Nathan Hale High School

Nathan Hale High School is a public high school in Seattle, Washington, United States, operated by Seattle Public Schools. It was a member of the Coalition of Essential Schools and uses a project-based learning curriculum. History The land where Nathan Hale High School is located today was previously occupied by the Fisher Dairy Farm and later the Meadowbrook Golf Course. At that time, Jane Addams was the only secondary school in the area and was part of the Shoreline School District. Nathan Hale High School opened in 1963 with 1,206 students, all sophomores and juniors, and grew to 2,400 students across three grades by the end of the decade. In 1969, unknown individuals painted a Raider on the school's smokestack in the middle of the night. The school radio station, KNHC (for "Nathan Hale Communications"), was founded in 1971. A learning resource center was added in 1972 using bond funds. The first greenhouse was built in 1973 to house horticulture classes, and carpentry students built a newer solar greenhouse in 1982–83, near a sewer plant that was later redeveloped into Meadowbrook Pond in the late 1990s. Nathan Hale's enrollment dropped dramatically after the district-wide 1978 desegregation plan closed or reassigned many of its feeder schools. The school began admitting ninth graders in 1979. By the late 1980s and early 1990s Nathan Hale gained a bad reputation. In 1996 the Seattle Times described the school as having a "historically bad reputation". This changed by the early 2000s with the help of Principle Eric Benson. Under Bensons guidance Hale transformed into the most desirable high school in the district with the longest waitlist. New sports fields were added in 2000 and a new performing arts center was completed in 2005, hosting a free concert by Rihanna a few months later. In 2008 Lady Gaga preformed a concert in the performing arts center.