John H. Francis Polytechnic High School

John H. Francis Polytechnic High School
Location
12431 Roscoe Boulevard Sun Valley , (Los Angeles County) , California 91352 United States
Coordinates	34°13′22″N118°24′24″W / 34.2228°N 118.4067°W / 34.2228; -118.4067
Information
School type	Public, comprehensive high school
Motto	Victory with Honor
Established	1897;128 years ago (1897)
Status	🟩 Opened
School district	Los Angeles Unified School District
NCES District ID	062271003020 [1]
Principal	Walter Rich
Teaching staff	122.83 (2018–19) [1]
Grades	9–12
Enrollment	2,241 (2021–22) [1]
Student to teacher ratio	21.48 (2018–19) [1]
Color(s)	Blue   Gold
Athletics conference	East Valley League CIF Los Angeles City Section
Mascot	Parrot
Newspaper	The Poly Optimist
Yearbook	The Polytechnic Student
Website	www.polyhigh.org

John H. Francis Polytechnic High School is a secondary school located in the Sun Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. It serves grades 9 through 12 and is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Despite its name, Polytechnic is a comprehensive high school.

History

Polytechnic High School opened in 1897 as a "commercial branch" of the only high school at that time in the city, Los Angeles High School. As such, Polytechnic would be the third oldest high school in the city, after Abraham Lincoln High School in Lincoln Heights, (founded in 1878), and the fourth oldest in the LAUSD, after San Fernando High School., which was founded in 1896. The school's original campus was located in downtown Los Angeles on South Beaudry Avenue, the present location of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education headquarters.

Old, neoclassical campus of Metropolitan Polytechnic High near LA's historic core, 1905

In 1905, Metropolitan Polytechnic moved to the south side of Washington Boulevard at the corner of Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles, across Washington from old St. Vincent's College. ^{[2] [3] [4]} Poly was the first school to offer studies in multiple class subjects, which is now modeled by many high schools, as "periods." In 1935, its name was changed to "John H. Francis Polytechnic" to honor the founding principal.

In February 1957, Polytechnic moved to its present site in the San Fernando Valley and opened its doors to new students for the then fast growing suburb. Since Poly's relocation, the former site has been the campus of Los Angeles Trade–Technical College. The school mascot is a parrot named Joe Parrot, and he now has a female companion named Josie.

It was in the Los Angeles City High School District until 1961, when it merged into LAUSD. ^[5]

In 2006, the establishment of Arleta High School ^[6] and Panorama High School ^[7] relieved much of the overcrowding at Polytechnic. The 2009 opening of Sun Valley High School additionally relieved overcrowding. ^[8]

Poly's basketball gym is named for NBA Hall-of-Famer Gail Goodrich, a Poly alumnus. The Parrots have had a longtime rivalry with both Van Nuys High School and North Hollywood High School.

Notable alumni

• Carl David Anderson, recipient of the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics ^[9]
• Richard Bishop (1930), artistic gymnast ^[10]
• Tom Bradley (1937), 38th Mayor of Los Angeles (1973–1993) ^[11]
• Helen Gurley Brown (1939), author, publisher, and businesswoman; founded Cosmopolitan magazine and was its editor in chief 1965–1997 ^[12]
• Bessie Bruington Burke (1910), first Black principal in Los Angeles Public Schools
• Ike Danning, Major League Baseball player
• Hideo Date, painter
• Bill Davila: first Mexican-American to preside over a supermarket chain ^[13]
• Marcellite Garner (1928), voice actress of Minnie Mouse ^[14]
• D. J. Gay (2007), basketball player ^{[15] [16]}
• J. Paul Getty, international petroleum businessman, "World's Richest Man".
• Gail Goodrich (1961), basketball player in the NBA, attended UCLA ^[17]
• Alice Rogers Hager (1894–1969), president, Women's National Press Club
• Joseph Hampel, radio host and deejay for music group LMFAO
• Phyllis Maude Haver, Silent film actress active 1915–1930
• Michael Horse (1968; born Michael Heinrich), actor
• William Hung (2001), American Idol singer ^[18]
• Fay M. Jackson (1920), African-American journalist and publicist ^[19]
• George A. Kasem (1938), Democratic US Representative for California's 25th congressional district (1959–1961) ^[20]
• Bob Kuwahara (1921), animator
• Joseph Thomas McGucken, Archbishop of San Francisco from 1962 to 1977
• Tanya Neiman (1966), lawyer in San Francisco
• John W. Olmsted (1915), Professor Emeritus at University of California, Riverside ^[21]
• Stephen Paddock (1971), perpetrator of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting
• Greg Palast (left for college in 1969), investigative journalist ^[22]
• Bruce Pardo (1981), perpetrator of the 2008 Covina massacre
• Milton Quon (1932), animator, artist and actor
• Stanley Mark Rifkin, convicted criminal (bank theft via wire transfer) ^[23]
• Peter Senge (1965), author, scientist, and director of the Center for Organizational Learning at MIT
• Al Sparlis (1939), inductee of the College Football Hall of Fame and highly decorated military pilot ^{[24] [25]}
• Vaino Spencer (1938), judge ^[26]
• Herbert R. Temple Jr. (1947), Lieutenant General and Chief of the National Guard Bureau, 1986–1990 ^[27]
• Sloppy Thurston, pitcher in Major League Baseball ^[28]
• Danny Trejo, actor ^[18]
• Paul R. Williams, architect

Notable faculty

• Arthur E. Briggs: Los Angeles City Council member, 1939–1941, taught law at night
• Ralph Jesson: football coach at Polytechnic (1924–1928)

Notable administrators

• James B. Taylor, in 1962 became first Black principal of a predominantly White high school in Los Angeles while at Poly ^[29]

References

1. "Search for Public Schools - John H. Francis Polytechnic (062271003020)". National Center for Education Statistics . Institute of Education Sciences . Retrieved October 6, 2020.
2. School history
3. "Rush Work on New Buildings Walls of the Polytechnic School Completed," Los Angeles Herald
4. "Exterior view of the Polytechnic High School on Washington Street, Los Angeles, ca. 1898–1905," USC Digital Library.
5. "Los Angeles City School District". Los Angeles Unified School District. Archived from the original on February 7, 1998. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
6. Arleta High School
7. Panorama High School
8. "Proposed Changes to Sun Valley High School Area Schools," Los Angeles Unified School District . Retrieved on March 17, 2010.
9. Anderson, Carl David (1999). Weiss, Richard Jerome (ed.). Early Years as a Curious Child. The Discovery of Anti-matter: The Autobiography of Carl David Anderson, the Youngest Man to Win the Nobel Prize. World Scientific. p. 3. ISBN   9789810236809.
10. Bishop, Richard (March 1988). "Richard Bishop 1932 Olympic Games – Los Angeles Flying Rings". la84.org (Interview). Interviewed by Hodak, George A. Woodland Hills, Los Angeles . Retrieved June 24, 2025.
11. Tom Bradley Bio
12. Scanlon, Jennifer (2009). Toff, Nancy (ed.). Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown . Oxford University Press. p.  14. ISBN   978-0-19-534205-5.
13. "William S. Davila Obituary (2014) San Gabriel Valley Tribune". Legacy.com .
14. Peri, Don (2008). Working with Walt: Interviews with Disney Artists. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN   978-1-934110-67-6.
15. "San Diego State University Official Athletic Site". Archived from the original on November 10, 2007.
16. "Players". Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
17. Gail Goodrich bio
18. "John H. Francis Polytechnic High School, Sun Valley, Class of 1982".
19. Libby Clark, "Collection on View in USC's Louis Hall: Fay M. Jackson, Hollywood's First African American Publicist/Film Specialist" Los Angeles Sentinel (March 8, 2000): C9.
20. "Bioguide Search".
21. F.M. Carney; N. Ravitch; L.M. Van Deusen; R.V. Hine (1986). Krogh, David (ed.). "John W. Olmsted, History: Riverside". University of California: In Memoriam: 225–227. Archived from the original on October 18, 2015.
22. "Greg Palast" (PDF). Current Biography. June 2011. pp. 73–80. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 28, 2012. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
23. "The Ultimate Heist". Time. 1978-11-20. p. 48
24. "From reformatory to Hall of Fame". Daily Times-Advocate . Escondido, California. AP. December 7, 1983. p. C5. Retrieved July 29, 2023– via newspapers.com.
25. "Al Sparlis (1983)". footballfoundation.org. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
26. Jessie Carnie Smith, ed., Notable Black American Women Volume 2 (VNR AG 1996): 612. ISBN   9780810391772
27. Turner Publishing Company, The Military Order of World Wars, 1997, page 60
28. "Sloppy Thurston". Baseball-Reference.Com. Retrieved October 6, 2012.
29. "Farewell" . Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. May 1, 1967. p. 8. Retrieved April 21, 2024– via newspapers.com. Taylor, first Negro principal of a predominantly white school in Los Angeles system, begins assignment today as principal of new Alain LeRoy Locke High School in Watts.

External links

• Los Angeles portal
• Schools portal

• John H. Francis Polytechnic High School