Lowell High School (San Francisco)

History

1853–1893

In 1853, Colonel Thomas J. Nevins, San Francisco's first superintendent of schools, raised the idea of a free high school for boys and a seminary for girls. It took three years for Nevins to persuade the Board of Education, and a resolution was passed on July 10, 1856, to establish a San Francisco High School and Ladies' Seminary. Six days later, however, the resolution was rescinded on the grounds that a high school could not legally be part of the San Francisco Common Schools. A name change from the proposed San Francisco High School and Ladies' Seminary to the Union Grammar School appeased those who had opposed the creation of a high school.

The Union Grammar School first opened on August 25, 1856, in rented quarters at the Wesleyan Methodist Church on Powell Street, between Clay and Sacramento. In 1860, the church was purchased and reconstructed as a school at the same location. The new two-story school building had four classrooms, an assembly room, and two rooms for gymnastics exercises and calisthenics. Dedication ceremonies for the new structure took place on September 19, 1860. The school in the new building was already referred to as San Francisco High School because it was generally recognized that the course of study was on the secondary level.

In May 1864, the Board of Education decided to form separate schools for boys and girls. Boys remained at the same campus at the Boys' High School, while girls were moved to their own school at Bush and Stockton streets (Girls' High School), where they would remain until the return of coeducation (in practice) in the 1880s.

1894–1962

In 1894, because the name Boys' High School was not in accord with the growing number of girls taking its college-preparatory classes, the school was renamed to honor the distinguished poet James Russell Lowell, chiefly through the efforts of Pelham W. Ames, a member of the school board.

The school relocated in January 1913 to an entire block on Hayes Street between Ashbury and Masonic. Lowell remained there for 50 years as the city's college preparatory high school. In 1952, the school sought a new location near Lake Merced and moved there (its present address) in 1962.

1963 and after

Until 1988, the Lowell mascot was the Indian. In 1988, School Superintendent Ramon Cortines ordered that the name be changed to something less offensive. Lowell was selected as one of the 44 San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) schools considered for renaming in 2020. The school's selection, by a committee formed by the San Francisco Board of Education, was due to James Russell Lowell's documented racist views. Opponents have said that evidence for Lowell's anti-war beliefs and abolitionist views far outweigh the negatives, citing his lasting influence on Martin Luther King Jr. and within the NAACP.

Lowell was the first SFUSD school to be temporarily closed during the COVID-19 pandemic in San Francisco due to a report of respiratory illness by a student's family member in March 2020.

The 2021 documentary film Try Harder! profiled Lowell students as they went through the college admission process.

In April 2022, Principal Joe Ryan Dominguez submitted his letter of resignation, which would go into effect at the end of the school year.

Campus

Situated on the West Side of the city, the school spans several blocks bounded by Eucalyptus Drive to the north, 25th Avenue to the east, Winston Drive to the south, and Lake Merced Boulevard and Meadowbrook Drive to the west. Lowell is located south of Parkmerced and the Parkside district, west of Stonestown Galleria, north of San Francisco State University, northeast of Lake Merced, and east of Lakeshore Elementary School, a public school, and St. Stephen School, a private K–8 school. Lowell is accessible via the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) K, M, 18, 23, 28, 28R, 29, 57, and 58 lines.

The campus of what was called the New Lowell High School was opened in the early 1960s and replaced the old brick campus building on Masonic Street that is still used by the district for offices and an adult school. The "new" Lowell campus itself consists of a main three-story academic building with two extensions, the easternmost extension being a single-story science building, which was rebuilt and reopened on September 21, 2003, after the original building from the early 1960s was demolished because the labs were antiquated. The second extension consists of a single-story free-standing building that replaced temporary classrooms.

The original single-story visual and performing arts building is the westernmost extension of the main campus and remains with the 1,000-seat Carol Channing auditorium, named for the famous actress who was an alumna. The main entrance to the theater and the school is below street level on Eucalyptus Drive.

The campus includes a library, arts and music classrooms, six computer labs, a foreign language lab, an indoor gymnasium, men's and women's locker rooms, a dance studio, a weight room, an American football field, a soccer/multipurpose field and baseball batting cage, ten tennis courts, eight basketball courts, four volleyball courts, and a 1/4 mi all-weather running track. The campus has two parking lots, one for students and the other for faculty. There is also a central courtyard inside the school.

There is an ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corp) facility built into the hill and located below the theater, accessed by a stairway down from the arts wing. The ROTC facility at one time included a rifle range where cadets practiced marksmanship with live ammunition.

Academics and class structure

Academics

Lowell High School historically has test scores ranking among the Top 10 Public Schools in California, including Gretchen Whitney High School and Oxford Academy. Lowell has been named a California Distinguished School seven times and a National Blue Ribbon School four times.{{cite web

Students have the opportunity to choose from a large number of Advanced Placement courses. Lowell has a graduation rate of nearly 100%, and it is the largest feeder school to the University of California system, particularly to the Berkeley and Davis campuses.

Arena scheduling system

Lowell used an "arena" class scheduling system, up until 2020, in which students were given a time slot and directed to a website to choose their classes.

While scheduling classes for the 2006 spring semester, one of the students who had volunteered to assist the running of arena was caught abusing the scheduling system to use early scheduling privileges, granted to volunteers by the administration, to let friends schedule before others. Five of six department chairs and dozens of teachers at Lowell called to eliminate arena scheduling and to replace it with computerized scheduling used in all other SFUSD schools. Critics characterized arena scheduling as an antiquated and inefficient system, and creates weeks of unnecessary work for teachers and counselors.

Proponents of the arena argued that the system can prepare students for a similar selecting of courses in college.

After a student forum, committee meetings, several student petitions, and final deliberation by then-principal Paul Cheng and the administration, it was decided that arena would remain in place, with the modifications of the abolishment of early scheduling for Shield and Scroll and "mini arena," which allowed people with incomplete schedules another chance to complete them by opening up all the classes again with a few slots.

Under pressure from faculty and students, in 2013, the Lowell administration decided on an "online arena". In 2012, the Lowell administration began preliminary testing by requiring students to submit their proposed classes for the next school year through an online form, designed and maintained by a few students from the computer programming classes.

During the pandemic, Lowell's arena system was finally terminated and has remained that way since.

Admissions

Lowell is the only high school in the San Francisco Unified School District that was permitted to admit only students who met special admission requirements. The Lowell admission process was competitive and based on a combination of standardized test scores, GPA, a writing sample, and extracurricular activities.

''San Francisco NAACP v. San Francisco Unified School District'' (1980s)

In 1983, the SFUSD attempted to ensure racial desegregation at Lowell and other schools by implementing a race-based admissions policy as a result of San Francisco NAACP v. San Francisco Unified School District and the 1983 Consent Decree settlement.

The demographics began to disproportionately impact Chinese Americans in the 80s and 90s. As a result of this policy, effective in 1985, Chinese-American freshman applicants needed to score 62 out of a possible total of 69 eligibility points; Caucasian and other East Asian candidates needed only 58 points, and others needed fewer points.

''Ho v. San Francisco Unified School District'' (1990s)

Main article: Ho v. San Francisco Unified School District

In 1994, a group of Chinese-American community activists organized a lawsuit to challenge the 1983 Consent Decree race-based admissions policies used by SFUSD for its public schools. The lawsuit was led by Lowell alum Lee Cheng. In 1999, both parties agreed to a settlement that modified the 1983 Consent Decree to create a new "diversity index" system which substituted race as a factor for admissions with a variety of factors such as socioeconomic background, mother's educational level, academic achievement, language spoken at home, and English Learner Status.

Critics of the diversity index created by Ho v. San Francisco Unified School District point out that many schools, including Lowell, have become even less racially diverse since it was enacted.

On November 15, 2005, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California denied a request to extend the Consent Decree, which was set to expire on December 31, 2005, after it had been extended once before to December 31, 2002. The ruling claimed "since the settlement of the Ho litigation [resulting in the institution of the "diversity index"], the consent decree has proven to be ineffective, if not counterproductive, in achieving diversity in San Francisco public schools" by making schools more racially segregated.

Lottery-based admissions

On October 20, 2020, the Board of Education voted unanimously to base 2021 freshman admittance to Lowell on a lottery rather than academic performance. Like other high schools in the district with lottery systems, priority would be given to applicants from census tracts with lower test scores, those with siblings at the school, and those who attended Willie L. Brown Jr. Middle School. On February 9, 2021, the Board, in a 5–2 vote, made that change to a lottery-based system permanent, citing "pervasive systemic racism" and the school's lack of diversity as reasons. Christine Linnenbach and Lee Cheng, attorneys and Lowell alumni (class of 1989), founded the Friends of Lowell Foundation to contest the policy. On March 8, Linnenbach filed a Cure and Correct letter challenging the Board of Education's adoption of lottery admissions.

The SFUSD did not rescind the vote, and the Friends of Lowell Foundation, Lowell Alumni Association, SF Taxpayers Association, and the Asian American Legal Foundation filed a complaint in the San Francisco Superior Court alleging that the SFUSD had violated the Ralph M. Brown Act when the Board of Education adopted lottery admissions. The school board had voted to make lottery admissions permanent; however, in November, Judge Ethan P. Schulman granted the petition challenging lawfulness of the adoption of lottery admissions and overturned that vote. The next month, the school board voted to extend the lottery system for one year, through 2022.

During the 2021–22 school year, the first in which the lottery system was in effect, 24% of freshmen students reported D or F grades, compared to 8% of freshmen from the previous academic year. Constituents petitioned for a recall election against three School Board Commissioners on February 15, 2022, who were ousted by voters in a landslide. Their replacements were named by Mayor London Breed. On June 22, despite SFUSD Superintendent Vincent Matthews recommending an extension of the lottery system, the Board opted to restore merit-based admissions for the 2023–24 school year in a 4–3 vote.

Current application process

After reverting to a merit-based system, the old admissions process using a bespoke entrance exam was considered outdated and was ruled incompatible with the California education codes. Starting in January 2025, the district decided to refer to a student's grade point average and standardized test scores (the district uses STAR exams).

Demographics

2021–2022, a survey of 2,652 students.

2008–2009 faculty demographics:

• 147 certified staff; 49.6% male, 50.4% female.

Student activities

Mock Trial

The Mock Trial team represented San Francisco County at the State Competitions in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2012, 2014, and 2016. In 2007, 2012, and 2014; they finished in the top ten at the State Finals. In 2014, the Lowell High School Mock Trial team placed 6th at the Empire Mock Trial San Francisco International Competition and in both 2015 and 2017, they won 1st place, beating out 21 teams.

Lowell Forensic Society

The Lowell Forensic Society, founded in 1892, is one of the oldest high school speech and debate teams in the nation and the largest student organization on campus, with over 200 members. The team travels regularly to prestigious national invitationals, including Harvard, UC Berkeley, Stanford, CSU Long Beach, and the Tournament of Champions in Kentucky. Lowell Forensics has also competed in the National Speech and Debate Tournament under the National Forensic League for 40 years.

''The Lowell''

The student-run publication, The Lowell, has won the CSPA Gold and Silver Crown awards, the NSPA Pacemaker (1993, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2012) and the Northern California Society for Professional Journalists' James Madison Award, in recognition of their 2006–2007 school year battle to protect free speech. The Lowell received the All-American ranking, with five marks of distinction, from the NSPA, the highest award.

CardinalBotics

The Lowell Robotics team, CardinalBotics, which first competed in 2012, is a FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team. In both 2021 and 2022, they won the Chairman's Award (now FIRST Impact Award), the most prestigious award in FRC, for promoting STEM among local youth and supporting the San Francisco Bay Area robotics community. CardinalBotics were regional finalists in 2013, 2018, and 2019. The team also won the Rookie All Star Award in 2012, the Judges Award in 2014, the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award in 2014, 2016, and 2024, the Game Design Challenge Finalist award in 2021, and two Gracious Professionalism Awards in 2023. In 2013, the team's founder won the FIRST Dean's List Award on the National Level, and in 2021 another member won the FIRST Dean's List Finalist Award. CardinalBotics attempts to encourage more students, especially women and minority students, to pursue STEM college majors and careers. The team also supports local LGBTQ youth through events such as their pride month t-shirt fundraiser.

Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC)

Lowell has an Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps battalion consisting of nine special competition units (Drum Corps, Exhibition Drill Teams (boys and girls), Color Guard, Drill Platoon, Brigade Best Squad, Lowell Raider Challenge Team, Academic Bowl, and the Lowell Leadership Symposium Team) and 5 companies (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Foxtrot). Echo was disbanded in 2018, then restored in 2022.

The Lowell Cadet Corps was founded in 1882 and later became known as Lowell Army JROTC when it adopted the national JROTC curriculum. A photo of the Lowell Battalion's former rifle range, now converted into a classroom and indoor drill facility, was featured in the Army JROTC Cadet Reference Second Edition. William "Bill" Hewlett was the Lowell Army JROTC Battalion Commander in the 1929–1930 school year.

Every fall, the Lowell Drill Platoon, Color Guard, Best Guidon Bearer, and Brigade Best Squad compete in the Annual Fall Liberty Bell Competition. In addition, every spring, Lowell's Exhibition Drill Teams, Flag Drill Teams, and Drum Corps participate in the Spring 91st Infantry Memorial Drill Competition. The Lowell Raider Challenge Team also competes in the San Francisco JROTC Brigade Raider Challenge, which consists of a physical fitness test, first aid obstacle course, land navigation, and a three kilometer run. Academic Bowl competes in two online competitions over the school year and a national competition in June in Washington, D.C.

Those who join JROTC will not be recruited into the army. The program offers leadership and team working opportunities through lessons related to first aid, money management, problem solving, and map reading. The program's motto is "to motivate young people to be better citizens."

Athletics

Lowell has competitive football, cross-country, soccer, tennis, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, badminton, dragonboat, softball, swimming, track and field, fencing, flag football, golf, cheerleading, and baseball teams.

In 2004, Lowell's Boys Varsity Basketball team won its first AAA Championship since 1952. Following a runner-up finish in 2005, the 2006 squad went undefeated in league play and finished with a 30–3 record and a city championship. The 2007 squad also won the championships, while the 2008 squad finished high in the playoffs. The 2009 team once again won the 2009 AAA championships over Lincoln. The basketball, soccer, and football teams engage in an annual rivalry with Washington High School in a game commonly known to those in the city as the "Battle of the Birds" game, named after the teams' cardinal and eagle mascots.

Lowell's Varsity Baseball team, led by coach John Donohue, won eight of ten championships from 1994 to 2004 while posting a regular season record of 185 wins and only 11 losses during that span. Coach Donohue won his 300th AAA league game on March 7, 2003, and tallied his 450th win overall just two weeks later on March 21, 2003.

In 2004, Lowell's track and field and cross-country teams won the city championship in all four divisions for the seventh year in a row. The cross country team recently swept all three divisions at the city finals in Golden Gate Park, marking Lowell's 26th overall championship win in a row.

Lowell's Girls' Varsity Volleyball team has dominated the sport since its creation with the most city championships amongst other San Francisco public schools, and from November 1996 to November 2008, went on a record streak of 13 consecutive volleyball city championships. The girls' junior varsity volleyball team also owns 15 of the 18 city titles (as of November 2010). In November 2019, the girls' varsity volleyball team won the CIF State Division 3 Championship.

, Lowell's Varsity Girls' Soccer has won the AAA Championship title for the past 21 years in a row.

Notable alumni

Main article: List of Lowell High School (San Francisco) alumni

References

References

1. "Lowell High". National Center for Education Statistics.
2. (2021). "Lowell High School".
3. "Applying to Lowell High School {{!}} SFUSD".
4. Medina, Madilynne. "2 prestigious San Francisco schools may change admissions criteria". SFGATE.
5. Mojadad, Ida. (2021-02-09). "School board votes 5-2 to end selective admissions policy at Lowell".
6. (2022-06-23). "San Francisco School Board Votes to Return Elite High School to Merit-Based Admissions".
7. staff, EdSource. "UPDATE: Freshmen received more Ds and Fs at SF's elite Lowell High after switch to admissions lottery".
8. (1989). "History of the oldest public high school in California: Lowell High School, San Francisco". Lowell Alumni Association}}, which quotes {{cite book.
9. (May 26, 2012). "Lowell Class of '62 reclaims building for reunion". San Francisco Chronicle.
10. Miller, Johnny. (2013-12-06). "S.F. schools boss orders Lowell High mascot change".
11. Tucker, Jill. (2021-01-28). "Here's what you need to know about the San Francisco school renaming vote and what comes next".
12. Wymer, Rae. "Lowell's potential renaming draws continued debate after Board announces extension for submitting new names".
13. (2020-03-11). "SFUSD To Close Lakeshore Elementary Immediately As 4 Students Report Respiratory Illness". [[CBS]].
14. Tucker, Jill. (April 13, 2022). "Principal at elite Lowell High School resigns, slamming SFUSD in farewell letter". San Francisco Chronicle.
15. "Lakeshore Alternative Elementary School | SFUSD".
16. "The official website of the Lowell Alumni Association".
17. "Blue Ribbon Schools Program: Schools Recognized 1982-1983 Through 1999-2002". [[United States Department of Education]].
18. San Francisco Unified School District. "Lowell High School School Description". ColdFusion.
19. [http://www.lowellalumni.org/article_blueribbon.shtml Lowell High School wins third Blue Ribbon.] {{webarchive. link. (2006-02-23 From the Lowell Alumni Association.)
20. "Search Best High Schools - US News".
21. [http://www.thelowell.org/content/view/1521/28/ Honor society causes scheduling inequity.] {{webarchive. link. (2007-09-27 From ''The Lowell''.)
22. [http://www.thelowell.org/content/view/1665/29/ Shield and Scroll must maintain high moral standards.] {{webarchive. link. (2006-08-19 From ''The Lowell''.)
23. [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/04/BAGVIHIKD71.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea Class scheduling methods put Lowell High in a tizzy.] From the ''San Francisco Chronicle''.
24. [http://www.thelowell.org/content/view/1562/29/ Self-scheduling is fundamental to Lowell.] {{webarchive. link. (2007-09-27 From ''The Lowell''.)
25. [http://thelowell.org/2013/05/29/shift-to-online-self-scheduling-a-success Shift to online self-scheduling a success.] From ''The Lowell''.
26. San Francisco Unified School District. "Lowell High School Enrollment Information for 2008-09". ColdFusion.
27. "Facing Our Past, Changing Our Future, Part II: Five Decades of Desegregation in SFUSD (1971-today) {{!}} SFUSD".
28. Woo, Elaine. (13 July 1995). "COLUMN ONE : Caught on the Wrong Side of the Line? : Chinese Americans must outscore all other groups to enter elite Lowell High in San Francisco, sparking an ugly battle over diversity and the image of a 'model minority.'". Los Angeles times.
29. Har, Janie. (27 August 2018). "Race-based school criteria roils Asian-Americans - again". Washington Post.
30. The United States District Court of the Northern District of California. "110805order.pdf".
31. Tucker, Jill. (October 20, 2020). "Lowell High School will use lottery admission next year, S.F. school board decides". San Francisco Chronicle.
32. Mojadad, Ida. (October 20, 2020). "Lowell's selective admissions process put on hold this year — and more changes may be in the works Examiner". San Francisco.
33. Tucker, Jill. (February 10, 2021). "S.F. school board strips Lowell High of its merit-based admissions system". San Francisco Chronicle.
34. (December 16, 2021). "S.F. school board extends Lowell High lottery admission for another year, but debate is not over". San Francisco Chronicle.
35. (26 May 2022). "Top SF high school sees record spike in failing grades after dropping merit-based admission system".
36. Marinucci, Carla. (2021-10-18). "Covid anger drives recall election targeting 3 San Francisco school leaders".
37. "February 15, 2022 Election Results - Summary {{!}} Department of Elections".
38. Fuller, Thomas. (2022-03-11). "San Francisco Mayor Replaces Ousted School Board Members". The New York Times.
39. (22 June 2022). "Merit-based admissions return to San Francisco's Lowell High after school board vote".
40. Eskenazi, Joe. (2022-02-28). "Lowell's old merit-based admissions system won't return — no matter who's on the school board".
41. "2021-22 Enrollment by Ethnicity and Grade: Lowell High". California Department of Education.
42. [http://orb.sfusd.edu/profile/pf08/pf08-697.htm SFUSD Profile 2008-09: Lowell HS] {{webarchive. link. (2011-09-29)
43. "Empire San Francisco Results".
44. (2024-03-13). "CardinalBotics - Team 4159".
45. Kaplan, Anna. "Rebooting the bot: Robotics closes the gender gap".
46. Tucker, Jill. "Lowell High's elite robotics team is racing to finish its robot. Can they make it to a high-stakes competition?". San Francisco Chronicle.
47. (2020-09-23). "IGNITE Women in Stem Panel - Team 4159".
48. "CardinalBotics Pride Month Fundraiser 2022".
49. Author: US Army Cadet Command, Ft. Monroe, VA. Title: Army JROTC Cadet Reference Second Edition, {{ISBN. 978-0-536-74189-9, Publisher: Pearson Custom Publishing, Boston, MA.
50. "2023 JLAB Academic Bowl National Championship Awards Ceremony".
51. "JROTC {{!}} SFUSD".
52. "JROTC Curriculum Guide Version 11".
53. "Lowell High School JROTC".
54. Fields, Clarabell. (2023-01-27). "Three Lowell basketball teams sweep Battle of the Birds".
55. Geoghegan, Seamus. (2019-02-28). "High stakes Battle of the Birds match ends in heartbreak for the Cardinals".
56. (2019-10-18). "PHOTOS: Battle of the Birds 2019".
57. "AAA Baseball Annual Champions.".
58. [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/26/SPGMIIFBBF1.DTL 3 teams have caught Lowell in race for baseball supremacy.] From the ''San Francisco Chronicle''.
59. [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/04/29/SP262228.DTL Lowell baseball is amassing very big numbers.] From the ''San Francisco Chronicle''.
60. "AAA Track and Field Annual Champions.".
61. "AAA Cross-country Annual Champions.".
62. "AAA Volleyball Girls Annual Champions.".
63. "NorCal Division III - 2019 CIF State Girls Volleyball Championship".
64. Kaplan, Anna. (March 13, 2018). "Varsity girls soccer crowned champions". The Lowell.