Boys and Girls High School, the oldest public high school in Brooklyn, is a comprehensive high school in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York, United States. The school is located at 1700 Fulton Street.
As of the 2014–15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 643 students and 43.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 15.0:1. There were 463 students (72.0% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 15 (2.3% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.School data for Boys And Girls High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed December 12, 2016.
History Brooklyn's first public high school, the Central Grammar School (named "Central" rather than "Free" to avoid controversy over providing free secondary education for poor children), opened September 1878 in a rented building on Court & Livingston Streets. A new building was planned on the east side of Nostrand Avenue between from Halsey and Macon Streets, designed by Superintendent of Buildings James W. Naughton, but by the time it opened in 1886, enrollment had increased to the point where it was decided to use this building as the girls' high school and to build a separate building for the boys."19th Century", NYC Department of Education. The boys remained in the Court Street space. As there were now effectively two schools, in 1891 they were renamed as the Girls' High School and the Boys' High School. A new building for the boys was begun in 1891, on Marcy Avenue, between Madison Street & Putnam Avenue. It opened as Boys High School on November 1, 1892. In 1975 the two schools were merged once again, and shortly afterward moved into their present building at Fulton Street and Utica Avenue. Joseph P. Fried, "Boys High School And Historic Dock Made Landmarks" New York Times October 5, 1975
From 1986 until 2004, the school's principal was Frank Mickens, who dealt with the school's many problems during the 1980s. Though Mickens' methods were later attacked on the grounds that he was steering undesirable students to other institutions, by 1989 some 70 percent of the high school's graduates were enrolled in colleges.Libby Nelson, "Frank Mickens, Who Turned Boys and Girls High School Around, Is Mourned" New York Times July 10, 2009Neil A. Lewis, "A Tough Principal Turns a School Around" New York Times April 6, 1989
Noted alumni
Isaac Asimov, science-fiction author Albert Blaustein (1921–1994), civil rights and human rights lawyer and constitutional consultant who helped draft the Fijian and Liberian constitutions.Perez-Pena, Richard. "Albert Blaustein, Who Drafted Nations' Constitutions, Dies at 72", The New York Times, August 22, 1994. Accessed August 9, 2019. "Albert P. Blaustein, a law professor who dedicated nearly three decades of his life to drafting constitutions for nations in transition, died yesterday at Duke University Hospital in Durham, N.C., after suffering a heart attack.... Born on Oct. 12, 1921, in Brooklyn, Mr. Blaustein graduated from Boys High School at age 16." Emanuel Celler, Congressman Shirley Chisholm, Congresswoman, presidential candidate Ray Copeland, jazz trumpeter Aaron Copland, composer Tommy Davis, baseball and basketball player Fabolous, Rapper Connie Hawkins, basketball player Lena Horne, singer, actress Bryce Jones, basketball player Duke Jordan, jazz pianist Norman Mailer, author Sean Michaels, adult film actor and director Cecil Payne, jazz saxophonist Man Ray, avant-garde artist, photographer Lawrence Tierney, actor Dwayne "Pearl" Washington, basketball playerVecsey, George. "SPORTS OF THE TIMES; The Pearl Fits In At Syracuse", The New York Times, March 9, 1984. Accessed December 5, 2007. "This part of the legend does survive: Washington admits that when he was 8 years old at the Howard Housing Project in Brownsville, his elders asked him: Who do you think you are, the Pearl?" Randy Weston, jazz pianist Lenny Wilkens, basketball player Dom Zanni, baseball player
References
External links Original building site construction