Franklin High School (Seattle, Washington)

This article is about Franklin High School in Washington state. For others of a similar name, see Franklin High School (disambiguation)

Franklin High School is an inner-city public high school in Seattle, USA, administered by Seattle Public Schools.

Mission statement

To graduate students who have achieved academic excellence and who look forward to sharing their expertise, understanding, and compassion to create an increasingly peaceful and productive society.

Academics

Franklin High School is home to over 1,300 "Quakers" who have the opportunity to learn with and from one another. As freshmen, each ninth grade student is randomly assigned to a team of teachers when entering Franklin High School. That team is composed of a Language Arts teacher, a World History teacher and a Physical Science teacher. Those three teachers share the same group of students and those students travel together as a class between those three classes. This structure makes a student's entry into Franklin more personal by giving students a common group of peers and a common group of teachers. Also the academy names include: the Grizzlies, the Thunderbirds, and the Ravens.

From the 10th grade on, Franklin has continued to develop small learning communities in which they have 4 academies—CREATE Academy, John Stanford Public Service Academy (PSA), Academy of Finance (AOF), and Humanities. Each academy specializes in a particular study with their own mission statement and required classes.

The John Stanford Public Service and Political Science Academy (PSA), founded in 2000, is a college preparatory small learning community (SLC) that offers students a rigorous 3 year academic program that meets and exceeds state standards for Language Arts and Social Studies. State standards in LA and Social Studies are overlaid with an emphasis on the role of the public sector in societies, past and present. PSA students are challenged to develop their critical thinking skills and to develop their own vision of the role that they and their government should take in confronting the opportunities and problems of their local, national, and international communities. The PSA combines Public Service and Political Science (the study of law, government and NGOs, history, political systems, etc.) in a way that empowers our students to make meaningful change in their communities.

The Humanities is also a college preparatory academy. The classes consist of integrated Language Arts and Social Studies classes with special emphasis on project based learning, the history of art and culture, and rigorous skills and content development. The Humanities program covers history through the lens of humanism starting in the Italian Renaissance and following through to modern times. A thorough discussion of the effect of western civilization on world history includes extensive primary and secondary source readings. Humanities students are challenged to think critically and analyze challenging texts.

The Academy of Finance is an integrated social studies and language arts program supported by the nationally recognized and represented National Academy Foundation. Students study world history and literature from the point of view of trade and economic development. By combining accounting, social studies, and language arts, the Academy of Finance develops skills needed in the business environment. Mastery of technology, knowledge of available resources, and good communication are prioritized.

The mission of the CREATE Academy is to bring students and faculty together in a 3-year small learning community. In the CREATE classes (math, language arts, and woodshop), the students and teachers as a community strive to relate these subjects to the different aspects of the building trades. Through this course of study our mission is to prepare students for both university studies and work in the trades by presenting a challenging integrated curriculum, as well as mentorship and internship opportunities in construction related fields. This mission of the members of our community is to work hard as a group and as individuals to be successful.

Notable alumni

Athletics

• Jason Terry - Shooting guard for the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. Terry also has his #31 retired at the school
• Aaron Brooks - Point guard for the NBA's Phoenix Suns.
• Jesse Chatman - Current NFL running back who is a free agent.
• Corey Dillon - Former running back for the New England Patriots. An All-State pick and All-Metro player of the year in football.
• Fred Hutchinson - MLB pitcher and manager who the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute was named after, a year after his death from cancer.
• Trent Johnson - Head coach of the LSU Tigers basketball team, formerly with Stanford and Nevada.
• Terry Metcalf - Former running back for the St. Louis Cardinals.
• Ron Santo - Former Chicago Cubs third baseman. He won five Gold Gloves and was named one of the all-time top ten athletes from Seattle by Sports Illustrated. He managed to achieve this while being diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 20.
• Brice Taylor - First All-American football player at USC. Taylor was born without a left hand and was orphaned at age 5, making his All-American pick most remarkable.
• Mario Bailey - Football standout at University of Washington and drafted by the Houston Oilers.
• Rick Noji - Qualified for the 1984 US Olympic Trials while a 16-year old junior at Franklin in the high jump, jumping 7-4½ (2.25m) at the Seattle Metro League Championships in May 1984, a mark which is still the Washington state all-time best. Was a member of the track and field team at the University of Washington from 1986-90. Noji, elected to the University of Washington Husky Hall of Fame in 1999, was a six-time All-American; he won the 1990 Pac-10 title and finished third in the 1990 NCAA championships; also competed in three IAAF World Championships (Tokyo 1991, Stuttgart 1993 & Goteborg 1995) and four U.S. Olympic Trials (Los Angeles 1984, Indianapolis 1988, New Orleans 1992, Atlanta 1996). Noji's career as a world class high jumper was even more remarkable, as he only stood 5-8 (1.73m). Noji's personal best was 7-7 (2.31m), set in 1992, giving him a height-over-head differential of 23 inches (58 cm), the second best all time, behind only Franklin Jacobs' and Stefan Holm's 23¼ inches (59 cm).
• Ryan Phillips - Current CFL defensive back of the BC Lions.

Performing arts

• Kenny G - Jazz musician. As of 2003, Kenny G was named the 25th-highest selling artist in America by the RIAA, with 48 million albums sold in the USA. In 1994, Kenny G won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for Forever in Love. He also has a substantial worldwide following. He jokes that it was in Franklin that he had his first sax solo and his first kiss and it is hard to decide which was more important.
• Amy Hill - Actress
• John Keister - Comedian, writer, commentator and motivational speaker
• Dave Lewis - Key figure in the creation of the Northwest sound in the rock'n'roll years; popularized Louie Louie and played a key role in desegregating the Seattle music scene.
• Mark Morris - Critically acclaimed modern American dancer, choreographer and director, he founded the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1980; was Director of Dance at Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Belgium's national opera house, for three years beginning in 1988; and co-founded the White Oak Dance Project in 1990. He continues to be highly prolific, choreographing dances for his own company and directing productions for companies like the Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, and the Royal Opera House. He has created seven works for the San Francisco Ballet since 1994 plus received commissions from many others. His work is also in the repertory of Pacific Northwest Ballet and he will choreograph a new work for them in 2012. Morris is noted for his musicality and has been described as “undeviating in his devotion to music.” In 1991, he was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation. He has received eleven honorary doctorates to date. In 2010, he received the prestigious Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society.
• Total Experience Gospel Choir - Founded at Franklin in 1973, still active as of 2008, probably Seattle's best-known gospel group
• The Franklin High School Bel Canto Choir undertook a European tour in 1966 when on the Scottish leg of their tour they were welcomed by members of the choir of the former Hamilton Academy, Scotland, which choir reciprocated by touring North America in 1968, where it was greeted at Seattle airport, and the Academy's musical director and members of the choir were granted honorary citizenship of Washington State. The Hamilton Academy choir sang at Seattle Opera House with colleagues and hosts, the Franklin High School Choir. In 1969, 110 members of Franklin High School's Bel Canto choir returned for a month long series of engagements in Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales and were greeted on arrival at Glasgow Central Rail Station by a 200-strong welcoming party from Hamilton Academy, whose choir joined with the Franklin High School choir for performances in Belfast and Dublin. In October 2009, members of Franklin High School's Bel Canto choir who had undertaken the choir's original European tour of 1966 came together in Seattle in a reunion, the city's mayor, Greg Nickels, declaring 11 October 2009, "Bel Canto Day" in honor of Dr. Richard Kohler, director, and those who participated in that choir's European tour of 1966, "Seattle's ambassadors to the world.." ^[1][2][3][4]

Others

• Royal Brougham - Journalist, news editor, and philanthropist. As an editor for the student paper in 1920, he suggested the school's teams be named "Quakers".
• Ron Chew - Community organizer and historian.
• Larry Gossett - Politician. He was arrested for unlawful assembly during a March 29 sit-in at Franklin High School.^[5]
• George Herbert Hitchings - American chemist. He shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering important principles in drug treatment leading to new drugs to treat diseases which include leukemia, malaria, herpes virus infections, and gout.
• Gary Locke - 1982 chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the Washington House of Representatives who, in 1993, became the first Chinese American to be elected King County's County Executive. In 1996, he won the race for governor of the state of Washington, making him the first Chinese American head of government in all of the United States. He was reelected in 2000 and in 2003, he was selected to give the response to George W. Bush's state of the Union address on behalf of the Democrats. Current U.S. Secretary of Commerce. President Obama intends to nominate Locke as his next Ambassador to China.
• Scott Oki - Former senior vice-president of sales and marketing for Microsoft who conceived and built Microsoft's international operations. In five years as vice president, he increased company sales tenfold. He now owns a non-profit organization known as the Oki Foundation.
• Franklin Raines - Associate director for economics and government in the Office of Management and Budget and assistant director of the White House Domestic Policy Staff from 1977 to 1979. He then worked eleven years and became a partner at Lazard Freres and Co. In 1991, he became Fannie Mae's Vice Chairman, a post he left in 1996 in order to join the Clinton Administration as the Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. In 1999, he returned to Fannie Mae as CEO, one of just a few African American CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.
• Victor Steinbrueck - An architect who did most of the design for the Space Needle. In 1960, he also successfully fought to save the more significant historical landmarks of Seattle, including the Pike Place Market. November 2 is Steinbrueck Day in Seattle.
• Edwin M. Lee - Current Mayor of San Francisco.

History and Facilities

Franklin High School was Seattle's second purpose-built high school after Seattle High School. It first opened its doors in September 1912. Designed by architect Edgar Blair in a neo-Classical style, it was constructed of reinforced concrete and sited on 2.2 acres. Expansions in 1925 by School District Architect Floyd Naramore saw the site expanded to 10.6 acres, in 1942 to 12.7 acres, and in 1958 with a major addition by architect John W. Maloney that obscured the front facade of the building. ^[6]

In 1986 the Seattle School Board voted to tear down the building, in part due to the cost of required seismic upgrades, which resulted in major protests by students, alumni, and the public. The Seattle's Landmarks Preservation Board designated the school as an official landmark which prevented its demolition.^[6][7]

As part of a major renovation by Bassetti Architects in 1988-90, the 1958 addition was demolished, the school was seismically upgraded and historically restored. New additions and renovations included a new student commons, classrooms and science labs, art studios, vocational tech labs, an auditorium and stage, and a media center. Awards for this renovation included the 2001 Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, Award of Merit; 1991 AIA Seattle, Award of Commendation; and 1991 Association of King County Historical Organization, Project Award. ^[8]

In 1990

References

External links

• Franklin High School
• GreatSchools.net
• "Franklin" in Thompson, Nile; Marr, Carolyn (2002), Building for learning - Seattle Public Schools Histories, 1862–2000, Seattle: Seattle Public Schools, http://www.seattleschools.org/area/historybook/index.dxml . Apparently no ISBN. Available online as a series of PDFs.
• List_of_landmarks_in_Seattle
• AIA Seattle Honor Awards