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  • 21 Aug, 2019

  • By, Wikipedia

Franklin High School (Portland, Oregon)
Franklin High School (FHS) (formally Benjamin Franklin High School) is a public high school in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is located in central southeast Portland in the South Tabor neighborhood. It is the largest high school in the Portland Public School District. Its attendance boundary is expansive, with six middle schools feeding into it and covering the neighborhoods of Southeast Portland, Mt. Tabor, Lents, and Belmont.

Franklin High School, main south entry in 2021
Franklin High School, athletic wing from the north portico in 2021
Franklin High School, performing arts wing in 2021
Franklin High School, new library in former auditorium

History

Founded in 1914, Franklin is Portland's fourth high school. The city's high schools were filled to capacity at the time, and the population in southeast Portland was rapidly growing. It was initially founded in part of the Creston Elementary School, with nine instructors and 115 students in the spring 1914 semester. The current building, designed by Floyd Naramore, opened in September 1917.

In 1942, a statue of Benjamin Franklin, after whom the school was named, was installed outside of Franklin High School.

Due to the baby boom and the passing of a $25 million building levy by the school district in 1947, a new addition for arts, industrial arts, and home economics departments was slated.

In October 2010 the school decided to discontinue its competitive robotics team due to the lack of any school official sanctioning the team, allegedly by locking the team out of their workspace without access to their tools, or the more than $7000 the team had raised to sustain the program. The team had been a part of the school for seven years.

Between 2015 and 2017, the school was modernized and expanded, with funding from a $482 million bond measure in 2012. The modernization included a new arts center, a new gym, biomedical, and culinary arts building, seismic retrofitting, and a new entrance.

Student profile

In the 2017–2018 school year, Franklin's student population was 48.9% White, 20.5% Hispanic, 16.4% Asian, 5.6% African American, 0.6% Pacific Islander, 0.6% Native American, and 7.4% mixed race.

In 2008, 80% of the school's seniors received a high school diploma. Of 354 students, 282 graduated, 52 dropped out, five received a modified diploma, and 15 were still in high school the following year. In 2009, 31% of the students were transfers into the school.

Notable alumni

See also: Category:Franklin High School (Portland, Oregon) alumni