The official web site of the Lowell Alumni Association

Its 2006 and we of the Lowell family are celebrating the 150 years of prestige Lowell has earned as the first public all-academic high school on the entire West Coast. But many of us reading this may not know how close we came in 1961 to losing the schools all-academic curriculum and its ability to draw its students from all over the city. Superintendent Harold Spears, tired of teachers and administrators in comprehensive high schools complaining that Lowell was stealing their best students, recommended the school be moved into its new Lakeshore campus furnished with a comprehensive curriculum. Sixty per cent of the students would come from homes nearby and only 40 per cent from elsewhere in the city.

Surprisingly, none of the city's various teachers and parents groups seemed very upset about the plan, not even those at Lowell. Had it not been for an editor at the city's largest newspaper and a determined housewife who teamed up with him to fight the recommendation, Spears plan might well have been adopted by the Board of Education. But Examiner Education Editor Ron Moskowitz was mystified that there was no one to speak up for the best school in the city so he did. He wrote column after column urging the public and the board to keep its honored school intact and try and raise the other schools to its level. And Ruth Kadish who had appeared at Moskowitz office door one day asking how she could help, could be seen all over the city organizing volunteers to help gather the thousands of names on her petitions to retain Lowell as it had been for more than a century. How their campaign ended is quite a story. More than a thousand people in Nourse Auditorium applauded wildly after many tedious hours of debate when the Board of Education turned down the Superintendents recommendation by a vote of 6-1.

The fight about Lowell's status had begun in earnest eight years earlier In 1953 the recurring drive for a modern school plant (first heard in The Lowell's editorials in 1921) surfaced once more with the formation of the Committee for a New Lowell. In March of that year, fifty alumni and faculty met at the home of drama teacher, Sam Polland, for a meeting that proved to be historic for Lowell. Mr. J. Max Moore 36 was elected chairman and Judge John Molinari 27 became vice.chairman. Later in the year, committee members presented a petition to School Board President John Levison and the other Commissioners.

The petition asked that a new Lowell High School
(1) be located on the Districts Lakeshore property.
(2) be an academic school.
(3) be a non-districted school.

Early in 1954 the Board moved as follows: It is the sense of this Board that there should be a new Lowell high school located on the Lakeshore property. The motion passed unanimously. A second motion read: It is the sense of the Board that a new Lowell be continued as an academic high school. This motion also passed. In 1956 an Education building program bond issue was proposed to San Francisco voters. A new Lowell at the Lakeshore site was advertised as part of the bond issue. It was passed on Nov. 6, 1956 by a vote of 85% yes.

The seeds of the Crisis of 61 were sown at a School Board meeting, June 3, 1957 with a resolution concerning the make-up of the new southwest high school (Lowell) that read: Approximately half to three-fifths of the student body would be districted into the school from an attendance area between Balboa and Lincoln High School. Approximately 40% of the students would come from the entire city. During the late Fifties, Lowell teachers had visions of playing fields, tennis courts, an ROTC rifle range, music rooms, a 1,000 - seat auditorium, off -street parking, and even an elevator in their new home near Lake Merced. Little wonder they failed to pay much attention to the implications of the resolution. At a November 4, 1961 Board meeting, Superintendent Spears presented the plan for the partial districting of the school based on that Board resolution authorized four years earlier.

Dr. Spears unexpectedly had stepped into a mine field because a rancorous debate erupted that reached the pages of Time Magazine. He had been negotiating with the Lowell Alumni Association leadership who reluctantly accepted the superintendents 60.40 plan as the best compromise they were going to get. The superintendent may have been thinking Home Free when the prestigious alumni spokesmen were brought into the fold. On the contrary, not only did the plan cause discussion, it sparked a debate that became so volatile that the Board postponed its final decision until the December meeting. That postponement provided time for pro-academic forces to organize in a burst of energy and conviction that saved Lowell High School as academic and nondistricted. First, the teachers were not to be persuaded so readily. As the new building arose with its special wiring and piping for shops, homemaking, and commercial rooms, the teachers awoke to the reality of a Lowell that was to be partially comprehensive and partially academic. The ensuing problems with a two-tiered instructional program were not lost on the staff.

At the next monthly meeting of The Teachers Association of San Francisco, members voted 62-2 to maintain an academic high school in San Francisco. This organization represented teachers from entire school district. Other entrants in the pedagogical brouhaha joined the debate. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that NAACP president Terry Francois urged, that the new Lowell be kept entirely open to college -bound students from throughout the city. He stated that it is the only city school where residence does not affect the selection of students and that should be maintained. School counselors should encourage all eligible students throughout the city to apply for Lowell.

The Abraham Lincoln High School PTA favored restricting Lowell to students from the adjacent area: Lowell is a public school financed by public funds just like any other school, and not a sort of special school for special groups. At their request, the influential citywide Executive Board of the Parent-Teachers Association took up the matter and voted 55.11 in support of restricting a comprehensive Lowell to students from its neighboring areas.

A Chronicle article summed-up arguments of some nearby high schools for making Lowell a district school. Any other course will draw bright students away from neighboring schools, impose second class status upon other schools, and give non-Lowell students a sense of inferiority. At this point Lowell principal J. A. Perino supported a centrally located academic high school for gifted youngsters. He maintained that Lowell was not truly an academic school because there were no citywide entrance examinations for admissions. Students were admitted upon the recommendation of junior high school counselors and teachers. A San Francisco Examiner article explored the contention that an academic high school like Lowell, designed only for college bound students, is undemocratic That such a school provides an intellectual elite with a quality of education not available elsewhere in the city's public school. Those who must attend other high schools are therefore denied equality of opportunity.

The counter argument is that all young people have a right to an equal opportunity for an education. But this means an opportunity to as much education as they can absorb. It doesn't mean that the boy whose abilities fit him only for a manual occupation is discriminated against when denied access to an advanced academic subject. The survival of our country may well depend upon developing its ablest young minds to the fullest. What could be more undemocratic than to risk democracy's existence by stunting its superior intellects? During this debate to determine Lowell High Schools future, the school was blessed by two passionate advocates for an academic high school in San Francisco: S. F. Examiner columnist Ron Moskowitz and Mrs. Ruth S. Kadish, an eleventh hour entrant into the contentious controversy.

For his part, Moskowitz was consistent in his support for the academic ideal from the beginning of the superintendents avowal of the 60.40 plan for Lowell. It was his unwavering belief that ambitious young San Franciscans deserved the option of a rigorous college preparatory education consistent with their intellectual abilities. That the city's public academic high school, unique in the West, had done just that for over 100 years was justifiable reason to stay the course. On Nov. 11th, he wrote If the new high school designated Lowell opens in southwest San Francisco next fall under the Superintendent Harold Spears plan, it will be a major tragedy for this city. The Examiner education editor referred to an earlier report made by a team of professors from Stanford University and the University of California to the Board. In their report were specific suggestions regarding Lowell, San Francisco already possesses a high school which is specialized to a high degree. Without prejudice to the general principle of the comprehensive high school, we recommend that such specialization be continued and perhaps extended. Enter the Moskowitz Plan. This plan would have Lowell High School remain in its present Hayes Street building (completely remodeled and modernized) in the center of the city as a solely academic high school which draws its students from the entire city on a best-grades basis. We picture Lowell as a place where students of the highest caliber can gather together from all over the city, regardless of race or social or cultural background which varies from neighborhood to neighborhood.

The Examiner writer continued his crusade for an academic high school right up to the crucial December 5th Board meeting. Meanwhile, the Chronicle stated in a December 4th article, We deem the Spears plan to be as able a solution for a complex problem as can be achieved and think that the Board would be wise to adopt it. The Lowell Alumni Associations executive board, represented by its President J. Max Moore, went on record for the Spears 60-40 Plan. Judge Molinari, VP of the Lowell Alumni Association, said when they took that vote, they never thought it would be feasible to keep the old Lowell until the Moskowitz Plan was brought up. We thought it was a situation where we had to move out because the building was condemned. We didn't know Spears planned on remodeling it. At the time, I was interested in keeping it as an academic high school and I still am, but I thought that was all we could get and I said Lets get it. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has changed his mind.

After reading Spears proposal and some of Moskowitz's columns, Morris Kadish, a painting contractor, said to his wife, Ruth, you should do something to keep Lowell academic. He was thinking that his children might want to get an academic education - indeed, Johanna Kadish did graduate from Lowell in 1966. Ruth agreed and went to see Ron Moskowitz to see how she could help. He replied that it would help to have a well-organized group of parents fighting against the Superintendents proposal. She said that she would rally the troops!

In the middle of November a brand new Citizens Committee for an All City Academic High School entered the fray. The Examiner reported, Nearly 1,000 San Franciscans have banded together to fight School Superintendent Harold Spears plan for Lowell High School. Mrs. Ruth S. Kadish, chairman, said the aim of the group is simple: to keep in the center of the city an academic high school which can draw its students from throughout San Francisco. The city needs, can support, and must have an all-city academic high school. The new committee would have a scant three weeks to gather support and signatures for its presentation to the Board on December 5.

Ruth Kadish, on behalf of the Citizens Committee, wrote the Board of education and suggested

1) That uniform and objective standards of admission be set combining results of standard achievement and intelligence tests with Junior High School grades and recommendations.

2) That standards for continuing attendance at Lowell be set up - again uniform and objective - and that the child who does not meet these standards be reassigned to his district school. The above to be determined by a rotating faculty admissions committee.

3) Continue Lowell as a four year high school.

In a four year high school, the period of adjustment, admittedly difficult for all pupils, takes place naturally and efficiently in the 9th year rather than in the more rigorous tenth year. We also mention that in San Francisco we have a special need for a four year academic high school because of the large numbers of denominational and independent elementary schools which feed a great many university preparatory pupils into the public school system at the end of the eighth year. Without a four year academic high school, these children must spend a single year in a junior high school before going on to a high school.

The above suggestions were prophetic: all were eventually implemented, except that the admissions committee is not composed of anyone from Lowell. The Examiner of November 28, 1961 reported, A wildly-applauding Lowell PTA voted unanimously last night to keep the school as an academic, non-districted high school. Irate parents and faculty members, represented by Mr. Norval Fast and faculty council president, Dr. Ruth Howard, spoke out against the compromise plan. Principal Perino, the PTA president and Mr. Moore of the alumni's executive board endorsed the compromise. Mr. Moore emphasized the need for a new building.

As the December showdown approached, Lowell's counterpart in college-prep education offered its support. Saint Ignatius Principal Thomas A. Reed, S.J. and his Parents Advisory Council unanimously endorsed the Lowell faculty and PTA in their stance to retain the college-prep nature of Lowell High School.

It was a momentous December Board meeting. The partisan crowd was reminiscent of a similar historic confrontation in 1924 when an earlier superintendent had a better idea for the academic Lowell High School. Nourse Auditorium was filled with an standing room only crowd, mostly Lowellites, including students, teachers, parents, alumni, and friends of the academic ideal. A series of speakers addressed the Board, most of them extolling the virtues of the all-city school. The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-academic Lowell in its sentiments. Few spoke in opposition to the Lowell supporters, and those that did were booed and hissed.

Especially impressive was U.S. Attorney Cecil Poole, representing the NAACP, who urged rejection of the 60-40 plan. He said, Let us keep this school the splendid institution it has been for many many years. He said, District schools carry on all of the evils of residential segregation. The 60-40 compromise, Poole said, was an awkward shotgun marriage of an academic and a comprehensive high school. Poole was interrupted by applause when he said, Lowell has never been just for the right families with the right backgrounds from the right neighborhoods.

Mr. Cipriano Salazar, president of the Community Service Organization, a Mexican-American group agreed. He said Lowell should remain entirely academic. This is of special importance for equal educational opportunity for all minority groups. He was supported by Ephraim Margolin of the American Jewish Congress. Mr. Moskowitz recalled the dramatic December 5 meeting: Ruth Kadish was coming up the aisle. What was that trailing behind her? She walked slowly and deliberately, her face solemn. As she reached the front of the room and began climbing the short flight of stairs to the speakers platform on stage, I was able to make out what was in the pathway behind her and began to smile for the first time that evening. Ruth took the microphone from its stand and proceeded past the podium, going directly to the long series of tables, behind which the Board of Education sat.

She ignored the superintendent and instead went directly to the President of the Board. I present to you tonight this petition signed by thousands of parents in this school district, she said, handing the president the few remaining papers in her hand. Hundreds more sheets of paper trailed behind her from the back of the auditorium, up the center aisle, up the steps to the stage, and in front of the board members right to the seat of the president of the board. The dramatic effect of seeing all of those names stretching from the rear of the auditorium to the table in front of the board was unforgettable. There is a picture extant of Ruth, assisted by Mrs. Constance Reed, presenting to school board president, Mrs. Claire Matzger, a petition, with petitioners signatures, for an all-city, academic high school... and by a 6-1 vote, they got what they wanted.

Local newspapers reported that some Board members indicated that they had changed their minds while hearing the long line of those who presented their views that night. The News-Call Bulletin reported, Other board members frankly admitted they were impressed by the forceful campaign of the preserve-Lowell group. Ruth Kadish is now a nonagenarian and still relishes the memory of that feverish burst of creative energy, nearly half a century ago, that saved an academic Lowell High School . her lasting legacy to the young people of San Francisco .

An email from Ron Moskowitz summed up his feelings, Although I have achieved many honors in my work in journalism, government and education, I have always counted helping save Lowell as the greatest accomplishment during my career. The reason is simple: it has had a lasting and hopefully unending benefit for generation after generation of the brightest students in the city. Regardless of their race, their address, or family wealth, they have been able to get the highly challenging education they deserve at Lowell and might never have received at a comprehensive high school. Many will go on to become leaders here and throughout the world, as they have for 150 years, thanks to a decision Ruth and I helped our Board of Education make nearly half a century ago. Thank You, Mrs. Ruth Kadish and Mr. Ron Moskowitz, on behalf of those generations of Lowell students who have benefited from that fateful decision. Please accept a rightful place among Lowell High Schools Pantheon of Heroes for your priceless gift to the young people of San Francisco.