| Ballard High School | |
| Motto: | To honor thee we trophies bring |
| Streetaddress: | 1418 Northwest 65th Street |
| City: | Seattle |
| County: | King County |
| State: | Washington |
| Zipcode: | 98117 |
| Country: | United States |
| Coordinates: | 47.6766°N -122.375°W |
| Schooltype: | High School |
| Type: | Public, coeducational |
| Established: | 1909, |
| Opened: | Current building opened in 1916 |
| Status: | Open |
| Principal: | Abigail Hunt |
| Head: | Eric Ensign |
| Staff: | 156 |
| Faculty: | 90 |
| Teaching Staff: | 75.59 (FTE) |
| Grades: | 9-12 |
| Avg Class Size: | 25 |
| Ratio: | 21.03 |
| Fightsong: | "Cheer Cheer" |
| Athletics: | 18 varsity teams |
| Conference: | Sea-King: Metro 3A |
| Mascot: | Bucky The Beaver |
| Nickname: | Beavers |
| Rivals: | Roosevelt High School Ingraham High School |
| Newspaper: | The Talisman[1] |
| Yearbook: | The Shingle |
| Budget: | $9,012,087 |
| Communities: | Ballard, Queen Anne, Magnolia, Greenwood, Crown Hill, Phinney Ridge, Fremont, Interbay |
| Website: | Ballard H.S. |
| Picture Caption: | Main entrance |
| Principal Label: | Principal |
| Head Label: | Athletic Director |
| Enrollment: | 1,590 (2022-23)[2] |
| Campus: | Urban |
| Campus Size: | 12.71 acres (51,436 m²) |
| Colors: | Red & Black |
| Feeders: | Whitman Middle School, McClure Middle School, Salmon Bay K-8, Hamilton International Middle School, Catharine Blaine K-8 |
Ballard High School is a high school in Seattle, Washington, United States, located in the Ballard neighborhood.
The first 9-12 school in Ballard was part of the Central School, and operated under the Ballard School District. A few years after the neighborhood of Ballard was annexed into the city of Seattle, Seattle Public Schools renamed the high school portion of the school, and it opened as Ballard High School on September 7th 1909. In January of 1916, Ballard High School was given their own campus, which the historic school still occupies today.[3]
Prior to the Seattle Public School's construction, high schoolers in Ballard used a building that opened in the fall of 1901, when the Ballard School District added grades eleven and twelve to the already existing Central School, creating the first four-year high school in the Ballard area. The very small school was located at 5308 Tallman Avenue. There were three people on the faculty, including the principal, Harry F. Giles. The first graduating class had four students and held its commencement on June 23, 1902.[4]
By 1905, enrollment had grown to 80 students. Ballard became part of the city of Seattle in 1907, and the Central School high school became part of the Seattle Public School System.[4]
In 1909 Ballard High School was given its name, and then moved to its present location during Christmas vacation 1915. The school could accommodate 1,000 students. Three hundred of them were transferred from Lincoln.
The building was remodeled three times, once in 1925, then again in 1941, and for the last time in 1959. At that time, the student body had grown to over 2,000.[4]
That structure was demolished in the summer of 1997 due to asbestos contamination, and was replaced with the current facility. The student body was housed in the old Lincoln High School building during the 1997–98 and 1998-99 school years. Lincoln was undergoing a remodel to become a middle school. The students who attended Ballard at Lincoln High had no bells to mark classes, limited classrooms, and cubically separated classrooms in the library and gymnasium facilities for the 1997–98 school year. This was due to the fact that half of the facility at Lincoln was still closed for renovations (the half that held the majority of the divided classrooms). Finally in September 1999, Ballard High School returned to 1418 NW 65th Street to occupy a new building with the ability to accommodate evolving technology and more than 1,500 students. There are several classrooms that do not have windows.[4]
The first murder ever of a student on Seattle School District property happened in 1994 outside Ballard High School.[5] Then 16-year-old Brian Ronquillo, a student at Shorewood High School, fired a gun eight times into a group of students as a car he was in drove past Ballard High School. Melissa Fernandes, a 16-year-old Ballard student, was shot and killed, although she was not the intended target, a 16-year-old male student was also injured. Ronquillo was sentenced to 51 years in prison for the gang-related shooting and then 19-year old Cesar Sarausad who was the car driver was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison.[6] [7]
Ballard High maintains two formal academies on campus: The Academy of Finance, and the Maritime Academy. Both comprise an integrated curriculum across content areas. Students enrolled in these academies are part of the Ballard student population but have chosen to participate in a specific content area of focus.
Ballard High School hosts Viking Robotics, a FIRST Robotics Competition team, assigned team number 2928. Viking Robotics provides a place for students to learn and apply skills in STEM fields to a cooperative/competitive championship.
In 2017, Viking Robotics[8]