Martin Luther King High School (Philadelphia)

Martin Luther King High School is a neighborhood public high school located in the East Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located at the intersection of Stenton Avenue and Haines Street in Philadelphia. It is a neighborhood school, meaning no application is necessary for those students who live in the West Oak Lane and Germantown sections of Philadelphia. It is named after Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King High School
Address
6100 Stenton Avenue

Philadelphia
,
Pennsylvania
19138

United States
Coordinates40.0560°N 75.1614°W / 40.0560; -75.1614
Information
TypePublic high school
Established1973
School districtThe School District of Philadelphia
PrincipalKeisha Wilkins
Staff47.87 (FTE)[1]
Grades9–12
Enrollment641 (2017–18)[1]
Student to teacher ratio13.39[1]
Color(s)   
MascotCougar
WebsiteMartin Luther King High School

History

The school opened on February 8, 1972. Originally it housed grades 9-10, while nearby Germantown High School housed grades 11-12, as the school district intended to keep students in Northwest Philadelphia economically integrated. Multiple students were stabbed and hit with metal pipes during a December 5, 1972 altercation between gangs. Some neighborhoods in proximity to King, such as East Mount Airy and West Oak Lane, wanted King to become a 9-12 school because Germantown High was located near poorer areas. Eventually Germantown and King became separate 9-12 schools.[2] The campuses are about 1 mile (1.6 km) apart.[3]

Programs at King High include JROTC and Business and Computers Technology.

Their team mascot is the cougar.

As of the 2005-2006 school year, the school had a population of 1,780 students, mostly African-American. In the 2012-2013 school year King had 750 students. Germantown closed in 2013 and was merged into Martin Luther King High School, causing King's student body to increase to 1,178 for the 2013-2014 school year.[4] A school district $304 million budget shortfall caused the schools to merge.[5]

Germantown students later attended King High and the merger was the subject of the 2014 documentary We Could Be King, directed by Judd Ehrlich.[6]

Student body

As of 2013 King's student body is mostly low-income and African-American, and consists largely of those unable to get admission to magnet schools and charter schools. Students with special needs made up about a third of the student body.[4]

Standard dress code

King students are required to wear solid light-colored tops and solid dark-colored bottoms. Their school colors are purple and gold.[7]

Athletics

King has an on-campus athletic field and two weight rooms.[5]

King was previously the athletic rival of Germantown high in football.[5] King's football team won one game in 2012; this was after the other team forfeited.[4] After Germantown closed in 2013 much of its athletic roster joined King's football team.[5] Ed Dunn served as the volunteer head coach of the post-2013 King football team. He had previously worked as a mathematics teacher but had been laid off.[6] In its first year as a merged team, the King football team won its first Philadelphia Public League championship after having nine straight wins.[4]

Feeder pattern

Feeder K-8 schools:

  • Ana Blakiston Day School[8]
  • John F. McCloskey School[9]
  • Pastorius School[9]
  • Theodore Roosevelt School[8]

Feeder middle schools:

Feeder elementary schools:

  • Francis D. Pastorius Elementary School[8]
  • Franklin S. Edmonds Elementary School (feeds first into McCloskey)[9]
  • Ellwood Elementary School (feeds first into Wagner Middle)[9]
  • Julia Ward Howe Elementary School (feeds first into Wagner Middle)[9]
  • John B. Kelly Elementary School (feeds first into Roosevelt)[9]
  • James Logan Elementary School (feeds first into Roosevelt)[9]
  • Joseph Pennell Elementary School (feeds first into Wagner Middle)[9]
  • Samuel W. Pennypacker School (feeds first into McCloskey)[9]
  • William Rowen School (feeds first into Wagner Middle)[9]
  • Wister Elementary School (feeds first into Roosevelt)[9]

The John L. Kinsey School fed into King prior to Kinsey's closure.[10][11]

Notable alumni

M L King High School in Philadelphia PA Alumni also includes Curtis Harmon original and founding member of Jazz Ensemble "Pieces of A Dream"; Cedric Napoleon Bassst; Founder and former member jazz ensemble "Pieces of A Dream"; Brian Pugh Musician;

References
  1. "King Martin Luther HS". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
  2. "Forty years ago, Germantown-King pairing marred by neighborhood rivalries Archived 2017-02-02 at the Wayback Machine." Newsworks. January 31, 2013. Retrieved on November 18, 2018.
  3. " An Uneasy Football Merger" slide 2. The New York Times. Retrieved on November 19, 2016.
  4. Longman, Jéré (2013-11-26). "Philadelphia Schools Merged in Despair Find Reason to Celebrate in Football". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-11-18. - Print: on November 27, 2013 as "Philadelphia Schools Merged in Despair Emerge as a Winner", page B11
  5. Longman, Jéré (2013-08-03). "An Involuntary Union of Football Rivals for Philadelphia High Schools". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-11-18. Print: August 4, 2013, page SP1
  6. Gold, Daniel M. (2014-04-25). "Enemies One Year, Teammates the Next". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  7. "Uniform Colors". The School District of Philadelphia. Archived from the original on April 5, 2009. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
  8. "High School Directory Fall 2017 Admissions" (Archive). School District of Philadelphia. p. 57/70. Retrieved on November 16, 2016.
  9. "School Finder." School District of Philadelphia. Retrieved on November 17, 2016.
  10. "A Directory of High Schools for 2009 Admissions" (Archive). School District of Philadelphia. p. 19/40. Retrieved on November 17, 2016.
  11. "Martin Luther King High School Geographic Boundaries" (Archive). School District of Philadelphia. Retrieved on November 17, 2016.
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