George Washington High School (San Francisco)

George Washington High School opened on August 4, 1936 to serve as a secondary school for the people of San Francisco’s Richmond District. The school was built on a budget of $8,000,000, on a site overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. The stadium, auditorium, and gymnasium were added in 1940. The school was formally dedicated on Armistice Day 1940.

The lobby is decorated with murals by Victor Arnautoff titled Life of Washington that were commissioned by the Works Progress Administration in 1936 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal projects for public buildings. A student of Diego Rivera, Arnautoff made the murals in the "buon fresco" style, depicting scenes from the life of George Washington. Intended to teach students about the realities of history, the murals include representations of Black slaves and white indentured servants on Washington's estate. Another mural criticizes the notion of Manifest Destiny and has been criticized for its allegorical depiction of a prostrate Native American. In June 2019, the school board voted to remove the murals.[4]

In 1981 the Pacific News Service aired a story about race-based gangs at George Washington High School.[5]

In season five, episode five (1976) of the TV series The Streets of San Francisco, Maureen McCormick plays a teenage hooker attending the school. Two scenes show the school and its view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

2020-2021[6]

According to U.S. News & World Report, 92% of Washington's student body is "of color," with 62% of the student body coming from an economically disadvantaged household, determined by student eligibility for California's reduced-price meal program.[7]

A. E. Lubamersky Industrial Arts Center

600 32nd Ave, San Francisco, California

George Washington High School's campus is located kitty-corner to Presidio Middle School, also a public school.

Facilities include:

• 3-story academic building
• 2-story shop building
• Auditorium/Theater
• Computer Labs
• Library
• Gymnasium
• Track and field
• 2 Batting cages
• Front Toss cage
• Bullpen
• American football field/Soccer Field
• Soccer/multipurpose field
• 6 tennis courts
• 3 full-sized basketball courts
• 1 half-sized basketball court

In 2011, Newsweek ranked George Washington as the 497th best high school in America. The curriculum includes a variety of advanced Visual Performing Arts classes including: Dance Company, Ceramics, Vocal Music, Band and Orchestra, Computer Art and AP Art and Design. There is a computer lab and a Computer Science pathway, plus courses in Robotics. Washington is one of only two San Francisco public high schools with a Marching Band, the other being Phillip & Sala Burton High School.

The school is a Newcomer Pathway school that serves recently arrived students from all over the world, primarily from those from China and Latin America. There is also an extensive program for special needs students who comprise about 10% of the student population.

The George Washington High athletic program is governed by the Academic Athletic Association (AAA) and is sanctioned by the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF).

George Washington High School supports 20 varsity, 7 junior varsity, and frosh-soph programs. It is the only San Francisco public high school with Girls and Boys Lacrosse teams.

Sports offered include Cross Country, Tennis Girls, Football, Soccer Boys, Volleyball Boys, Golf Girls, Volleyball Girls, Wrestling, Swimming, Badminton, Baseball, Fencing, Softball, Basketball, Boys Lacrosse, Girls Lacrosse, Golf Boys, Tennis Boys, Soccer Girls, Track & Field, and as Cheerleading.

The Washington Hymn is the official song of George Washington High School. It was written by student Tillie Miesles, class of 1937.[9]

Senior graduation, 2005, with familiar view of Golden Gate Bridge

Senior graduation, 2006

• Diane Amos, Pine-Sol lady[10]
• Maya Angelou, author and poet, awarded the Spingarn Medal, the National Medal of Arts, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Marty Balin, former lead singer of the Jefferson Starship
• Josiah Beeman, US Ambassador[11]
• Gene Brown, basketball player
• Mack Burton, former Canadian football player
• Phillip Burton, Congressman[12]
• Rosemary Casals, professional tennis player[13]
• Ann Curtis, Three time USA swimming medalist, 1948 Summer Olympics, winning two Golds in the 400 meter freestyle & 4 X 100 freestyle relay, and a Silver in the 100 meter freestyle
• Dorothy Delasin, golfer[14]
• Keith Fowler, actor, director, producer, educator
• Danny Glover, actor
• Ross Giudice, basketball player & coach
• Steve Gray, basketball player
• Richard Hongisto, politician[15]
• Serhiy Kandaurov, footballer
• Leo Krupnik (born 1979), Ukrainian-born American-Israeli former soccer player and current soccer coach
• Rachel Kushner, writer, novelist
• Amanda Lassiter, basketball player in the WNBA[16]
• Marcio Lassiter, basketball player in the Philippines[17]
• Gilman Louie, technologist
• Richard Lui, news anchor for MSNBC
• Alec Mapa, writer, comedian and actor
• Hal March, 1950s television personality
• Del Martin, lesbian activist
• Johnny Mathis, singer, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award[18]
• Ollie Matson, member of College and Pro Football Halls of Fame, Olympic gold and bronze medalist[19]
• Sean McGrath, musician, artist
• Lee Meriwether, model, actress, and Miss America[20]
• Nathan Oliveira, artist[21]
• Betty Ong, flight attendant on 9/11 jet American Airlines Flight 11[22]
• San Quinn, rap artist
• John Rothmann, talk radio host[23]
• Jim Sochor, former college football head coach, UC Davis (1970-1988).[24][25]
• Phil Smith, NBA player[26]
• Gregg Turkington, comedian
• Paul Vixie, internet pioneer (sendmail, BIND and PAIX)
• Martin Wong, artist
• Al Young (dragster driver), world champion drag racer
• Connie Young Yu, writer, historian, lecturer

In June 2019 the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education voted to destroy 13 murals made in 1936 by Victor Arnautoff for the George Washington High School, a Works Progress Administration project funded through New Deal support for unemployed artists during the Great Depression.[27] The works have come under criticism for the realistic depiction of the African-American slaves and white indentured servants that George Washington had on his Mount Vernon estate.[28] Another mural, intended as a criticism of Manifest Destiny, depicts in an allegorical manner four pioneers who tread over and beside a dead Native American. In 1974 the school added three murals by artist Dewey Crumpler to assuage complaints and Crumpler argues that the students at that time issued an apology for failing to understand the meaning of the works and the devices used by Arnautoff to convey the realities of history.[29] The proposed destruction has received national attention.[30][31]

Preservation of the murals has garnered broad support.[32] The College Art Association has supported the murals, and an open letter demanding the preservation of the murals was signed by 400 prominent scholars and artists, including Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, T.J. Clark, Jodi Dean, Carol Duncan, Nancy Fraser, Hal Foster, Michael Fried, David Harvey, Andrew Hemingway, Fredric Jameson, Joyce Kozloff, Lucy Lippard, Walter Benn Michaels, Adolph Reed Jr., Martha Rosler, Anne M. Wagner, Allan Wallach as well as Rocco Landesman, former Chairman for the National Endowment for the Arts.[33] [34] San Francisco Heritage, a non-profit devoted to preserving the city's artistic and architectural legacy, proposed the school be designated a historic landmark on the basis of this and other features. [35] [36]

Alice Walker, whose daughter attended the school, suggested that explanations be added to provide context: “If you cover things up, the danger is that you will end up in the same place again, and you won’t even recognize it.”[37] Robert W. Cherny, an authority on the work of Arnautoff, argued at a 2018 SFUSD Board of Education meeting that Arnautoff was very consciously representing slavery and genocide in an effort to counter the storybook representations of Washington that students were taught in the 1930s. [38] The school's Alumni Association supports the murals, as do the majority of students. Among the other groups who defend the murals are the California College of the Arts, the San Francisco Art Institute, the United Public Workers for Action, the National New Deal Preservation Association, and the National Coalition Against Censorship.[39] On September 24, 2021, the San Francisco Superior Court determined that the SFUSD School Board had violated California environmental law and required that the School Board void its unlawful actions to destroy or cover over the historic Arnautoff murals.[40]

• San Francisco County high schools

• George Washington High School Online, School Website
• George Washington High School Alumni Association, Alumni Association Website
• WPA murals and sculpture at George Washington High School, from the New Deal Art Registry
• George Washington High School History Website George Washington High School