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Benjamin Franklin High School (New Orleans)
Benjamin Franklin High School is a charter high school and a magnet high school in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Commonly nicknamed "Franklin" or "Ben Franklin", the school was founded in 1957 as a school for gifted children. Ben Franklin is consistently named the No. 1 school in the state of Louisiana and has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 15 charter school in the nation. In 1990, it moved to its current location on the campus of the University of New Orleans (UNO) in the Lake Terrace/Lake Oaks neighborhood of Orleans Parish, near Lake Pontchartrain. The school was damaged by several feet of flood water due to Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005, and efforts to reopen the school were covered by nationwide news agencies. The school is part of the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB), yet it operates as a charter school and is not administered directly by the agency.
Ben Franklin has a selective admissions process, and according to CBS News is a "magnet for the city's smart and motivated students." Andrew Vanacore of The Times Picayune wrote in 2013 that Franklin was "top-notch". It has been named a Blue Ribbon School five times by the U.S. Department of Education, and was ranked 16 on the 2009 "America's Best High Schools" list by U.S. News & World Report. The class of 2008 produced 17 National Achievement Semifinalists, the most of any school in the United States. In 2021, U.S. News & World Report ranked the school as the best public high school in Louisiana and the 64th best in the United States.
Ben Franklin is a member of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association and offers a variety of sports programs. Extracurricular activities are also offered in the form of performing arts, school publications, and clubs. Notable alumni of the school include Wynton Marsalis, a Pulitzer Prize winning trumpeter, actor Wendell Pierce, and Cedric Richmond, former congressman and Senior Advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden.
Benjamin Franklin High School opened as a school for gifted children in 1957 under the direction of School Superintendent James F. Redmond and Principal Naomi Gardberg. At the time, schools under the Orleans Parish School Board were segregated. In 1960, Judge J. Skelly Wright of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana ordered the desegregation of New Orleans schools in Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board. In response to the order, 2,000 youths surged through New Orleans streets in demonstrations against school integration on November 16, 1960. Only eight Franklin students were absent from class. A Time magazine article later stated that Redmond's "proudest memory of the first day of integration three weeks ago, when truancy was rife, is that 'my Franklin kids stuck with it.'"
From its inception, Franklin was designed to be a public school for gifted students, and admissions requirements included having a 120 IQ. Following an appeal of Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit stated in 1962 that Franklin was "one of the finest schools in the country for superior students" and suggested that African American students who met the school's exacting admissions requirements be admitted. Under pressure from federal courts, Franklin became the first public high school in New Orleans to desegregate in 1963.
For over 30 years the school was housed in the historic Carrollton Courthouse on Carrollton Avenue in Uptown New Orleans. Built in 1855, the building had served as the Jefferson Parish Courthouse until the City of Carrollton was incorporated into New Orleans. By 1987, the building had fallen into disrepair and lacked basic air conditioning. Despite these conditions, Franklin maintained a reputation as a place of academic excellence.
In the late 1980s, the Orleans Parish School Board leased land from the University of New Orleans (UNO) and built a larger and more modern campus for Ben Franklin. Ben Franklin moved to this current Lake Terrace/Lake Oaks campus during the 1989–1990 school year. The building was designed by the team of E. Eean McNaughton Architects, Billes Manning Architects, and Perez Architects and received an honor award from the American Institute of Architects Gulf States Region in 1994. Visitors to the school included President Bill Clinton, who spoke with Franklin students on April 30, 1993 about his plans to create a National Service Initiative.
Ben Franklin is located near the London Avenue Canal. Like most other UNO buildings and New Orleans public schools, Ben Franklin was damaged by several feet of flood water due to Hurricane Katrina. The school was closed before the storm hit on August 29, 2005, and remained closed for several months. Over US $3 million in damage was caused by the storm. School administration, faculty, parents, students, alumni, and volunteers participated in a massive cleanup effort, without funding from and independent of the Orleans Parish School Board. The effort was chronicled by several nationwide news agencies.
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Benjamin Franklin High School (New Orleans)
Benjamin Franklin High School is a charter high school and a magnet high school in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Commonly nicknamed "Franklin" or "Ben Franklin", the school was founded in 1957 as a school for gifted children. Ben Franklin is consistently named the No. 1 school in the state of Louisiana and has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 15 charter school in the nation. In 1990, it moved to its current location on the campus of the University of New Orleans (UNO) in the Lake Terrace/Lake Oaks neighborhood of Orleans Parish, near Lake Pontchartrain. The school was damaged by several feet of flood water due to Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005, and efforts to reopen the school were covered by nationwide news agencies. The school is part of the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB), yet it operates as a charter school and is not administered directly by the agency.
Ben Franklin has a selective admissions process, and according to CBS News is a "magnet for the city's smart and motivated students." Andrew Vanacore of The Times Picayune wrote in 2013 that Franklin was "top-notch". It has been named a Blue Ribbon School five times by the U.S. Department of Education, and was ranked 16 on the 2009 "America's Best High Schools" list by U.S. News & World Report. The class of 2008 produced 17 National Achievement Semifinalists, the most of any school in the United States. In 2021, U.S. News & World Report ranked the school as the best public high school in Louisiana and the 64th best in the United States.
Ben Franklin is a member of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association and offers a variety of sports programs. Extracurricular activities are also offered in the form of performing arts, school publications, and clubs. Notable alumni of the school include Wynton Marsalis, a Pulitzer Prize winning trumpeter, actor Wendell Pierce, and Cedric Richmond, former congressman and Senior Advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden.
Benjamin Franklin High School opened as a school for gifted children in 1957 under the direction of School Superintendent James F. Redmond and Principal Naomi Gardberg. At the time, schools under the Orleans Parish School Board were segregated. In 1960, Judge J. Skelly Wright of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana ordered the desegregation of New Orleans schools in Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board. In response to the order, 2,000 youths surged through New Orleans streets in demonstrations against school integration on November 16, 1960. Only eight Franklin students were absent from class. A Time magazine article later stated that Redmond's "proudest memory of the first day of integration three weeks ago, when truancy was rife, is that 'my Franklin kids stuck with it.'"
From its inception, Franklin was designed to be a public school for gifted students, and admissions requirements included having a 120 IQ. Following an appeal of Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit stated in 1962 that Franklin was "one of the finest schools in the country for superior students" and suggested that African American students who met the school's exacting admissions requirements be admitted. Under pressure from federal courts, Franklin became the first public high school in New Orleans to desegregate in 1963.
For over 30 years the school was housed in the historic Carrollton Courthouse on Carrollton Avenue in Uptown New Orleans. Built in 1855, the building had served as the Jefferson Parish Courthouse until the City of Carrollton was incorporated into New Orleans. By 1987, the building had fallen into disrepair and lacked basic air conditioning. Despite these conditions, Franklin maintained a reputation as a place of academic excellence.
In the late 1980s, the Orleans Parish School Board leased land from the University of New Orleans (UNO) and built a larger and more modern campus for Ben Franklin. Ben Franklin moved to this current Lake Terrace/Lake Oaks campus during the 1989–1990 school year. The building was designed by the team of E. Eean McNaughton Architects, Billes Manning Architects, and Perez Architects and received an honor award from the American Institute of Architects Gulf States Region in 1994. Visitors to the school included President Bill Clinton, who spoke with Franklin students on April 30, 1993 about his plans to create a National Service Initiative.
Ben Franklin is located near the London Avenue Canal. Like most other UNO buildings and New Orleans public schools, Ben Franklin was damaged by several feet of flood water due to Hurricane Katrina. The school was closed before the storm hit on August 29, 2005, and remained closed for several months. Over US $3 million in damage was caused by the storm. School administration, faculty, parents, students, alumni, and volunteers participated in a massive cleanup effort, without funding from and independent of the Orleans Parish School Board. The effort was chronicled by several nationwide news agencies.