Lick-Wilmerding High School was founded on September 21, 1874, as the California School of Mechanical Arts, at Sixteenth and 17th Street and Potrero Avenue^[1] and Utah streets,^[2] in the Mission District, by a trust from James Lick. George Merrill was hired to manage the school as the first director, and Lick, as the school was informally known, officially opened in January, 1895. George Merrill was the director of Lick until 1939, and later also the director of the (Jellis Clute)^[3] Wilmerding School of Industrial Arts and the (Miranda)^[3] Lux School for Industrial Training for Girls, which were both located immediately adjacent to the Lick campus. In the early 1950s, The California School of Mechanical Arts and the Wilmerding School of Industrial Arts merged to become Lick-Wilmerding High School. The Lux School later closed, and its students joined Lick-Wilmerding. Lick-Wilmerding High School moved to a new campus at 755 Ocean Avenue in 1956.^[3]

Curriculum edit

Each student must be enrolled in a minimum of six five‐unit courses per semester, regardless of grade level. A total of 30 units per semester are required.^[4] Every student is required to complete two semesters of technical arts courses (such as wood, metal, jewelry, or electronics), one semester of performing arts, and two semesters of visual arts. Additionally, students must complete three semesters of health class (BME).

Technical courses include Metal, Woodworking, Robotics, Electronics and Jewelry. LWHS also has several year-long Architecture courses and an introduction to design course, entitled Contemporary Media and Art that is compulsory for all freshmen.

LWHS' Performing Arts Department has a choir, jazz band, orchestra, and two a cappella vocal ensembles. There is also a dance program comprising four classes: Dance 1, Dance 2, Dance Ensemble, and Dance Company. The Ehrer Theatre (named after Marcel Roy Ehrer, an American of French and Alsatian origin) Program presents plays, musicals, and a festival of original one-act plays written and directed by students. Theatre class offerings include: Acting 1, Acting Intensive, Improv, Playwriting, Stagecraft, and Directing.

Community edit

As of the 2021–2022 school year, the student body is 9% South Asian, 6% Southeast Asian, 11% African-American, 18% Latino, 29% East Asian, and 62% Caucasian. Overall, 35% of the student body identifies as multiethnic, which explains why the sum of these percentages is more than 100%.^[5]

Test scores edit

In 2014, the Huffington Post reported that students at LWHS had the 8th-highest SAT scores in the nation.^[6]

Averages for the class of 2018:^[7]

ACT edit

• ACT Average Composite 32 (52 takers).

SAT Reasoning Test edit

• SAT Average Score: 1420 (85 takers)

SAT Subject Tests (and number of test takers) edit

• Biology Ecology: 593 (7)
• Biology Molecular: 645 (2)
• Chemistry: 689 (25)
• Chinese with Listening: 587 (3)
• English Literature: 665 (71)
• French: 651 (10)
• French with Listening: 710 (1)
• Korean with Listening: 800 (1)
• Math Level I: 599 (13)
• Math Level II: 708 (73)
• Physics: 672 (9)
• Spanish: 685 (6)
• Spanish with Listening: 695 (6)
• US History: 595 (6)
• World History: 640 (1)

Advanced Placement Scores edit

• In spring of 2018, 38 students took 44 Advanced Placement exams; 93% of the scores 3 or higher

Admissions edit

On average, Lick-Wilmerding receives approximately 950 applications each year for 139 seats in the incoming 9th grade class. Full Tuition for the 2018–2019 school year is $47,209, with Flexible Tuition ranging from $700 to $47,000. This includes books, lunch, and all course materials and supplies ^[8]

Aim High Program edit

Aim High was founded in 1986, with 50 students and 12 teachers, on the campus of Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco.

The program has evolved into a collaboration with several educational institutions: Lick-Wilmerding High School, The Urban School of San Francisco, the San Francisco Unified School District and St. Paul's Episcopal School. Additional partners include the Bay Area Teachers Center, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the Exploratorium."

Technical Arts Courses edit

The following courses were available during the 2021–22 school year.^[9]

• 3D-Printing and Parametric Design
• Circuits and Electronics: Analog and Digital
• Circuits and Electronics: Device Invention
• Community Computing PPP
• Design & Technology
• Graphics and Game Design (formerly Computing 1)
• Jewelry 1
• Jewelry 2
• Private Skills for a Public Purpose (PPP)
• Rethinking Furniture
• Sewing and Textile Arts Level 1
• Sewing and Textile Arts Level 2 PPP
• Wood: Joinery and Turning

Athletics edit

Awards edit

Alternet.com has also designated Lick-Wilmerding as the 6th top high school in the United States utilizing Green Architecture [1]

California Music Education Association Honors edit

• Chamber Singers: Unanimous Superior, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.
• Big Band: Unanimous Excellent, two years running, and Unanimous Superior, two years before.
• Advanced Jazz Combo: Unanimous Superior, for four years
• Orchestra: Unanimous Superior, for one year

Anaheim Heritage Festival Honors edit

• 2004: Chamber Singers and Chamber Orchestra: Gold

• Andres Amador — artist
• Dan the Automator^[11] — DJ/Producer
• Willard W. Beatty — faculty, San Francisco State Normal School^[12]
• John Lane Bell — mathematician and philosopher
• Nathan Chan — Assistant Principal Cello, Seattle Symphony
• Wayne M. Collins — civil rights attorney
• John D. Goldman — philanthropist (class of '67)
• C. J. Goodell — Associate Justice, Court of Appeal of California, First Appellate District (1945–1953)
• Luca Iaconi-Stewart — model aircraft builder
• Jonathon Keats — conceptual artist
• Rafael Mandelman — attorney, politician, and current member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
• Gerek Meinhardt — fencer at the 2008 Summer Olympics, youngest American Olympian fencer
• mxmtoon — Singer-songwriter^[13]
• Albert Overhauser — National Medal of Science winner (class of '42)
• Lionel Pries — University of Washington faculty member and noted Seattle architect
• Harold W. Roberts — WWI Congressional Medal of Honor recipient
• Ned Segal — businessperson^[14]
• Frederick Seitz — physicist, National Medal of Science winner
• Arlo Smith — former San Francisco District Attorney's Office (1980–1996)
• Teresa Strasser — radio and television personality, writer
• Laura Sullivan — Investigative Correspondent for NPR, winner of three Peabody Awards
• Francis Tapon — author, public speaker, global nomad
• Noe Venable — singer, songwriter
• Kate Weare — dancer / choreographer / founder and artistic director of Kate Weare Company
• Peter J. Weber — architectural designer, works include portions of Mission Inn, Riverside, California
• Benjamin Wildman-Tobriner — 2008 Gold Medal Olympic swimmer and former world record holder

• San Francisco County high schools

• Lick-Wilmerding Website
• Tiger Volume: 11, No. 2 (December, 1913). Entitled "Christmas Issue" on cover : California School of Mechanical Arts via archive.org
• Lick-Wilmerding-Lux LIFE Volume VII, No. 2 (December, 1921) (The semi-annual publication by the students of the Lick-Wilmerding and Lux Schools published from 1915 to 1937), via archive.org
• Tiger 1970 Lick-Wilmerding High School, via archive.org
• Archives of Lick-Wilmerding High School, via archive.org

37°43′20″N 122°26′56″W / 37.72222°N 122.44889°W / 37.72222; -122.44889