Fairfax High School (Los Angeles)

{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2011}} '''Fairfax High School''' is a [[Los Angeles Unified School District]] high school located in Los Angeles, USA, near the border of [[West Hollywood]] in the [[Fairfax District, Los Angeles, California|Fairfax District]] of Los Angeles. The school is located on a {{convert|24.2|acre|m2|sing=on}} campus at the intersection of [[Fairfax Avenue]] and trendy [[Melrose Avenue]]. Several sections of Los Angeles, including the [[Fairfax District, Los Angeles, California|Fairfax District]], [[Park La Brea, Los Angeles, California|Park La Brea]], portions of [[Hancock Park, Los Angeles, California|Hancock Park]], and [[Larchmont, Los Angeles, California|Larchmont]], and the city of [[West Hollywood, California|West Hollywood]] are served by Fairfax. Some areas (including parts of West Hollywood) are jointly zoned to Fairfax High School and [[Hollywood High School]]. In Fall 2007, some neighborhoods zoned to [[Hamilton High School (Los Angeles)|Hamilton High School]] were rezoned to Fairfax High School. [[Bancroft Middle School (Los Angeles)|Bancroft Middle School]], [[Emerson Middle School]], [[Le Conte Middle School]], and [[John Burroughs Middle School]] feed into Fairfax. ==History== The high school was founded in 1924 under the direction of Principal Rae G. Van Cleve. Most of the original campus facilities were demolished in 1966 because they did not meet earthquake safety standards, but the historic Auditorium and its iconic Rotunda were spared by preservationists and are still in daily use. Greenway Court, originally built in 1939 as a social hall by the students at Fairfax as a class project, was also spared and was moved to its current location on Fairfax Avenue, where it now stands as a theater and has served since 1999 as the home of the Greenway Arts Alliance. Fairfax High School has been known since the 1930s as a breeding ground for future major figures in the entertainment industry. Former NFL official [[Jim Tunney (American football official)|Jim Tunney]] served as the school's principal from 1964 to 1970. When the 1971 Sylmar (San Fernando) earthquake struck on February 9, 1971, with a magnitude of 6.7 on the Richter scale, nearby Los Angeles High School was damaged severely and closed for repairs. Students from LA High attended Fairfax High on "double sessions," with Fairfax students using the campus from 7am-12 noon, and LA High students from 1pm-6pm. In 2009 some territory from the [[Los Angeles High School]] attendance boundary was transferred to Fairfax High School. ==Demographics== The table below represents the number of enrolled students at Fairfax High School through 2003–2007. {| class="wikitable" |- ! 2003 ! 2004 ! 2005 ! 2006 ! 2007 |- | 2,838 | 2,949 | 3,131 | 3,174 | 2,889 |} Source: As of the 2007 school year, there were 2,889 students enrolled in Fairfax High School. The racial/ethnic composition (as of the 2011 school year) was as follows: {{Div col}} * [[White American|White]]: 8.6% * [[Black American|Black]]: 27.4% * [[Hispanic and Latino Americans|Hispanic]]: 40.8% * [[Asian American|Asian]]/[[Pacific Islander American|Pacific Islander]]: 21.5% * [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indian]]: 0.4% {{Div col end}} ==Small Learning Communities== When Fairfax High School re-opened in Fall 2008(via analysis from schools in Seattle), it was reconfigured into a complex of five new small learning communities (SLCs) and the existing Fairfax Magnet Center for Visual Arts. The campus was divided into six areas of "contiguous space." Non-magnet students and staff were reorganized into five new schools-within-a-school. Subsequently, in 2010, two of the SLCs were replaced by a single SLC, bringing the total down to four SLCs and the Magnet. Currently, these SLCs are: {{Div col}} *Academy of Media & Performing Arts (AMPA) *Academy of International Business and Communications (IBC) *Health Sciences Academy (HSA) *School of Mathematics, Science and Technology (SMST). {{Div col end}} ===Fairfax Magnet Center for Visual Arts=== Fairfax is home to the Fairfax Magnet Center for Visual Arts, which attracts students from across the {{convert|700|sqmi|km2}} of the district. It opened in 1981 and is the only visual arts magnet in Los Angeles Unified School District. ===Athletics=== In 2007, the Lions Boys Basketball Team, under the coaching of Harvey Kitani, took the title of State Champions, Division 1A. A special edition of the Zoom Lebron IV was produced for the basketball team using the school's colors. In 2010, the Lions Football Team, under the coaching of Shane Cox, won the CIF Los Angeles City Section Division II championship. ===Music=== In 2007, the Fairfax Marching Lions and Color Guard, under the direction of Raymundo Vizcarra, won Second Place a Competition and First Place in the LAUSD Division I Band and Drill Championship. It was the first year in more than 20 years that Fairfax had a band eligible to compete. ==Greenway Arts Alliance== Fairfax High School is home to the Greenway Arts Alliance, which operates the Greenway Court Theater, a 99-seat Equity-waver playhouse, and provides arts educational programs, mentoring, and employment opportunities to Fairfax students. In March 1998, the Greenway Arts Alliance hosted the first [http://www.greenwayarts.org/tradingpost.htm Melrose Trading Post]. This chic [[flea market]] has become a weekly event, held every Sunday in the school parking lot at the corner of Melrose Avenue and Fairfax Avenue. With revenue from entry and vendor fees, the Melrose Trading Post is the most successful ongoing fundraiser in the history of the Los Angeles Unified School District. ==Notable alumni== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} * [[Steven Adler]], musician, drummer ([[Guns N' Roses]]) * [[Byron Allen]], talk show host * [[Herb Alpert]], musician, music industry executive *[[David Arquette]], actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, and fashion designer * [[Michael Balzary|Michael "Flea" Balzary]], musician, bassist, trumpet player ([[Red Hot Chili Peppers]]) * [[J. Curtis Counts]] (1915–1999), Director of the [[Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (USA)|Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service]] * [[James Ellroy]], writer * [[Mike Epstein|Mike "SuperJew" Epstein]], Major League Baseball player * [[Janet Fitch]], author * [[Larry Gelbart]], television writer/producer * [[Michele Greene]], actress * [[Jerome Hines]], opera singer * [[Timothy Hutton]], actor * [[Chanel Iman]], model * [[Jack Irons]], musician, drummer ([[Red Hot Chili Peppers]], [[Pearl Jam]]) * [[Jermaine Jackson]], musician ([[Jackson Five]]) *[[Rami Jaffee]], keyboardist of [[The Wallflowers]] * [[David Janssen]], actor (''[[The Fugitive (TV series)|The Fugitive]]'') * [[Alain Johannes]], musician ([[Anthym]], [[Eleven (band)|Eleven]]) * [[Jack Kemp]], politician and professional football player * [[Anthony Kiedis]], musician, singer ([[Red Hot Chili Peppers]]) * [[Mila Kunis]], actress *[[Barry Latman]], Major League Baseball player * Jerome "Jerry" Leiber (1933–2011), lyricist of [[Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller]] * [[Carole Lombard]], actress * [[Quinn Martin]], producer * [[Demi Moore]], actress (dropped out at age 16) * [[Ricardo Montalban]], actor * [[Judith Reisman]], conservative writer * [[Mickey Rooney]], actor * [[Henry Samueli]], co-founder of [[Broadcom]] * [[Allan Sherman]], musician, parodist, satirist, and television producer * [[Larry Sherry]], major league baseball pitcher; MVP of the 1959 World Series * [[Norm Sherry]], major league baseball player * [[Slash (musician)|Slash]], musician, guitarist ([[Guns N' Roses]], [[Velvet Revolver]]) * [[Hillel Slovak]], musician, guitarist ([[Red Hot Chili Peppers]]) * [[Phil Spector]], record producer * [[Peggy Stevenson]], Los Angeles City Council member, 1975–85 * [[Mel Wasserman]], education pioneer, founder of CEDU Education * [[Zev Yaroslavsky]], politician * [[Warren Zevon]], musician * [[Tracii Guns]], glam metal guitarist, [[L.A. Guns]] {{div col end}} ==External links== * [http://www.fairfaxhs.org/ Official website] * [http://my.highschooljournalism.org/ca/losangeles/fhs/ ''The Colonial Gazette''], online version of FHS's student newspaper * [http://www.greenwayarts.org/ Greenway Arts Alliance] * [http://www.kcet.org/explore-ca/california-stories/ritesofpassage/fairfax/index.php Views from Fairfax High] {{LAUSDDistrict4}} {{coord missing|Los Angeles County, California}}