John Adams High School (Queens)

John Adams High School (H.S. 480; often referred to locally as John Adams) is a public high school in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, New York City. John Adams High School, Samuel J. Tilden High School, Abraham Lincoln High School, Bayside High School, and Grover Cleveland High School were all built during the Great Depression from one set of blueprints, in order to save money. Although John Adams was built 2 years before the Great Depression began.

Facilities

John Adams High School in June 2008.

John Adams has three floors and a basement. The basement contains the cafeteria, locker rooms, weight-training room, a swimming pool, and numerous classrooms. The campus of John Adams is roughly six by three city blocks, with baseball, tennis, track, and football fields behind the school. The school also has three gymnasiums. There is also a library, an auditorium, a Virtual Enterprise Room which is a simulated business class, and several computer and science labs throughout all three floors.

Academics

SourceL^[2]

• Grade levels: 9 to 12
• Enrollment: 2734
• Free lunch: 75.5%
• Ethnicity:
  • 4% White 28% Black 37% Hispanic 28% Asian/Pacific Islander.
• Gender %: 52.8 Male, 47.2 Female
• Attendance: 79.9%
• Graduation rate: 53.6%.
• 6-year graduation rate: 67.2% as of 2009-2010.
• College enrollment: 42.8%
• Current School Grade: John Adams recently received a [D] from the Board of Education. - 2009-2010.^[3]

Special programs

• The school offers specialized programs in vision care as well as medical and dental technology.
• Taking single sessions of math and English also frees up more time for students to enjoy electives and Advanced Placement courses.
• The school offers College Now, a program run by CUNY offering accredited college courses on site at the high school.
• The school has "collaborative team teaching" (CTT) classes, where two teachers work with a group of special- and general education students. (Laura Zingmond, October 2005)
• All incoming freshman may take classes the summer before and after the 9th grade, which means that they can start the 10th grade with as many as 19 of the 44 credits required for graduation.
• For older students who are at risk of dropping out, there is the PM program—an afternoon session designed to deliver instruction of core subjects in a single classroom environment.
• The school offers day and nighttime GED (General Equivalency Diploma) programs and vocational training. Vocational training is handled off-site.
• The school offers special ed for those with learning challenges.

Notable people

Alumni

• Eddie Buczynski, prominent Wiccan and gay activist. He attended from 1962 till dropping out in 1964, largely because of the bullying that he had faced at the school.^[4]
• Jimmy Breslin, acclaimed columnist for the New York Herald Tribune, the Daily News, the New York Journal American, Newsday, and other venues and author of numerous books. He is also the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
• Steve Cangialosi, play-by-play voice of the New Jersey Devils on MSG Plus and the New York Red Bulls on the MSG Network.^[5]

• Mortimer Caplin, Internal Revenue Service commissioner, law professor and tax attorney
• William N. D'Onofrio, CPA corporate executive and consultant.
• Keith Gottfried, former General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and a senior official in the administration of President George W. Bush, is a 1983 graduate and the former Editor-in-Chief of the school's newspaper, The Campus.
• Jack Lord (John Joseph Patrick Ryan), American actor, director and the star of the long-running TV show "Hawaii Five-O," (the original version from the 1960s) .
• Richard (Dick) Parsons, International business leader, former CEO of Time-Warner, Citi-Bank, General-Consul to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, Presidential Advisor.
• Bernadette Peters, American actress
• Jason Wingreen, American actor who was the original voice of Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back.
• Joseph Wiseman, American actor.
• Jackie Gleason, American actor.
• Nick Santamaria, Mike Mincelli and Vinnie Narcardo, founding members of The Capris vocal group. Their most famous Doo Wop recording was There's A Moon Out Tonght.

Former teachers

• Lenny Schultz, acclaimed television comedian and stand-up comic who taught physical education at John Adams High School while at the same time appearing on television shows such as the Tonight Show, Late Night With David Letterman, the Merv Griffin Show, NBC's Laugh-In (TV series) (1977), Blansky's Beauties (TV series) (1977), Ball Four (TV series) (1976), The Pink Panther Laugh and a Half Hour and a Half Show (TV series) (1976-1977), and Drawing Power (a kid's Saturday morning TV series) (1980)
• Bob Sheppard, New York Yankees announcer (English teacher and Chairman of the Speech Dept.)

See also

• List of high schools in New York City
• List of school districts in New York

References

External links

• John Adams High School at schools.nyc.gov

Coordinates: 40°40′44″N 73°50′13″W / 40.67889°N 73.83694°W / 40.67889; -73.83694