Lowell High School

Lowell High School is a co-educational, magnet public high school in San Francisco, California. History 1853-1893 In 1853, Colonel Thomas J. Nevins, San Francisco's first superintendent of schools, broached the idea of a free high school for boys and a seminary for girls. It took three years for Nevins to persuade the Board of Education that a high school was necessary, and a resolution was passed on July 10, 1856, to establish a San Francisco High School and Ladies' Seminary. Six days later, however, the resolution was rescinded on the grounds that a high school could not legally be part of the San Francisco Common Schools; opponents in the city saw no need for an education beyond the eighth grade funded by the public. A simple name change from the proposed San Francisco High School and Ladies' Seminary to the Union Grammar School appeased those who had opposed the creation of a high school.