Lafayette High School is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city coterminous with and the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the List of ...

that has been open for , seen the beginning of racially- desegregated education in the city, and been overseen by at least nine principals.

History

Founded in 1939 to replace Picadome High School, Lafayette High School was built on the grounds of a former orphanage with funding from the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

. The school was named for

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette (; 6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (), was a French military officer and politician who volunteered to join the Conti ...

; the French general's family gave the school permission to use their family coat of arms as a logo. The school shared its property with a mansion—The Elms—until the latter burned down a few months into the first school year. In 1955, Lafayette was the first white school in Lexington to be racially integrated when Helen Caise Wade (a student at Lexington's all-black Douglass High School) took a summer school course in US history—she earned an A. Dwight Price (born ) was principal from 1972–87. After its comprehensive 1998 building renovation, Lafayette implemented

block scheduling Block scheduling or blocking is a type of academic scheduling used in some schools in the American K-12, K-12 system, in which Student, students have fewer but longer classes per day than in a traditional academic schedule. It is more common in m ...

beginning with the 2000–01

academic year An academic year, or school year, is a period that schools, colleges and university, universities use to measure the duration of studies for a given educational level. Academic years are often divided into academic terms. Students attend classe ...

. In 2012, the school received its eighth principal:

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

-native and

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...

graduate Bryne Jacobs (born ). Jacobs previously worked at Lexington's Paul Laurence Dunbar High School from 2000–12, and was still at Lafayette through at least the 2017–18 academic year. Renovation of the school's stadium was completed in 2010. The ''

Lexington Herald-Leader The ''Lexington Herald-Leader'' is a newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and based in Lexington, Kentucky. According to the ''1999 Editor & Publisher International Yearbook'', the paid circulation of the ''Herald-Leader'' is the second larg ...

'' reported in July 2022 that Anthony Orr, previously a superintendent of two Kentucky school districts, was the new Lafayette principal. In 2023, Niche ranked Lafayette as the fifth-best public high school in Kentucky, based on seven different weighted metrics.

Demographics

Lafayette is part of the Fayette County Public Schools

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public Primary school, primary or Secondary school, secondary schools or both in various countries. It is not to be confused with an attendance zone, which is within a school dis ...

. In the 2023–2024 academic year, 130.10

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often use ...

teachers made the student-to-teacher ratio 18.24:1. There were 2,373 enrolled students across grades 9–12 (614

freshmen A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary school, post-se ...

, 640

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of Post-secondary school, post-secondary educatio ...

s, 595 juniors, and 524 seniors). Of that student body, were Native American, were Asian, were

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

, were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

, were

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

s, were

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, and were

multiracial The term multiracial people refers to people who are mixed with two or more races (human categorization), races and the term multi-ethnic people refers to people who are of more than one ethnicity, ethnicities. A variety of terms have been used ...

Academics

As of the 2017–18 academic year, Lafayette offered two specialized programs for its students: the School for the Creative and Performing Arts (SCAPA) and the Pre-Engineering Program. SCAPA was "designed for students who excel in art, ballet, band, contemporary dance, creative writing, drama, piano, strings, and voice", and required an

audition An audition is a sample performance by an actor, singer, musician, dancer or other performer. It typically involves the performer displaying their talent through a previously memorized and rehearsed solo piece or by performing a work or piece gi ...

to be considered for the program. The latter offering was a program "designed to provide students with the skills needed to succeed in such mathematically rigorous and technical fields as engineering, architecture, medicine, computer programming, mathematics, biology, chemistry and physics."

Extracurriculars

The Lafayette

marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who play while marching. Historically they were used in armed forces and many marching bands remain military bands. Others are still associated with military units or emulate a military sty ...

was awarded The Sudler Shield by the

John Philip Sousa Foundation The John Philip Sousa Foundation is a non-profit Foundation (charity), foundation dedicated to the promotion of Marching band, band music internationally. The foundation administers a number of projects and awards supporting high quality band p ...

in 1991 and 1998.

Athletics

The Lafayette boys' basketball team won the Sweet Sixteen championship in 1942, 1950, 1953, 1957, 1979, and 2001. The

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

team won the state championship in 1988, 1989, and 1992. In 2016, the Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA) audited the school and found

Title IX Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receiv ...

discrepancies between the amenities offered to baseball players and

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

players; to solve the problem, the school district outlaid to build a field house, "new dugouts, a netted visiting hitting area, plus the resurfacing of Lafayette's track and football field." A member of the KHSAA since 1924, that organization listed Lafayette with 19 official athletic programs:

archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a Bow and arrow, bow to shooting, shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting ...

(boys' and girls'),

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

(boys' and girls'),

bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

(boys' and girls'),

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense Physical exercise, physical activity. It can be performed to motivate s ...

, competitive dance,

esports Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

fastpitch softball Fastpitch softball, or simply fastpitch, is a form of softball played by both women and men. While the teams are most often segregated by sex, coed fast-pitch leagues also exist. Considered the most competitive form of softball, fastpitch is the ...

bass fishing Bass fishing is the recreational fishing activity, typically via rod-based angling, for various North American freshwater game fishes known collectively as '' black bass''.Henshall, James A. (Dr.), ''Book of the Black Bass'', Cincinnati, OH: R ...

(boys'),

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

(boys' and girls'), indoor track (boys' and girls'),

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

(boys' and girls'),

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

(boys' and girls'),

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

(boys' and girls'),

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

(boys' and girls'),

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

(boys' and girls'),

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

(girls'), and

scholastic wrestling Scholastic wrestling, sometimes referred to as folkstyle wrestling and commonly known as simply wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling at the Secondary school, high school and middle school levels in the United States. It has often been label ...

(boys' and girls'). The teams' colors are blue, red, and white, while the

athletic nickname The athletic nickname, or equivalently athletic moniker, of a Higher education in the United States, university or college within the United States and Canada is the name officially adopted by that institution for at least the members of its Spor ...

s are the "generals" for all gendered sports.

Notable alumni

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References

{{authority control 1939 establishments in Kentucky Educational institutions established in 1939 Public high schools in Kentucky Schools in Lexington, Kentucky