George Washington High School (San Francisco)

George Washington High School
Address
Map
600 32nd Avenue

San Francisco
,
California
94121

United States
Coordinates37°46′40.13″N 122°29′31.24″W / 37.7778139°N 122.4920111°W / 37.7778139; -122.4920111
Information
MottoOf all victories first and greatest is for a man to conquer himself - Plato
EstablishedAugust 4, 1936
School districtSan Francisco Unified School District
PrincipalJohn Schlauraff
Faculty86.88 (FTE)[1]
Enrollment2,036 (2022–23)[1]
Student to teacher ratio23.43[1]
CampusUrban
Color(s)Red and Gray   
MascotEagle
Websitewww.sfusd.edu/school/george-washington-high-school

George Washington High School is a public high school in the Richmond District of San Francisco, California. The campus occupies the highest ground in the neighborhood, south of Geary Boulevard between 30th and 32nd Avenues, with a sweeping view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the athletic fields.[2] Presidio Middle School, also a public school, is located kitty-corner to the campus.

The school was opened in 1936. Its lobby is decorated with 13 murals in "buon fresco" style by Victor Arnautoff, a student of Diego Rivera, that were commissioned by the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal projects for public buildings. Titled Life of Washington, the murals depict scenes from the life of George Washington. Intended to teach students about the realities of history,[3][4] they include representations of Black slaves and white indentured servants on Washington's estate and, in a panel criticizing the notion of Manifest Destiny, a depiction of a prostrate Native American. The San Francisco Board of Education voted in 2019 to remove the murals as offensive.[5] After protests, the school board's resolution was ruled unlawful in 2021 and was rescinded in 2022.

  1. ^ a b c "Washington (George) High". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  2. ^ Hartlaub, Peter (November 16, 2023). "This S.F. high school football field has world-class views. Many don't know it exists". San Francisco Chronicle.
  3. ^ Smith, Roberta (July 26, 2019). "The Case for Keeping San Francisco's Disputed George Washington Murals". The New York Times. Retrieved August 1, 2019. Arnautoff signaled the country's underlying crimes by taking a more critical view of Washington's life, portraying his ownership of slaves and his support of the genocidal Western expansion.
  4. ^ Cherny, Robert W. (2017). Victor Arnautoff and the Politics of Art. University of Illinois Press. pp. 108–12. ISBN 9780252082306.
  5. ^ Tucker, Jill; Wu, Gwendolyn (April 7, 2019). "Offensive or important? Debate flares anew over SF school mural depicting slavery". SFGate.