Boys and Girls High School, the oldest public high school in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, is a

comprehensive high school Comprehensive high schools are the most popular form of state school, public Secondary school, high schools around the world, designed to provide a well-rounded education to its students, as opposed to the practice in some places in which examinati ...

Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Bedford–Stuyvesant (), colloquially known as Bed–Stuy, is a neighborhood in the northern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Bedford–Stuyvesant is bordered by Flushing Avenue to the north (bordering Williamsburg), Classon Av ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, 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 Student–teacher ratio or student–faculty ratio is the number of students who attend a school or university divided by the number of teachers in the institution. For example, a student–teacher ratio of 10:1 indicates that there are 10 students ...

of 15.0:1. There were 463 students (72.0% of enrollment) eligible for

free lunch A free lunch is the providing of a meal at no cost, usually as a sales enticement to attract customers and increase revenues from other business. It was once a common tradition in saloons and taverns in many places in the United States, with th ...

and 15 (2.3% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.School data for Boys And Girls High School

National Center for Education Statistics The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance ...

. 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 "higher 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 South end in Sheepshead Bay Nostrand Avenue () is a major street in Brooklyn, New York, that runs for north from Emmons Avenue in Sheepshead Bay to Flushing Avenue in Williamsburg, where it continues as Lee Avenue. It occupies the position of ...

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 afterwards moved into their present building at Fulton Street and

Utica Avenue Utica Avenue is a major avenue in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States. It is one of several named for the city of Utica in Upstate New York. It runs north–south and occupies the position of East 50th Street in the Brooklyn street ...

."Boys High School And Historic Dock Made Landmarks; Boys High And a Dock Are Cited"], Joseph P. Fried, October 5, 1975, The ''New York Times'' From 1986 until 2004, the school's principal was Frank Mickens, who dealt with the school's many problems during the 1980s, and turned into an excellent college preparatory institution for poor and marginalized young men and women. By 1989 some 70 percent of graduates were enrolled in colleges. Though Mickens methods were attacked on the grounds that he was steering undesirable students to other institutions, his success was hard to question; and there had been no objections during the long years in which both Boys' and Girls' had been in decline, largely due to "steering" good students to other places.

Mission Statement

The mission statement for Boys and Girls High school is, ''"The mission of Boys and Girls High School is to prepare our students to achieve their full potential, make positive choices, and have a plan for life after high school. This will be accomplished by creating an environment that will successfully teach our students to think critically and conscientiously about themselves, their community, and their global village."

Noted alumni

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(Isaak Yudovich Ozimov), writer *

Jules Bender Jules Bender (1914 – January 13, 1982) was an American collegiate and professional basketball player. He was an All-American at Long Island University, leading the Blackbirds to a 103–6 record over his career. Bender was a native of Brookly ...

, basketball player *

Albert Blaustein Albert Paul Blaustein (October 12, 1921 – August 21, 1994) was an American civil rights and human rights lawyer and constitutional consultant who helped draft the Fijian and Liberian constitutions, as well as being called in as a consul ...

(1921–1994),

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

and

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

lawyer and constitutional consultant who helped draft the

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

an and Liberian constitutions. Perez-Pena, Richard
"Albert Blaustein, Who Drafted Nations' Constitutions, Dies at 72"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', 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 Emanuel Celler (May 6, 1888 – January 15, 1981) was an American politician from New York who served in the United States House of Representatives for almost 50 years, from March 1923 to January 1973. He served as the dean of the United States Ho ...

, Congressman *

Shirley Chisholm Shirley Anita Chisholm ( ; ; November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician who, in 1968, became the first black woman to be elected to the United States Congress. Chisholm represented New York's 12th congressional distr ...

, Congresswoman, presidential candidate * Ray Copeland, jazz trumpeter *

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...

, composer * Tommy Davis, baseball and basketball player *

Norma Donaldson Norma C. Donaldson (August 18, 1928 – November 22, 1994) was an American actress and singer. Perhaps she is best known for her roles, as Miss Adelaide in the 1976 revival of ''Guys and Dolls''; Lillie Belle Barber on the CBS television soap op ...

, actress, singer. *

Ronnie Dyson Ronald Dyson (June 5, 1950 – November 10, 1990) was an American soul and R&B singer and actor. Early career Born in Washington, D.C., Dyson grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he sang in church choirs. At 18 years of age, he won a lead role ...

, singer *

Connie Hawkins Cornelius Lance "Connie" Hawkins (July 17, 1942 – October 6, 2017) was an American professional basketball player. A New York City playground legend, "the Hawk" was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992. Early ye ...

, basketball player *

Rita Hayworth Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918May 14, 1987) was an American actress, dancer and producer. She achieved fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars, appearing in 61 films over 37 years. The press coined th ...

, actress *

Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American dancer, actress, singer, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years, appearing in film, television, and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of th ...

, singer, actress *

Edward Everett Horton Edward Everett Horton Jr. (March 18, 1886 – September 29, 1970) was an American character actor. He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television, and voice work for animated cartoons. Early life Horton was born in Kings County ...

, actor and comedian *

Duke Jordan Irving Sidney "Duke" Jordan (April 1, 1922 – August 8, 2006) was an American jazz pianist. Biography Jordan was born in New York and raised in Brooklyn where he attended Boys High School. An imaginative and gifted pianist, Jordan was a regula ...

, jazz pianist *

Alan King Alan King (born Irwin Alan Kniberg; December 26, 1927 – May 9, 2004) was an American actor and comedian known for his biting wit and often angry humorous rants. King became well known as a Jewish comedian and satirist. He was also a serious ac ...

, actor and comedian *

Morris Lapidus Morris Lapidus (November 25, 1902 – January 18, 2001) was an architect, primarily known for his Neo-baroque "Miami Modern" hotels constructed in the 1950s and 60s, which have since come to define that era's resort-hotel style, synonymous w ...

, architect *

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...

, author *

Mickey Marcus David Daniel "Mickey" Marcus (22 February 1901 – 10 June 1948) was a United States Army colonel, later Israel's first General, who was a principal architect of the U.S. military's World War II civil affairs policies,Ossad, Steven L."Out of the ...

, attorney and soldier * Sean Michaels, adult film actor and director *

Jean Nidetch Jean Evelyn Nidetch (née Slutsky, October 12, 1923 – April 29, 2015) was an American business entrepreneur who was the founder of the Weight Watchers organization. Early life Jean Nidetch was born on October 12, 1923 in the New York City boro ...

, businesswoman *

Cecil Payne Cecil Payne (December 14, 1922 – November 27, 2007) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist born in Brooklyn, New York. Payne also played the alto saxophone and flute. He played with other prominent jazz musicians, in particular Dizzy Gilles ...

, jazz saxophonist *

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, although his t ...

, avant-garde artist, photographer * Dwayne "Pearl" Washington, basketball player *

Randy Weston Randolph Edward "Randy" Weston (April 6, 1926 – September 1, 2018) was an American jazz pianist and composer whose creativity was inspired by his ancestral African connection. Weston's piano style owed much to Duke Ellington and Thelonious M ...

, jazz pianist *

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, movie producer *

John C. Whitehead John Cunningham Whitehead (April 2, 1922 – February 7, 2015) was an American banker and civil servant, a board member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation (WTC Memorial Foundation), and, until his resignation in May 2006, chairman of ...

, Artist / politician *

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, basketball player *

Dom Zanni Dom or DOM may refer to: People and fictional characters * Dom (given name), including fictional characters * Dom (surname) * Dom La Nena (born 1989), stage name of Brazilian-born cellist, singer and songwriter Dominique Pinto * Dom people, an eth ...

, baseball player *Hugh Evans, Referee NBA

References

External links

Original building site construction

Football 1997 Championship

Boys & Girls headman Frank Mickens calls it quits after 18 years at school
{{authority control Public high schools in Brooklyn Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn