Francis Parker School (Parker) is a college preparatory independent day school in San Diego, California, serving students from junior kindergarten through twelfth grade. Parker was founded in 1912 by Clara Sturges Johnson and William Templeton Johnson, themselves recent arrivals to the West Coast. The Johnsons' nieces had attended the original Francis W. Parker School in Chicago, founded eleven years earlier, and sought to recreate the same progressive education standards at the original institution.[1]
While the institutions are both named after Colonel Parker, the schools themselves differ in their day-to-day operation as well as the structure of institutions such as the student government.[2]
The original Parker campus was established in 1912 at its current location in Mission Hills; a second campus, containing a middle and upper school, was established subsequently in Linda Vista.
History
During its founding in 1912, Francis Parker School was heavily influenced in both name and educational philosophy by the work of Colonel Francis Wayland Parker, a teacher, school administrator, civil war veteran, and pioneer of progressive education in the United States. Born in New Hampshire the mid 19th century, Colonel Parker was influenced by pedagogical views of many philosophers of the Enlightenment, particularly those of Johann Friedrich Herbart.[3] Much of his educational values and approaches are demonstrated through his development of the Quincy Method, which de-emphasized rigid discipline and memorization, instead focusing on critical thinking, collaboration, and holistic development of students.[4] In 1901, the Francis W. Parker School was founded in Chicago under Parker's liberal educational views. He died in 1902, but the school served as a model for the Francis W. Parker School in San Diego.[5]
William Templeton Johnson, an architect originally from New York, and his wife Clara Sturges Johnson moved to San Diego in 1912 after the architect's education at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.[6] The couple founded Francis Parker School in San Diego in 1912. The original campus opened in December in a Mission Hills bungalow with an enrollment of 3 students, two of the Johnsons’ sons and one other child. Originally located on what's now the Mission Hills Nursery on Fort Stockton Drive, the school subsequently moved less than a year later to its present location on nearby Randolph Street. William Johnson planned the Mission Hills campus; it was designed in a Spanish Mission style, and the central quadrangle and open-air classrooms attempted to foster a collaborative physical environment that would serve the aims of the school's educational philosophy[6] The school curriculum was modeled after the original Francis Parker School in Chicago, where the Johnsons’ nieces had attended.[citation needed]
By the early 1960s, Parker still existed only as a K-9 school. By the end of the decade, however, the school expanded to include 10-12th grades, and the entire K–12 student population of around 500 was packed into the five-acre Mission Hills campus. The need for additional space drove headmaster Dr. Doug Crone to search for land on which to establish a separate campus for grades 6–12.[7] In 1971, Parker purchased its current 43-acre Linda Vista campus from The San Miguel School for Boys, which was moving to La Jolla to merge with the Bishop's School for Girls, what is now the Bishop's School. Today, the Mission Hills campus is home to the Lower School, with classes from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 5. The Linda Vista Campus is home to the Middle School, Grades 6 to 8, and Upper School, Grades 9 to 12.[7]
In 2008, Francis Parker was recognized in The Wall Street Journal for being a top prep school that sends its students to prestigious colleges[8] and in 2011, CBS Moneywatch named it one of the best Ivy League feeder schools on the West Coast.[9]
Sexual abuse controversy
In September 2021, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of former student Grace Winn claiming that three school administrators failed to report sexual abuse by a former teacher. According to the suit, Winn's history teacher and basketball coach Miguel Cembrano groomed and then sexually abused her from 2014 to 2016, beginning when she was 13 years old. The suit claims that Cembrano was fired by the school in 2015 for alleged inappropriate conduct with a student. Neither Child protective services nor the parents were notified.[10] After his firing, Cembrano went on to teach at High Tech High, where he continued to solicit and obtain naked photographs from Winn via Snapchat. In 2016, under threat of investigation, Cembrano committed suicide by jumping off the Coronado Bridge.[11] Defendants Kevin Yaley, Dan Lang, and Christi Cole—all current administrators at the school—are awaiting trial.[12]
A new lawsuit has alleged that Dan Lang, the current head of middle school, sexually abused a student in 2013. This student has since died.[13]
Notable alumni
Nick Allen '17 – MLB shortstop/second baseman, Olympian (2020)
The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Chartered in July 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University, the two institutions merged in 1972.
Horace Mann School is an American private, independent college-preparatory school in the Bronx, founded in 1887. Horace Mann is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League, educating students from the New York metropolitan area from nursery school to the twelfth grade. The Upper, Middle, and Lower Divisions are located in Riverdale, a neighborhood of the Bronx, while the Nursery School is located in Manhattan. The John Dorr Nature Laboratory, a 275 acres (111 ha) campus in Washington Depot, Connecticut, serves as the school's outdoor and community education center.
St Joseph's College is an independent Roman Catholic single-sex secondary day and boarding school for boys, conducted in the Marist Brothers tradition, located in Hunters Hill, a suburb on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Linda Vista is a community in San Diego, California, United States. Located east of Mission Bay, north of Mission Valley, and south-east of Tecolote Canyon, it lies on a mesa overlooking Mission Valley to the south and Mission Bay and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is home to the University of San Diego.
Point Loma High School is a public high school in San Diego, California, United States. It is part of San Diego Unified School District. The school is located in the Loma Portal neighborhood of Point Loma. The school serves the neighborhoods of Point Loma and Ocean Beach. Students who live in Mission Hills may choose to attend Point Loma High School as their neighborhood school. Point Loma is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).
Grossmont Union High School District (GUHSD) is a public school district based in eastern San Diego County, California. It serves high school, adult school, and Regional Occupational Program (ROP) students in the cities of El Cajon, Lemon Grove, and Santee; the unincorporated communities of Alpine, Casa de Oro, Crest, Dehesa, Dulzura, Jamul, Lakeside, Mount Helix, Rancho San Diego, and Spring Valley; most of La Mesa, and parts of San Diego.
Chaminade College Preparatory, formerly Chaminade High School for Boys, is a private Catholic preparatory school with two campuses in San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles County, California.
West Hills High School (WHHS) is a public, comprehensive high school in Santee, California, and serves students in grades nine through twelve. Opened in 1987, West Hills is the eleventh of thirteen high schools to be constructed in the Grossmont Union High School District which serves the East County area of San Diego County.
The Diocese of San Diego is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Southern California, United States. Its ecclesiastical territory includes all of San Diego and Imperial Counties.
Cathedral Catholic High School (CCHS) is a private coeducational Catholic college preparatory day school in San Diego, California, serving grades 9–12. It is operated by the Diocese of San Diego. In 1970, Cathedral Girls High School, a girls’ school dating back to 1939 and located in downtown San Diego, merged with the all-boys University High School founded in 1957. In 1971, the newly constituted and expanded University of San Diego High School graduated its first coeducational class. Uni or the University of San Diego High School (USDHS), was located in the Linda Vista neighborhood of San Diego. Construction began on CCHS at its current location on Del Mar Heights Road in Carmel Valley in 1999. In 2005, the school including all faculty, administration, and students, moved to that campus and changed its name to Cathedral Catholic High School. Cathedral Catholic High School is accredited by the Western Catholic Education Association (WCEA), the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and holds membership with the College Board.
Mission Hills is a neighborhood in San Diego, California, United States. It is located on hills just south of the San Diego River valley and north of downtown San Diego and San Diego International Airport, overlooking downtown, Old Town, and San Diego Bay.
Prosper Independent School District is a public school district based in Prosper, Texas, United States. Located in Collin County, a portion of the district extends into Denton County.
Herbert Hoover High School is a comprehensive, public secondary school in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States. It is part of the San Diego Unified School District. It is one of the oldest schools in San Diego.
Fremont Unified School District (FUSD) is a primary and secondary education school district located in Fremont, California, United States.
Kearny High School is a public high school in San Diego, California, United States. It serves students in grades 9-12 from the Linda Vista, Serra Mesa and Kearny Mesa communities. The school is part of the San Diego Unified School District. Kearny's mascot is the Komet.
Rancho Buena Vista High School or "RBV" is a California Distinguished School and International Baccalaureate Organization World School, located in Vista, California. In the 1990–1991 and 1994–1995 school years Rancho Buena Vista High School was awarded the Blue Ribbon School Award of Excellence by the United States Department of Education, the highest award an American school can receive. It has a 7/10 GreatSchools rating and a 90% 4-year graduation rate.
Escondido High School (EHS) is a high school in Escondido, California. It is part of the Escondido Union High School District. Escondido High received a California Distinguished School award in 2007.
Pacific Ridge School is an independent co-educational college preparatory school for students in grades 6–12. The private school is located in the Bressi Ranch community of Carlsbad, a coastal resort town located in North San Diego County, California. The school educates 685 students enrolled during the 2022–2023 school year. Pacific Ridge's main academic and athletic rivals are The Bishop's School located in La Jolla, La Jolla Country Day School located in University City and Francis Parker School in Linda Vista.
Episcopal Day School of St. Matthew is a private co-educational day school located in San Mateo, California. Until 2021, the school was known as St. Matthew's Episcopal Day school, but the name was changed to Episcopal Day School.It was founded in 1865, by Andrew Lee Brewer, and was previously a military school known as Saint Matthew's Hall or Saint Matthew's School.
Christian High School is a private Christian TK-12 school in El Cajon, California. It is part of the Christian Unified Schools of San Diego. It offers a college preparatory education, with the goal to "prepare students who are academically and spiritually prepared to be a light in their community and who understand the nature of God, His Word, and the importance of impacting the world for Christ." Christian High was founded by Dr. Timothy and Beverly LaHaye in 1965.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
