more specific when there's a conflict within the same state/province/country Bar High School (Bumblechuck, New York) vs. Bar High School (Boonies, New York). Is this a good place to vote on it? Is there a Wikipedia page on parenthetic standards?
I also brought this up below but got no reply. I support the parenthetical disambiguation. David D. (Talk) 15:23, 27 October 2005 (UTC)
A good disambiguation out there is Homestead High School, using the states they're located in for the article names (though I guess the problem would be two high schools with the same name in one state). PRueda29 18:49, 28 October 2005 (UTC)
I think it's a good disambiguation page, but it's not using any consistent naming convention. You've got
—Wikibarista 07:25, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

rob put it on Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions and Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Style issues and Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals) so here we go:

A section should be added to WP:NC called schools, in a similar fashion to Wikipedia:Naming conventions (films), that follows the above disambiguation guidelines, and reinforces the rest of the WP:NC policies like avoiding acronyms and abbreviations and the like. Discuss:

Proposal: Child Project -- School Reform

It was suggested by User:Maurreen that the KERA article may find some reasonable inclusion in WikiProject:Schools. Maybe a child project for School reform would fit in here. Just a thought Quinobi 15:41, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Templates

Proposal: Geography and Demographics section

I'm wondering if a sub-table of some sort with a heading like schools in <this city> can be added to the existing Demographics tables. That way schools that do have pages could have a relevant link and new schools could be added with less geographical ambiguity. Any thoughts? Quinobi 15:41, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Proposal: Surroundings

Urban/Rural/Suburban

Template message

In your schools template you have a link to Image (school seal or photo) in which someone earlier today placed the Groton School logo. This was speedily deleted; the third time someone has had to do this. Could you possibly find another way of getting the message across that the school's logo itself needs to go in this space, rather than an article called Image (school seal or photo) containing a logo or photo? -- Graham ☺ | Talk 01:31, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Other templates

Profile template

The Moanalua High School and Iolani School articles have been up for a long while and have been up without profile templates like the cookie-cutter one featured on this WikiProject page. Unfortunately, when designing my version of the templates and after having changed or added my version of the template to all the Hawaii-based school articles that exist — Farrington High School, Kamehameha Schools, McKinley High School, Punahou School — only then did I realize there existed your cookie-cutter template. I thought I should mention that before you guys feel like I've stepped on anyone's shoes by inadvertantly transforming the standard you guys were expecting to use for all school articles. My apologies! --Gerald Farinas 03:11, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Template:School

There is also a Template:School that has been implemented in a couple of schools, although it is still going through MAJOR improvements right now. — 69.143.211.69 00:40, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

  • Might I suggest that, conforming to Template:University_information and WP:WIN a phonebook, the Template:School not list a school's phone and fax number? Radiant_* 15:12, Apr 14, 2005 (UTC)
Yeah, I would agree with that. --BaronLarf 17:04, Apr 14, 2005 (UTC)

this page is awsome like ****! its sooooo cool i could ride my skatebord over it dude!!

Call for comments/votes. -- Eligibility for WP inclusion

What makes a High School, Middle School, Elementary School or other - non--colleges eligible for WP inclusion?

There has been debate on the VfD list on whether high schools as a topic should even be considered for inclusion in WP. But the fact remains that some schools bear historic cultural, architectural or alumni legacy that is worth noting in an encyclopedia. But where do we draw the line?

  • I think that a school should have at least one of the following to qualify:
  1. Significant architectural legacy
  2. Famous alumni
  3. Historical, documented importance to a community
  4. Building or campus verified as integral in a major historic event
Davodd 01:40, Mar 5, 2004 (UTC)
  • They should exist, have existed at some time in the past, or exist in a verifiable fictional work. Anthony DiPierro 22:06, 6 Mar 2004 (UTC)

To be honest, I don't see what the difficulty is in having school entries in the Wikipedia. Most probably do not have major significance, according to the criteria above. Most probably don't matter to people outside their local community. However, to people who are in that local community, a school may matter a great deal. Being able to find their alma mater in an encyclopedia can make people proud of where they come from. Being able to add information about their school can entice students to explore and contribute to Wikipedia. The articles will not inconvenience people who are here looking for Mozart or Patton or the French Defence, but they will matter to the current and future students who are looking for them. (And yes, Wiki is not paper, etc. ad nauseam.)

I don't consider myself a rabid inclusionist on most things -- I see plenty of vanity pages and dreck that should definitely go straight to the trash -- but I don't see the harm in allowing even non-"significant" schools an article if people want to write them, as long as it's verifiable and NPOV. It can be a great way for students and teachers to learn about Wikipedia together. It can even foster a sense of ownership among students who want to be sure that their school article is not distorted or defaced over time (and thus keep returning, hopefully to contribute more to the work as a whole).

One thing to remember is that this sort of "trivia" is exactly what historians of the future may be most interested in -- especially the evolution of the article over time as different "generations" of students for a particular school add and edit and trim and add and weed and edit and add.... There will always be thousands of references on World War II, but these articles would provide an intimate view of small communities, things that never make it into the history books. Think -- historians are now learning a little more about the life of Vermeer from ferry and butcher receipts. And although I can't recall the name of the poet now (was it Walt Whitman?), they're learning more about the order he wrote his poems in and what order he arranged them by the holes left by the straight pin he used to clip his sheaf of works together. We can't always judge what's going to be significant.

I don't think any one person should spend their time compiling lists or creating stub articles for all schools, but when they appear, they should be allowed to develop within the guidelines of this project. (Creating this project and allowing it to evolve is a good way to make sure the articles aren't just stubs.)

Catherine 03:06, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Wow. Catherine beat me to exactly what I was going to say. I enthusiastically second her entire statement! -- Seth Ilys
I agree with Catherine's very articulate statement. As a general rule, I think that if someone cared enough to write an article, we should leave it alone. There are exceptions (vanity, etc.), but I don't think this is among them. My two cents... Cribnotes 18:29, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Still, an awful lot of schools don't deserve an article separate from the town they are in. For example, I added info to Freeport, New York about some famous alumni from the town's only high school, but I think it would be silly to add a separate article about the school itself. -- Jmabel 07:30, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Well, no one said we had to write an article about every school. But if someone else feels the school is important enough to have a separate article, I see no reason to delete it. I guess merging and redirecting is acceptable, but it also seems like a waste of time. Anthony DiPierro 13:38, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Online schools

What are some reasonable guidelines/formatting for these, and are they allowed at all? --Teria 21:06, 18 May 2004 (UTC)

  • They should be allowed if they are noteable in some way or are encylopedic. As to guidelines, I'd suggest waiting till the dicsussions on the table reach consensus. Adding more to the table will not help at this point. Vegaswikian 18:26, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

Proposal: Deletion Policy

I've made a new proposal regarding the inclusion and deletion of school articles. Please see Wikipedia:School articles needing evaluation to read and discuss it. —siroχo 14:00, Oct 30, 2004 (UTC)

deletion issue

would you delete Adlai E. Stevenson High School?

Education Almanac - a suggestion

I've seen one too many conflicts between Wikipedians on the matter of whether or not a school is notable. I would suggest that a Wikibook be added to this Project's activities entitled something like "Education Almanac: Your school, my school, all the schools" which is a first storage place for articles on particular schools. As a school page grows in the Wikibook, it could be nominated by anyone for tranclusion in Wikipedia, but the default for most schools would be to reside in the Almanac.

As a side note, I'm not involved with this Project at this time, nor have I initiated or contributed to a Wikibook in the past.

Regards, Courtland 16:15, 2005 Apr 6 (UTC)

I think it would be a great way to reduce conflict around this. -- Jmabel | Talk 04:09, Apr 7, 2005 (UTC)
Yes, Good Idea. --Rj 21:06, Apr 14, 2005 (UTC)
Would a wikibook be created for, say Category:British railway stations? Or any other type of public institution? --BaronLarf 04:37, Apr 7, 2005 (UTC)
That depends, it might be, but only if you insist on comparing apples with oranges. What do you have against British railway stations? Chris talk back 23:44, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Inclusion Process: a proposal

Is it possible that a lot of the objections could be avoided if there was a process to follow? One part of the process would be whatever is decided in other discussions on content for an article. The other part could be a set of steps to follow working up to an individual school article.

As long as a school is listed, then a search of the form "whatever High School" would show the wiki data for the school.

I'm thinking that the following steps be might be used:

  1. The community the school is in has a WP entry
  2. The school district has a WP entry (how to handle private schools? Maybe a heading under the district?)
  3. The individual school's entry is first developed in the district page
  4. When the entry meets all of the other criteria, it is moved to a new page and its entry in the school district page is replaced by a link with a few comments.

Reasonable? Vegaswikian 00:21, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

This sounds like a generally good approach; I would guess that privat schools should skip the intermediate steps and develop in the community page. -- Jmabel | Talk 23:57, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)

While an overall structure is an admirable goal, there are so many differences among how schools relate to districts in the U.S. (and you can multiply the problems when you include secondary schools around the globe). I don't have answers, but let me raise a few problems:

  • In Illinois, school districts are numbered and I would venture to guess few people know the school district number of any district outside their own. In fact, my son goes to Evanston Township High School and, sitting here right now, I can't even tell you the district number although I should know it. ETHS is the only school in the district (we have a separate district that covers the primary and middle schools), and virtually no one refers to ETHS by the district number. In terms of finding a school, identifying an Illinois high school by district would be confusing.
  • In a large urban area like Chicago, sorting public schools by the community also presents a difficulty. New Trier High School is a single high school (now with two campuses) that covers a large portion of what is known as the "North Shore." Listing the school under Winnetka, Illinois, which is one fairly small village within the school district's boundaries, would not be very helpful. Most suburban Cook County high schools are organized by township. A township covers many local communities but in most areas of Cook County is now a relatively insignificant governmental entity and is not viewed as a community. Evanston is some aberrant since Evanston Township and the City of Evanston share the same name and boundaries (though, interestingly, despite its name the high school district includes a small portion of Niles Township). Elsewhere on this page, an unsigned comment mentions Adlai E. Stevenson High School, which presents a similar issue in Lake County. That school is located in Lincolnshire but includes many Lake County communities.
  • Private schools, at least in a large suburban area, also frequently cross community lines and have no school districts. I doubt that many people looking for Loyola Academy would look under Wilmette, Illinois, probably not even those living in that village. Frequently a school may be more notable that the town or village where it happens to be physically located.
  • On the other hand, in many cases the community is the most appropriate place to find a school. I grew up in Marshall, Illinois which has a single "unit" school district comprising two elementary schools, one junior high school (grades 7 and 8) and one high school. It is truly a community school. Although the City of Marshall itself covers only about three square miles of the largely rural district (which itself spans about 200 square miles), the "community" of Marshall clearly includes people in the surrounding area who eat, shop, attend religious services and go to school in Marshall.

Again, I don't have answers, just questions. DS1953 18:17, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

  • In re-reading my last entry, I thought I should make it clear I am certainly not against merging a short school page with an appropriate page. It just that in some cases it may be a city, a county, a school district or some other page. In some cases, it may require another entry on another page (and may raise other issues). For example, Casey Westfield High School covers two communities and is located between the two. If the school's page is redirected to Casey, Illinois, what happens to someone looking at the Westfield, Illinois entry? If both communities have a discussion of the school, it seems to me that an editor might add important information in one place and a reader of the school entry in the other community would not see the full information that Wikipedia has on that school. —Preceding unsigned comment added by DS1953 (talk • contribs) 18:46 UTC, 22 May 2005

If the school covers two communities then it may well be the classic case that requires a separate entry linked from both. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 19:22, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

Template:Infobox school and Template:Infobox U.S. school

FYI: Just to let you know, I found these two related templates that are currently orphaned and unused. As a courtesy, I'll wait 24 hours until putting them on TFD (unless someone gets to them first), hoping somebody will start using them. I'm also posting this same message on Wikipedia:Schools. Thanks. Zzyzx11 (Talk) 00:12, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

  • I take it that these are designed for pre-college schools (primary and secondary), yes? Courtland 00:59, 2005 May 20 (UTC)

Organizing U.S. school districts

There are quite a few articles on individual U.S. school districts, which as I understand it are the basic unit of public education within each U.S. county.

It seems to me that the 10,000 or so U.S. school districts, which could be organized under the counties (many of which already seem to have their own Wikipedia entries), and in turn under the states, would provide a very good framework for encyclopedia articles about U.S. public schools.

Accordingly I have looked in Category: School districts in the United States and created the following articles:

and a few other state school district lists that I created but am not currently working on.

Work on the article Lists of school districts in California by county is well advanced. This is modeled on the List of counties in California and contains a wikilink for each county to a list of school districts. I am working through the counties slowly, using local government websites that provide lists of school districts, creating a wikilink for each school district.

With the exception of a large number of articles about school districts in Santa Clara County, I'm not getting very many accidental hits on pre-existing articles. Nevertheless I think this work is important and useful because on Wikipedia:Schools consensus seems to be heading towards the notion that, while there may not be much to say about a particular school, it may be appropriate to merge and redirect a stub article about that school to an appropriate habitation or administrative division (such as, in the US, a city or a school district) rather than simply delete it.

I'm putting a lot of work into this but that doesn't matter. If the idea stinks let me know. If there is something I'm missing, let me know. If you want to help, let me know. Or just do it. :) --Tony Sidaway|Talk 22:46, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

See my comments under Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Schools#Inclusion Process: a proposal . DS1953 18:22, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

  • FYI. Nevada is a little different in that there is one school district for each county. Vegaswikian 18:30, 22 May 2005 (UTC)
Yes, that's pretty unusual in California but it does happen. I think we need to take this differently for each state. A very large state like California really benefits from the extra county tier, but a flat organization of districts per state would be preferable for smaller (less populous) states. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 18:35, 22 May 2005 (UTC)
Allowing for some variation by state makes sense. I'm not sure how if this is true in CA, but in some other states, school districts can encompass areas within multiple counties. No real problem, just means some districts might end up on the list for more than one county. older≠wiser 19:04, May 22, 2005 (UTC)
I agree that recognizing the differences between states would give us more useful results. For what it is worth, I checked the Illinois Board of Higher Education web site which contains directories of all public and private schools in Illinois [1]. There are 883 public school districts listed for 2004-2005. Running down the list, I counted ten counties (of 102 in Illinois) that have a single school district. Many of the remaining counties have only two or three districts. In many of those cases, the schools probably cover more that one "community," depending on how one defines that term. DS1953 19:51, 22 May 2005 (UTC)
Good work, Tony; thanks for putting ideas into action. I've started creating lists of school districts as well. --BaronLarf 18:27, May 23, 2005 (UTC)
I've suggested an idea for naming districts in Ohio. See here for my proposal. PedanticallySpeaking 18:47, May 23, 2005 (UTC)
I tried this out. I moved my article Princeton City School District to Princeton City School District, Hamilton County, Ohio. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 19:17, 23 May 2005 (UTC)
My List of school districts in San Francisco County, California was VfD'd for containing only one item. Votes would be welcome on this subject. I've changed it pre-emptively to a redirect to the one unified school district, but I'd prefer to keep the article as it was because it would work slightly better with categories. I don't see any problem with a list of one item; then again I'm a programmer--even a list with zero items would be fine by me. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 19:10, 23 May 2005 (UTC)
I've done a bit of work on List of school districts in Indiana, including organizing the list by county (I don't believe that any school district or community school corporation in Indiana crosses county lines, although some special educational cooperatives do) and adding a link to the InDOE website. Kelly Martin 13:08, May 24, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. Just a week later and we've made serious inroads into the major US public school systems and are starting to link US public schools into a hierarchy according to state and district, connected through both categories and lists (both have their uses and their adherents). Thanks to everybody who has worked n school districts (I wasn't the first). --Tony Sidaway|Talk 13:04, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

I am not entirely convinced that this is the way to go, but nonetheless I have added a list of all of the school districts in Illinois. Where there are single-school districts and the school already has a Wikipedia article (Evanston Township High School and Adlai E. Stevenson High School, for example) I have linked to the school itself. Where the district has a Wikipedia article (the one Tony Sidaway added for Township High School District 113, for example), I linked to that article. Where there is no Wikipedia article, in some cases (a couple dozen only), I added a link directly to the district's web site. My thought is that if we direct someone to the school's site, they won't add an article to Wikipedia unless it has something to say. The result is a fairly big page. DS1953 21:03, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

I just rewrote part of the article on Evanston, Illinois and created a new section "Education." I have tried to create links to schools where I think there should be a school article, links to a district where I think there should be an article on the district, and no links where I do not want to invite the creation of a stub article. I would appreciate comments on my Talk page if anyone has any thoughts for improvements. DS1953 16:54, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

FWIW, at least one school district -- the one that is coterminous with New York City -- embraces five counties. -- Jmabel | Talk 01:32, Jun 7, 2005 (UTC)

WP Schools template

I have created a small template to place on the talk pages of high school articles to show that they are being watched and expanded as the project aims to do. If you wish to change the wording of the template, please do so.

Otherwise, add it to school articles to show what this Project is doiong on Wikipedia. Harro5 05:33, May 22, 2005 (UTC)

  • Looks good. I've found that the old Template:Infobox school and Template:Infobox U.S. school are not actually in use, and do not conform to the template guidelines on this project's main page; as such, I've nominated them for TFD (a redirect would probably be best), please let me know if this is in error. Radiant_* 11:05, May 30, 2005 (UTC)
    • I noticed that the two "old" infoboxes that you posted for deletion were only created one month ago and ten days ago. Perhaps that is not really enough time to see if they will be used ... DS1953 14:25, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Wikipages?

It is my thought that schools should not be inherently part of Wikipedia. Being as they are, they don't have a particularly authoritative place in an encyclopedia, but they might show up better in something like wikipages, which is a Wikipedia-related project. Potentially in the future we could even discuss entire sites about this topic, but I'm just not sure about the demand at this point. Nicholas Ink 0:07, 1 June 2005 (UTC)

Category talk:High schools in Illinois

Hello!

Are schools really that wikipediaworthy? - 68.23.97.102 04:16, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Good question. I am not a member of this project, but I would say definitely no. Some are, however, and should make for nice articles. For example, see Los Gatos High School, my personal alma mater. :-) — Frecklefoot | Talk 14:04, Jun 10, 2005 (UTC)
This is a very subjective topic since, theoretically, every school is just as good as another. Of course there has to be at least one celeberty (used lightly) to come from each school in which it is mentioned in their biography. So, I think an infobox (to be standardized eventually) and a brief history of the school is enough. Now if some are more "important" than others than they require a larger article. Just my opinion, of course. Tanner65 01:44, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Infobox

I am not a member of this project, nor do I intend to become one. However, I stumbled across this school's article, Fox Lane High School, and noticed something. It has a nice section called Information. Do all school entries have such entries? If so, I think the information might be better contained in a template, much like the Computer and video games WikiProject. You might want to look into creating something similar. :-) — Frecklefoot | Talk 14:04, Jun 10, 2005 (UTC)

Schools by century?

I'd like to address the issue of classifying schools by century. There are a whole lot of categories like Category:Schools established in the 700s etc, as well as a template listing them all, at Template:Schools established (now Template:Eiei-century-table. However, I feel that this is a very arbitrary classification of schools, since there isn't an obvious difference between a school founded in 1895 and one in 1905. Moreso because the earlier categories are likely to remain near-empty all the time, and the category for 20th century would list 90% of all schools. Would the WikiProject please reconsider whether this categorization is in fact necessary? Schools are more usefully categorized by location, and possibly by doctrine or way of teaching.

(for extremely old schools, I think it's useful OTOH to list their founding at the proper year article, e.g. 1488). Radiant_>|< 11:59, Jun 14, 2005 (UTC)

This has already been discussed here. The community consensus was that these categories serve as useful organisation tools. If you come across additional categories which you feel may add value to an article, by all means please create them. --Bahn Mi 07:48, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

    • It wasn't discussed, GRider, it merely got a number of blanket keep votes. Radiant_>|< 14:33, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)
  • Keep, to repeat myself, "how else am I supposed to find historic schools? and schools established in 1850 are a lot different from those established in 1950". Also this doesn't prevent schools from also being classified by location and/or philosophy. Kappa 08:06, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)
    • Well, for instance, a list of schools by founding date would make that information more accessible. Also, by your own argument, schools established in 1801 are a lot different from those established in 1899 - yet they end up in the same category. Think about it. Radiant_>|< 14:33, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)
  • Discussions at Category talk:Educational institutions by year of establishment have resulted in going "by year" for recent times, "by decade" for older ones, and "by century" for even older ones, with various templates being put into place to make future changes simpler to implement. Also of possible interest is the discussion of what to do with "unknown year" establishments at Category:Educational institutions established in xxxx j-beda 04:49, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Pet high schools

Every once in a while I run into a high school article which is loaded with non-notable material with students names, lists of non-notable faculty, etc. Rather than getting into a revert war with one high schooler who thinks they "own" the article, I thought I'd make a heading here for school articles with this problem.

Or you could just post it on VfD. — Frecklefoot | Talk 14:23, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)
I have no problem with the existence of the article, just the information that AAAAA is adding. --BaronLarf 16:21, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)
Does this get down to what is or is not encyclopedic? While it has been suggest elsewhere, that students should not be listed on a school page, I don't believe it is that simple. Say a current High school student won and Olympic Gold medal. I think that should be listed. However winning a gold in the yearly track meet with another school is not worth mentioning, unless it was notable for another reason like setting the French High School record. Vegaswikian 18:14, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I agree with you that, in your hypothetical, an Olympian would be notable. I'm talking about listing the top 10 or 15 students in every graduating class, as AAAAA did. That's just plain vanity. --BaronLarf 18:36, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)
Do you want to list former Olympiad students for each high school? They are relatively rare unless you go to James Ruse (Sydney) or Hurlstone (Sydney).
If there is material in an article that shouldn't be there (for instance, names of individual teachers, list of winners for Year 6 needlework awards) just remove the material as in editing any other article. If a user disagrees with you, resolve the difference of opinion on the talk page. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 15:05, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Simple Infobox

Pine Crest School
Filler Image
'Connected; Diverse.'
Location
Boca Raton &
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
Information
Head teacher Dr. Lourdes M. Cowgill
Students 1,600
Faculty 111
Type Private
Campus Suburban, 49 acres (.20 km²)
Mascot Panthers
Color(s) Green & White
Established 1934
Tuition $16,980 (Grades 9-12)
Homepage www.pinecrest.edu

K-12

What category or categories should be used for schools that offer K-12 education? Vegaswikian 06:12, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Naming

I'd like to create, single-handedly if necessary, an article on Seminary Hill School in Lebanon, NH. Is there a naming convention to follow? There have been other schools with this name, but all are now either shut down or have had their names changed. Is it safe to call the article Seminary Hill School? -Micler 14:13, Jun 24, 2005 (UTC)

There is an informal convention, which is to append some locator to the name of the school. In this case, probably Seminary Hill School, New Hampshire would be fine. In other cases the town name is enough (but obviously not for Lebanon, which is the name of several towns and also the name of a country), in yet others the county. Articles are easily moved around so it isn't important to get it right first time. In fact it may be advisable to create it at Seminary Hill School and then move it (or get an admin to do so if you are unable to), because that way there will be a redirect for the name of the school, which if necessary can be expanded into a disambiguation at a later date. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 15:02, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

High Tunstall Comprehensive School

Just found this in my user space, an old article of mine. I've moved it into the main namespace and hopefully someone can fix it up to a standard article. Hedley 3 July 2005 02:31 (UTC)

Deletion

I've recently nominated Richfield Senior High School for deletion and this project was brought to my attention. I haven't done a very thorough check of this project or it's subpages or current interests, but I have skimmed. Forgive me if this has already been discussed or is otherwise not a wise thing to be posting.

I see that Wikipedians have already attempted to establish a deletion policy a la Wikipedia:Schools, but this simply seems to state that any school is notable. I don't take issue with that really, but it doesn't appear to be a good compromise with people who have the opposite viewpoint.

I would like to see attention more focused on this issue -- if there is a way we can expedite the adoption of Wikipedia:Schools or any other policy that determines the validity of ordinary elementary and secondary school entries, I think we should do that. There isn't much point in having a project built around possibly invalid articles, so I think you will agree that it is important to have this issue permanently settled. Maybe there's something we can do with the recent revisions to Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion? I don't know if they're still accepting proposals there or not, but you know.

Thank you. Cookiecaper 05:10, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

K I posted a proposal on Wikipedia talk:Criteria for speedy deletion/Proposal. Cookiecaper 20:24, 13 July 2005 (UTC)
  • Since said proposal is for the speedy deletion of articles on schools where no important event has happened, it would be obvious that consensus would strongly oppose that. Several people (including myself) have already argued against this idea, so it seems unlikely to become a major issue. Radiant_>|< 09:27, July 14, 2005 (UTC)

Systemic bias?

It struck me that the WikiProject Schools deals almost exclusively with schools in the United States, and some in Canada and England. In the spirit of countering systemic bias, might I suggest that some more attention is given to schools in other places? It's far easier on the web to get information on an American school than on an African one, so that is precisely an area where Wikipedia could help the world by containing information that is otherwise hard to access. Radiant_>|< 09:27, July 14, 2005 (UTC)

I have added the school that I go to in India and helped out on a university in Jordan as well. I am encouraging others to do the same. (Arundhati Bakshi (talk • contribs)) 12:00, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

School on VfD

Currently, Our Lady of Ransom School is listed on VfD. Since the original author neglected to include the word 'School' in the title, many voters may have missed this one. The article needs improvement, but is a verifiable school. Pburka 18:11, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

Question

Do you think an article about a school or a school system will be better for Wikipedia? The school article I want to create is Havelock High School (my alumnus): school board article is Craven County Schools (North Carolina). Zscout370 (Sound Off) 01:41, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

Article quality and feature article

Given that the members of this project have show the ability to improve the quality if articles, I was suprised to not see a place for identifying an article that could be selected as a featured article. I added a heading to the project page to suggest an article for this honor. I also added another heading for articles that could use a little work to move up their quality. My guess is that there may be around 1,000 school articles that could use more work. Vegaswikian 23:19, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

Sothern California schools

The Southern California WikiProject has created a subpage for SoCal schools that either have one of the cleanup templates or the {{US-school-stub}} template. If anyone is interested in helping to fill this page, or with improving the school articles listed on the page, they can find it at Wikipedia:WikiProject Southern California/Schools to do, or the much-easier-to-type shortcut WP:WPSC-S. Also, if the Schools WikiProject is planning on taking any of the articles on SoCal Schools to Peer review, or Featured article candidates, we would appreciate a notification. BlankVerse ∅ 13:44, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

Improvement Drive

The article on Teenage pregnancy has been nominated on Wikipedia:This week's improvement drive. To support the nomination, vote for it Wikipedia:This week's improvement drive#Nominations here.--Fenice 07:08, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

Could someone take a look at Steller Secondary School for me and let me know what you think?

Thanks, Stellertony the Bookcrosser 07:59, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

First impressions are that it's pretty good, though it could used a section on actual studies/extracurriculars.. Also, could ya'll check out Hopkins School and give similar opinions? Staxringold 07:21, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

Miami-Dade County Public Schools

Hello, I recently created the article for this district. The district has 370+ schools, and I'm hoping to make an article for all of them. I've started with high schools, and I wanted to know if someone could look over them to make sure they're ok. Also, I'm requesting assistance for making the articles for every school, even if they're just stubs. If it's not worth making an article for every school, then that's ok, but I'd rather not have 300+ red links on a page. Any suggestions, edits, and work on this article and any of its daughter articles is welcomed! PRueda29 17:08, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

  • It's an ambitious project, and a good start. You might want to split out a List of elementary schools in Miami-Dade and put basic information about each school in that. Kappa 00:41, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

which template?

Does this project endorse any particular templates? there are quite a few available and nothing specific on which is to be used. See above for some ideas i am kicking around for lists. Input and feedback would be welcome Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Schools#Template_for_listing_Schools.

I am also wondering if there is a naming convention for US schools. While many are just the high school name. i.e. Felix High School, I am starting to see more with a designation as 'Felix High School, Little Town, Kansas' or as Felix High School (Little Town, Kansas). Which format is to be used? David D. (Talk) 08:15, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

New Template Developed

I have just developed a new template called Template:U.S. School. It is based one of the more standard templates on here. You can find at the St. Francis-St. Stephen's School article. Have a great day all. --D-Day 21:39, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

In addition, I have just created Template:United States Junior High and Secondary School. This is for schools that have more than one main administrator. It can be found at DeSales High School.
I don't see why this is needed. It is easy to code as many administrators as you like in one Administrator section by including the break command. So you would do the entry as something like this: Principal: name 1<br>Assistant Principal: name 2<br>Chief Janitor:name 3, which would show up as:
Principal: name 1
Assistant Principal: name 2
Chief Janitor:name 3
WP:TfD will likely pick this up and I don't think it would get support since it is too specific. Vegaswikian 23:59, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
Very good points, I completely forgot about that possibility. Okay, delete away. --D-Day 10:50, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

I dunno, looks pretty good here Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School PRueda29 12:05, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

I have just put the latter template up for deletion. --D-Day 20:41, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Wikischool

Is anyone, I mean anyone, really pushing for a Wikischool outside Wikipedia proper rather than have this large and theoretically unmanageable project here in Wikipedia? I've heard this being proposed so many times but no one seem to be doing anything about this. Surely this project has gone too large for a general encyclopedia proper? Mandel 11:05, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

  • I have not heard of anything. But I would support this. I suspect that most of those in wikipedia would support a Wikischool wiki that would deal with all of those articles. It would be a solution for many. Why not make it a formal proposal? Vegaswikian 18:19, 17 October 2005 (UTC)


this is a cool page

This a good page i went to burton valley and now my kids go to school there i think it will be very helpfull to other mothers


Articles for the Wikipedia 1.0 project

Hi, I'm a member of the Wikipedia:Version_1.0_Editorial_Team, which is looking to identify quality articles in Wikipedia for future publication on CD or paper. We recently began assessing using these criteria, and we are looking for A-Class and good B-Class articles, with no POV or copyright problems. Can you recommend any suitable school articles? Obviously, a featured article like Caulfield Grammar School would be suitable. Please post your suggestions here. Cheers!--Shanel 04:47, 22 October 2005 (UTC)


Clearer delete policy, please?

Hi! I'm cleaning up after a vandal, and I can't tell whether to delete a school page or not. Two requests: 1) If somebody thinks Madison academic high school is worth keeping as a stub, could they speak up? If not, I'll call for deleting it. And 2), could you put some clear guidelines at the top of your project page? I'm provisionally willing to trust whatever y'all decide, but it'd be great to make things easier on your fellow editors. Thanks! --William Pietri 04:32, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

There is a clear policy of never delete. All schools can be made into a stub. Ironically the most effective way to get a school up to standard is to put it up for deletion, although, this is definitely not policy. Here is one example of a before the nomination, it is total garbage, and then it was whipped into shape by supporters of schoolwatch. David D. (Talk) 04:53, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
Noted! Could you please put something that clearly states that at the top of the WikiProject Schools page, then? All I saw was a request not to do bulk deletes, and it wasn't clear to me that an unconnected stub with a history of boobies comments was quite so obviously a keeper. Thanks! --William Pietri 05:07, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
I'm not really a member of this project, my perspective above is from my experience of working with schools and bumbling around in the dark like yourself. David D. (Talk) 11:31, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
Actually, there is no such policy on Wikipedia. A number of people would like to think so, and generally block any attempt to form an policy in this area, rather like trade union officials voting en bloc against any proposal they find unacceptable. Chris talk back 23:43, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
Having read further on the controversy, I humbly plead with the various warring factions: come to some sort of compromise, even if it's a temporary one. Normally I'm a big fan of Wikipedia, but I'm frustrated over the amount of time I'm spending on a garbage article and saddened to see so much open antipathy and confusion. As a start, perhaps somebody could at least put an NPOV summary of the current state at the top of the WikiProject Schools page so that innocent bystanders like myself know that they're opening up such a large can of worms by touching an article that happens to be about a school? --William Pietri 02:49, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

I tried to get a real policy on schools and it didn't work. Right now, it's just whichever way the VfDs go. Maybe there should be something like double jeopardy to prevent something from consistent nomination to AfD. I understand that something can be nominated more than once, but there should be a time limit or something. Like, it has to be at least one month before it's nominated again. Cookiecaper 02:56, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

Sounds like instruction creep to me. Participants have their own thresholds, and if something is renominated early (e.g. after only 3-4 weeks) people tend to shoot the nomination down anyway. What we need in the meantime is something to get around the bloc voting. Chris talk back 03:03, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

1) In practice, most Wikipedians disapprove of rapid renominations of articles to AfD and such renominations usually fail. In many cases people who voted for deletion the first time will vote on principle to keep the second time. (An exception is the case of an article voted for deletion, then successfully undeleted via WP:DRV; such articles are more or less automatically renominated for AfD because the most usual reason for undeletion is that there was something wrong about the deletion process).

2) In practice, good articles about schools are far less likely to be nominated for deletion or deleted than bad articles. By far the most useful thing to do to a bad school article is to improve it, with particular emphasis on mentioning anything about the school that is unusual or distinguishes it from other schools. I do not want to get into a discussion here of whether or not bad substubs should ever be deleted; I am talking about what actually happens, and improving a substub is far more effective than arguing that it should be kept in its substub form.

3) The conflict over schools is longstanding and highly factionalized. Be very wary of anyone's statement of what policy or precedent is in this arena. Dpbsmith (talk) 13:43, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

Request for School Articles In A City

Hi, I figured if anyone could assist, it'd be this group. Nashua, New Hampshire is very close to featured article status IMO, but one of the things holding it back is the lack of details on the city's schools. I'll help where I can, but I wondering if you could assist as well since this is your focus. Karmafist 23:47, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

Public school

Public school is currently a disambiguation page, should it become an article? --Commander Keane 16:42, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

Notable alumni sources

I periodically come across sources of "notable alumni" that would be nice to add to a school article, but usually there's no school to add to (yet), and there's not sufficient time/info yet to make such an article. Or even if there is an article for the school, I haven't always the time to go through all data of a particular source right at that moment. In the past, I would just forget about, as I couldn't do anything with it. But now, I started a list of such sources, so maybe I or others can use the info, when the school articles are ready, and somebody has the time. --Rob 15:35, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

Added: I create Wikipedia:WikiProject Schools/alumni as a place "scratch pad" to list notable alumni that should go in a school article, but the article isn't created yet. Also, for those wishing to create a new school article, you can look here to see which schools have notable alumni, which help ensure you have sufficient content for an article that will interest a wider number of people. --Rob 22:35, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

Request for clarification

In the articles section, you have headers that say Possible candidates to be updated to template and List of articles using this template. What is this template. Furthermore, a list of currently used school infoboxes (not examples of them being plastered on the talk page) would be helpful. It seems to me that {{Infobox Aust school}} is the only one with significant backing, but its title suggests it should only appear in Australian school articles. Why? Perhaps a page move is in order. — Ambush Commander(Talk) 18:22, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

I think originally there was an attempt to keep track of schools using the standards here (e.g. section names/order/organization/standards, not technically a Wikipedia "template"), but its not been maintained for a while, and it should be removed. I will remove them, if nobody objects (if somebody objects, I will happily discuss it instead of acting). As for infoboxes, there's little near-term hope of any standars in the area. There seems to be to many variations in school organization in different places, to allow for a "one size fits all" infobox. --Rob 08:10, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Menlo School

Would someone take a look at this. It was full of nonsense and POV. I did some tidy work on it but it needs a lot more and it needs watching. It started as a good article but was turned over to vandals. Also needs a US spell checker run on it. I only have a UK one. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 10:28, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Telling new school editors of this project

I wanted to suggest regular school editors make a habit of informing new editors of this project on their respective talk pages. We might mention the need of including standard pieces of information, like a link to a school web site. I've done it, but would hope others do it also (so it doesn't look like I'm spamming). Ideally, those targetted would be editors who's only (or nearly only) contribution so far is a school article, and that school article is a substub (just a couple sentences with no links) with just the one editor contributing to it. Often the creator of an article can easily add more info, but just didn't know what was expected or needed. --Rob 19:13, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

I might add this is a great way to mentor new editors who may well go on to make significant contributions to other topics in wikipedia. David D. (Talk) 20:11, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
Maybe we could design a template that shows them a basic set of links like {{India quick links}} expands to? It doesn't take up much space and could give them quick access to the portal and related school links. (Arundhati Bakshi (talk • contribs)) 04:08, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Athletics Section

Hi guys. I'm working on Los Alamos High School and I thought it would be appropriate to include a table of every single state title the school has ever won. What do you think?

--Ryan Utt 01:03, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Wilsonville High School

This was a complete mess. Full of POV, attack, etc. User:Pboyd04 and myself have cleaned it up. However, the school had already been put on Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Wilsonville High School. Thanks. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 01:16, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Bitburg High School

Could someone take a look at this article? The Teachers and Lunch sections seem rather trivial and POV to me. I deleted the Teachers section but it's reappeared and I'd rather not get into an edit war. Maybe a second opinion would be useful. Thanks. Gimboid13 23:02, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Here's my opinion of what should be done with it. --Rob 23:06, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Reference questions

In the suggestions on the project page, it says that references should be from sources other than the school itself. But when citing things like statistics (i.e. percent students of color, no. of faculty members, etc.), how can a source not be from the school itself? Even if the statistic is published in an outside source, the statistic must have come from the school to begin with (unless the outside source went on campus and counted the teachers, which is ridiculous). So isn't citing the school the only way to get some pieces of information?

Further, there's a small disagreement on the Albuquerque Academy page as to whether or not citing the school's student newspaper, The Advocate, is a valid citation under the guidelines on this project page. I'm arguing that it is, because the administration has absolutely no say in what appears within The Advocate's pages; they do not see it before it is published, they cannot dictate what staff members report on, and they have no control over the angles taken. It's practically an independent newspaper considering how little contact the staff has with the administration; to get information on a story, staff members would do exactly the same thing as a local news source would have to do, which makes a story from The Advocate just as valid as a story from any other news source.

Comments and opinions would be appreciated. -Vontafeijos 06:47, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

There's value in a 3rd part source, even if they've got their info from the school itself. As (if they're a reliable source) they would do fact checking, and verification. Generally statistics (like enrollment) will be reported to government, and that's a reliable source. As enrollment isn't usually contested, I wouldn't remove it from an article, just because the school is the only source. It's really things like relative performance of the school (compared to others), which really need those independent sources. Also, a 3rd party source is a good sign, that somebody outside the school cares about the information. We also always have to be concerned that all schools will eventually close one day. We don't want articles based on defunct website. An article in a serious newspaper will be preserved permanently (if not online, then on paper in libraries). --Rob 17:51, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
Added: I should be point out this is a voluntary project within Wikipedia. It's not official policy. Neither is what it says about "References". For official policy, please read WP:V, and for official guidelines read WP:CITE, and WP:RS. What this project says about "References" is *based* on those, but this project is not the official word. --Rob 17:53, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Lincoln Pius X High School

I've come across this at WP:AFC, but the requester appears to have made an account and written it themselves. Could someone with more experience in formatting school articles than I have drop in, add the source (http://www.piusx.net/) and generally make it look nice? - Mgm|(talk) 09:32, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

  • I've prettified it. Kappa 09:50, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

St. Albans School and St Albans School

At Talk:St. Albans School, I, User:Donbas, and User:JzG are having a disussion over how exactly to name and refer to the two schools. I would like some outside help, because I am an alumnus of the former school, and he is an alumnus of the latter. We think that a disambiguation page is necessary, although what kind we can't decide. This is further confounded by the fact that there are other schools that might be searched for as "St. Albans School". JzG is also very busy on other more significant issues (User:Jason Gastrich), so I don't want to waste his time on what is a petty naming decision. I have posted a proposal for naming. Please comment. Donbas 23:24, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

Trinity College (Kandy)

Found this in Recent Changes. There is 5 paragraphs followed by 175+ links to Alumni and Principals. Of the links about 15 are blue and the rest are red. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 10:57, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

Granite Falls Senior School

Fix it or look for it on AfD. Denni ☯ 03:01, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Sacred Heart Convent School (Jamshedpur)

Could someone here take a look at this article and see if it looks OK. It is so far the biggest one I have done here at Wikipedia, and was wondering if the article was a good one. (Arundhati Bakshi (talk • contribs)) 19:07, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Overall, you did a good job. The main thing I would suggest, is finding anything that's been written about the school over the years (e.g. newspapers and magazine) and using it as references. Also Image:Shcsj principals.jpg is probably not useable, as it probably is copyrighted by the school. It's unlikely that all the images in it, have been licensed to GFDL. --Rob 12:51, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
OK, thanks. I showed it to the webmaster, Abhishek, who said that it was fine, but you might be right about the images. I will double check and see what they say. I will try to find magazines that have had writeups about it. There have been newspapers that have featured it, most notably the Telegraph, so I will look there too. Some others have criticised that it sounds a little too much like a promotional article, and I am trying to avoid that tone, but I am not sure how successful I have been because sometimes I have trouble being objective about my own writing. Thanks for the advice. :) (Arundhati Bakshi (talk • contribs)) 16:40, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Lwów–Warsaw School of Logic

I happened to notice that Lwów–Warsaw School of Logic was marked as being related to this project. I think that was an error by someone who didn't realize that the article is about a school of thought, not an educational institution. If I've misunderstood something here, please feel free to revert. --Trovatore 03:46, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Schools Cleanup

Some surprising redlinks - Beatle alumni

Hi,

Over at the new Beatles WikiProject we're in the startup stages, assessing our existing articles, finding red links, planning the project and so on. Two surprising ommissions (redlinks) have sprung up:

No doubt we'll get to these in due course, but if you feel that schools with Beatle alumni are a bad ommission and have the resources to put that right sooner than we can, your help would be appreciated.

If you need to reply or require assistance, please drop a line at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject The Beatles. --kingboyk 05:19, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

public schools / charter schools

Alberta charter schools, charter school, and other articles, state, as I feel is correct, that charter schools are a type of public school. This is disputed by at least one editor who feels they are "private schools". Those interested, may wish to voice an opinion on the relevant talk pages. In particular, some input from an American perspective would be useful. Examples of authoritative sources using the term "public school" or "private school" would also be desired. --Rob 17:41, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

Collaboration

Attn: Stuyvesant High School has been nominated for the Good Article Collaboration of the week you are all invited to support it.

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Carroll High School (Fort Wayne, Indiana)

I am trying to get permission (a lengthy edit history is thwarting speedy delete) to cleanup the article history of Carroll High School (Fort Wayne, Indiana) for various vandal-type and legal reasons. Some well-meaning newbies are all for the "it's a school - keep it" line (my how times have changed for the better!). Please pipe in with your comments if you wish: Wikipedia: Articles for deletion/Carroll High School (Fort Wayne, Indiana) - Davodd 01:07, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Lists of staff

Would someone please take a look at Christian Heritage School (Texas)? It is my belief that including a list of staff like this is not encyclopedic, but the author of the article WatchHawk thinks otherwise. Isn't our convention that including administration is fine, but including a list such of this is not? Metros232 22:53, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

I assume you meant "a list of staff like this is not encyclopedic". I think the list is to long, and should stick with just the top few. Usually, I don't even go beyond the principal/headmaster. Usually lists that long, do get trimmed. --Rob 23:02, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
The list also includes teachers listed as no longer being employees. How should I handle this situation in general? I had previously taken the list out but then was reverted by WatchHawk. Metros232 13:43, 24 April 2006 (UTC)
Basically, what you did (removing it and seeking discussion) is about all you can do. I just removed it again. I think most editors support removal of such information, other editors will likely/hopefully also remove it, if it comes back. --Rob 14:17, 24 April 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for your help with it. I didn't want to remove it again and just start some revert war between myself and WatchHawk. Metros232 14:53, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

WikiProject Schools Articles

I created the category that was linked to in the Article Talk Pages section. Category:WikiProject Schools Articles Foxjwill 19:23, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Disambiguation pages

I've created a Template:Schooldis and began adding it to a few disambiguation pages relating to schools. Any feedback? — May. 10, '06 [07:08] <freakofnurxture|talk>


School article in drastic need of help

Booker Arts and Science Magent Elementary School For starters, I didn't even tag with cleanup or remove the obviously un-WP edits such as "This page last updated" etc. - apologies, I am simply too buried. However, this article is in serious need of assistance. I bring it to you, hoping someone in the project will have time to at least do a little triage. KillerChihuahua?!? 01:52, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

North Atlanta High School

On this school's article, someone has been adding a "Critics of the Performing Arts Removal" section. I removed it once [2], then a week later the person left me an angry message on my talk page [3] and readded the section [4]. I think that this is a totally POV section, it's poorly written, and it has no place in the school's article. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Metros232 13:43, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Guidelines for Notable Alumni

I started my high school's article (Lake Brantley High School) and though it's currently a mess, it's been successful as judged by number of edits, etc. One of the troubling aspects is the random entries in the Notable Students/Alumni section. There are some definite notable alumni--albeit only from the entertainment industries--but there are others who are not terribly notable. Are there guidelines for who goes into a "Notable Alumni" section? Do a "young rapper of the year" (redlink), a former NFL player (nolink) or an actor with two appearances in his IMDB profile (questionable wikilink) count? Do other school pages have this problem? Rolando 14:41, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

I think the rule is, include them if they have an article, or if they meet WP:BIO requirements. Also, they should only be included if you can cite a source for them. An NFL player should qualify, but a "young rapper of the year" sounds dubious (unless there's more to them). Also, you'll find the the rules generally range, depending on the size of the list. You should be truly famous to be on Hollywood High School, but you can be barely famous for schools that wouldn't have anybody without you. I think, however, simply demanding a good reliable source for the names (proving they went to the school), usually filters out the excess names. --Rob 17:47, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Picture sizes in templates

I added a infobox to the R. A. Long High School article, but the picture seems overpower teh article text. Is there a method for reducing the image size inside the infobox? Thanks, --TeaDrinker 21:52, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Alas, no. The template forces the image to be displayed 300 pixels wide, and the height will be scaled by the same factor (almost exactly 1:1 in this particular case). RossPatterson 20:17, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Help!

We have a problem with the article about the Seattle high school named after President Garfield. Familiarity with the school is not needed to help out here as all the information is laid out on the talk page. Two things are not clear:

  1. What the official name of the school is.
  2. What the article title should be.

Please read the section linked to and give an opinion.—WAvegetarian•(talk) 05:56, 29 May 2006 (UTC)


FAC Candidate

The Royal Grammar School Worcester page is currently a FAC. I would welcome any input and comments you all have on the article. --Wisden17 23:03, 31 May 2006 (UTC)