Central High School (Philadelphia)

Central High School
Central High School of Philadelphia Shield
Address
Map
1700 West Olney Avenue

,
19141

Information
TypePublic high school
Established1836 (1836)
School districtSchool District of Philadelphia
PresidentKatharine Davis
Teaching staff90.81 (FTE)[1]
Grades9–12
Enrollment2,371 (2017–18)[1]
Student to teacher ratio26.11[1]
Color(s)  
Athletics conferencePhiladelphia Public League
NicknameLancers
NewspaperThe Centralizer
Television networkCentral Broadcast News (CBN)
Websitecentralhigh.net
Central High School[2]
Central High School (Philadelphia) is located in Philadelphia
Central High School (Philadelphia)
Central High School (Philadelphia) is located in Pennsylvania
Central High School (Philadelphia)
Central High School (Philadelphia) is located in the United States
Central High School (Philadelphia)
Location1700 West Olney Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Coordinates40°2′15″N 75°9′00″W / 40.03750°N 75.15000°W / 40.03750; -75.15000
Area5 acres (2.0 ha)
Built1937
ArchitectCatharine, Irwin T.
Architectural styleModerne
MPSPhiladelphia Public Schools TR
NRHP reference No.86003267
Added to NRHPDecember 4, 1986
Map

Central High School is a public high school in the Logan[3] section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1836, it is a four-year university preparatory magnet school.

About 2,400 students attend grades 9 through 12. Central High School is the only high school in the United States with authority, granted by an Act of Assembly in 1849, to confer academic degrees upon its graduates.[4] This authority to grant academic degrees led Central to refer to the principal of the school as the “President” of Central High School. The current and fifteenth president of Central High School is Katharine S. Davis.[5]

Central, rather than using a general class year to identify its classes (as in "class of 2023"), uses the class graduating number system (as in "280th" graduating class" or "280"). This tradition started shortly after the school's founding when it was common to have two graduating classes per year – one in January and one in June. In June 1965, semiannual graduations were replaced by annual graduations. As of the 2023–2024 school year, the current senior class is 283.[6]

  1. ^ a b c "Central HS". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
  2. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  3. ^ "Logan Redevelopment Area Plan Archived 2011-07-27 at the Wayback Machine." Philadelphia City Planning Commission. May 2002. 1 (document page 3). Retrieved on August 2, 2011. "The neighborhood is generally defined as including the area from Wingohocking Street north to Olney Avenue and from Broad Street east to the railroad right-of-way east of Marshall Street. Logan extends west to 16th Street north of Lindley Avenue, where Wakefield Park forms the boundary."
  4. ^ Nitzsche, George Erazmus (1918). University of Pennsylvania: Its History, Traditions, Buildings and Memorials; Also a Brief Guide to Philadelphia (Seventh ed.). Philadelphia: International Printing Company. p. 290. Retrieved 3 June 2015. Pennsylvania Act of Assembly April 9, 1849.
  5. ^ "About Central – Central High School". Retrieved 2023-09-30.
  6. ^ Edmonds, Franklin Spencer (1902). History of the Central High School of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Lippincott.

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