Thomas A. Edison High School (Queens)
Thomas A. Edison Vocational and Technical High School (often referred to locally simply as Edison) is a public secondary school in Queens's Jamaica community in New York City. The school is rather unique in that it is one of the few public high schools in New York City to offer vocational training programs as well as traditional college preparatory tracks and well known for its large male population. The school is operated by the New York City Department of Education.
Location
The campus is located near the top of a fairly steep hill at the corner of 168th St. and 84th Ave., and sits on the south side the Grand Central Parkway; it is situated diagonally across the parkway, southwest from St. John's University. Hillside Avenue, at the foot of the hill, is several blocks to the south.
Jamaica High School is also located near, separated from Edison by 84th Ave. and the Jamaica High School Track and Football Field. Hillcrest High School, another nearby high school, is located at Highland Avenue and Parsons Blvd.
Academic Offerings
Students at Edison generally take required courses in health, music theory, and art appreciation during their freshman year, at the end of which they choose a track to pursue in grades 10-12. Edison offers college-preparatory technological programs such as mechanical, electronic and pre-medical pharmaceutical technologies as well as more trade-oriented programs such as automotive and computer repair (A+ Certification), mechanical engineering / AUTOCAD, C++ programming, computer graphics design, and the Cisco Networking Academy, in which one can earn a CCNA network certification upon completion of the program.
Demographics
The school has an enrollment of just over 2,700 students of diverse ethnic backgrounds, including African American, Hispanic, South Asian, East Asian, White American, Bosnian and Greek. Edison's gender population is approx 60.0% male and 40.0% female.
In autumn 2006, Edison admitted 873 freshmen (9th graders). The total student population is approximately 250 larger than the 2005-2006 school year. The increase in student population has required the hiring of more than 20 new teachers. Crowding is an issue in a building designed for 1,600 Students.
Other information
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Edison participates in a wide variety of citywide sporting activities (excluding football). Its teams are known as the Inventors.
The current principal is Anthony Barbetta. The New York City Department of Education's eldest employee, Hazal Barr, works at Thomas Edison.
As a Vocational & Technical High School, teams from Edison have performed highly in Annual Competitions dealing with Auto Repair. In the 2005-06 School year, Edison teams finished First and Second in NYC. For the Current (2006-07) School Year, Edison teams have taken the top three spots in the NYC Competition (1st, 2nd & 3rd).
The high school was created in 1950.
The school began its first technical course in Electronics.
Every boy was required to wear a tie and could rent one for 10 cents from the secretary a day.
Girls were admitted to Edison in the late 70's
Students were originally admitted into Edison by taking an exam.
There used to be 700 kids when the school first started.
Edison is currently listed as the 11th most popular high school in the city as the school 8th graders want to enter in fall with 1320 choices. http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=our_schools&id=5324667
Notable Alumni
- Stephen A. Smith ESPN sports personality and Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist is a member of the graduating class of 1986.
- Mike Windischmann Professional Soccer Player, 2004 National Soccer Hall of Fame