Manual Arts High School

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Manual Arts High School is a secondary school in Los Angeles, California.

Manual Arts, which spans grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Manual Arts falls into Local District 7 of the LAUSD. The school is located at 4131 South Vermont Avenue, between 41st Street and 42nd Street. The school's mascot is the Toiler and the school newspaper is called the Toiler Times. When it was founded, Manual Arts was a vocational high school. As of 2006, it teaches a traditional curriculum.

1 History
- 1.1 Reflection of Change
- 1.2 Makeup of School
2 Student body
3 External links

[edit] History

Manual Arts High School was established in 1910 in the middle of bean fields, one-half mile from the nearest bus stop. It was the third school in Los Angeles, California after Los Angeles High School and L.A. Polytechnic High School, and is the oldest school on the same site in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

After three semesters in an abandoned grammar school building, Manual Arts High School was opened on Vermont Avenue, a school whose name embodied her ideal of head, heart, and hand, combining to offer a creative atmosphere for the full life.

After the 1933 earthquake the entire campus was rebuilt, constituting the present Manual Arts High School campus. Pictured below is the main building, recently renamed Yvonne Brathwaite-Burke Hall. Behind left is the current Science Building.

In 1995 "The Arts" became a Pacific Bell Education First Demonstration Site joining thirteen other demonstration sites in California, and in 1996 the school was named a California Distinguished School. In 1998 Manual Arts was officially granted Digital High School status.

The 2005-2006 school year opened with wall-to-wall small learning communities (SLCs), three on each track totaling nine SLCs.

[edit] Reflection of Change

Manual Arts is a reflection of the changes in the city of Los Angeles and has felt the pain and the joy of all that has happened over the past eighty-nine years. Three major earthquakes--in 1933, which destroyed the original site,1971 and 1994--and two civil disturbances-in 1965 and 1992 were probably our most difficult times. On the positive side, we were recognized in the thirties for our excellence, supported the effort of our own Jimmy Doolittle during World War II, adopted an orphanage in Korea during that conflict, participated in the many social changes in the sixties and was named the Ambassador High School for the 1984 Summer Olympics. We now reflect the current immigration trends and the fact that Los Angeles is the center of immigration in the United States.

[edit] Makeup of School

In 1994 the school reconfigured to a four-year, grade nine to twelve, three track, year round, "Concept 6" school that was in the midst of restructuring and the last stages of renovation. In 1995 WASC accredited the school for six years.Most of the almost 4000 students come from two middle schools, Foshay and John Muir, although, with the addition of the Magnet school and other programs and open enrollment, students come from other parts of the city. Currently the school boasts eight successful Academies, each with its own curricular specialty.

The area around Manual Arts is one characterized by high unemployment, single parent families, a majority of families receiving AFDC, and multi-family rental housing.

The school was over 90% African-American twenty-five years ago and is now over 80% Hispanic, with much of that group coming from Central America. This transition has been relatively peaceful, to the credit of our staff, our students, and the community. Most of the rest of the students are African-American. More than half of the students list Spanish as their first language, and the school serves the third largest LEP population in the District.