Central High School (Philadelphia)
Central High School is a public high school in the Logan section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1836, it is a four-year university preparatory magnet school.
| Central High School | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
1700 West Olney Avenue Philadelphia , Pennsylvania 19141 United States | |
| Information | |
| Type | Public high school |
| Established | 1836 |
| School district | School District of Philadelphia |
| President | Katharine Davis |
| Teaching staff | 90.81 (FTE) |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Enrollment | 2,371 (2017–18) |
| Student to teacher ratio | 26.11 |
| Color(s) | |
| Athletics conference | Philadelphia Public League |
| Nickname | Lancers |
| Newspaper | The Centralizer |
| Television network | Central Broadcast News (CBN) |
| Website | centralhigh |
Central High School | |
U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
| Location | 1700 West Olney Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 40°2′15″N 75°9′00″W |
| Area | 5 acres (2.0 ha) |
| Built | 1937 |
| Architect | Catharine, Irwin T. |
| Architectural style | Moderne |
| MPS | Philadelphia Public Schools TR |
| NRHP reference No. | 86003267 |
| Added to NRHP | December 4, 1986 |
About 2,400 students attend grades 9 through 12. Central High School is the only high school in the United States with authority, granted by an Act of Assembly in 1849, to confer academic degrees upon its graduates. This authority to grant academic degrees led Central to refer to the principal of the school as the “President” of Central High School. The current and fifteenth president of Central High School is Katharine S. Davis.
Central, rather than using a general class year to identify its classes (as in "class of 2023"), uses the class graduating number system (as in "280th" graduating class" or "280"). This tradition started shortly after the school's founding when it was common to have two graduating classes per year – one in January and one in June. In June 1965, semiannual graduations were replaced by annual graduations. As of the 2023–2024 school year, the current senior class is 283.