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Birmingham High School is a public coeducational high school in the neighborhood/district of Lake Balboa in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles, California, United States. The school is a part of District One of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). It was founded in 1953 as a 7-12 grade combined high school, and became solely a senior high school in 1963. The school has a Van Nuys address.

Birmingham serves Lake Balboa, parts of Encino, and Amestoy Estates [1].

History

This school was built on the site of Birmingham General Hospital. This facility was a United States Army hospital that operated primarily as a rehabilitation center for soldiers injured during World War II. It was named after Col. Henry Patrick Birmingham, a senior officer in the Medical Corps who died in 1930. The hospital closed in 1948.

The site was acquired by Los Angeles City Schools in the early 1950s (for the token price of $1), and became the home to Birmingham Junior High School in 1953. The school expanded into a six-year campus in 1956. In 1963, the northern part of the campus became William Mulholland Junior High School.

The original name of the sports teams were the Braves; this name was changed to the Patriots in 1998 when the LAUSD Board of Education voted to do away with team mascots depicting native Americans due to the threat of a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. This was in spite of the fact the school was dedicated by Jay Silverheels (Tonto) and five gathered Native-American Chiefs from the San Fernando Valley Indian Council. Here is the irony of the name change. Col. Birmingham fought against Native Americans, in wars against them. So, perhaps, the name that should have been changed was Birmingham, not the Braves.

In January 2006, The Los Angeles Times published a series of articles discussing the graduation/dropout rate at the school and how it relates to the rate for the rest of LAUSD.^[1]

Pop culture

Birmingham High School has been used as the backdrop for numerous music videos, commercials, and television shows such as the music video for Gwen Stefani's song "Hollaback Girl" & Corbin Bleu's song "Push It to the Limit". Also, in 2007 an episode of America's Next Top Model was filmed there. Other shows filmed at Birmingham High School include Nip/Tuck, NCIS, Cold Case, Scrubs, The Office and Monk.

The school's football field was used as a set for the shoot of the music video for Angels & Airwaves Everything's Magic (the first single to their new CD, I-Empire). The track, surrounding the football field, also served as the location for the relay race scene starring Kirk Cameron in Like Father Like Son. An episode of Full House was filmed there, with Danny, Jessy, and Joey running a race around the track. In addition, Fanny Pak of America's Best Dance Crew comes to the dance studio to practice before they go on tour.

Academics

Birmingham High School offers students a full range of subjects in its academic curriculum. All students study a core curriculum of Math, English, science, Social Studies, and Foreign Languages. In addition, Elective classes in a variety of subjects are offered, including music, drama, and the visual arts. The school has recently created a number of Small Learning Communities (SLCs). Some of these include:

• Renaissance Academy
• Medicine and Sports Academy
• Social Justice Academy
• Performing and Visual Arts Academy
• Business and Technology Academy
• 9th Grade Success Academy
• Daniel Pearl Journalism and Communications Magnet
• Creative and Liberal Arts

In addition, many other programs such as Humanitas, AVID, and School for Advanced Studies are available to students.

Sports

Birmingham High School has a long tradition of producing championship teams in a variety of sports. . Among the many outstanding teams are Football (1963, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007 Los Angeles City Champions), Basketball, Volleyball, Baseball, Softball, Soccer (2006 LA City Boys Champions), Cross-country, Tennis, Golf, Track and Field, Swimming and Diving (2007 and 2008 runner up) and Water Polo (2007 Valley League Champions and 2008 CIF champions).

From 2003-04 to 2006-07, the Basketball coach was Andre McCarter, MVP for the Rochester Zeniths of the Continental Basketball Association in the 1978-79 season. McCarter played on UCLA's national championship teams in the early 1970s under John Wooden.

Birmingham's new head coach for the 2007-08 season will be Jarvis Turner, who played under Henry Bibby at USC in the early 1990s and was formerly the freshman team coach at Harvard Westlake School in North Hollywood.

Arts

Drama has been one of the programs that has drawn students to Birmingham throughout the years. The Drama Academy is the latest embodiment of this program, which has seen teams from Birmingham win competitions throughout the world.

The visual arts are supported through a digital video and animation program run through the Communications Technology Magnet, as well as graphic art programs taught through the host school.

Notable alumni

Selective listing of notable alumni:

• Matt Cady - Choreographer, crew member of Fanny Pak
• Tim Conway Jr - Radio talk show host on KLSX 97.1 Free FM in LA and son of the legendary comic Tim Conway.
• Sally Field - actress^[1]
• Terry Gilliam - director, actor (Monty Python)
• Michael Milken - financier/philanthropist^[1]
• Michael Ovitz - talent agent^[1]
• Daniel Pearl - journalist^[1]
• Bobby Sherman - actor ^[2]
• Jacob Harrell - singer in the group Brutha

References

External links

• Birmingham High School - official website

Related links