George Washington High School

Unique student body. You’ll actually have the white kids in the minority but they make the majority in the school’s rather exclusive IB program. There is an AP program for the rest but it is more understated and probably just as credible.
Transportation to the school is only through RTD (they took out the yellow buses some years ago). I think only the special-​ed kids had yellow bus transportation. There is plenty of parking space and the guest parking lot is large. The school location is really great actually. It is near Colorado Blvd, Cherry Creek, Garland Park, Crestmoor Park, and the Schlessman Library/​Lowry area. The Monaco-​Leetsdale area is generally quite crowded so I never felt so ‘stuck’ on a campus. There really wasn’t too much trouble here anyways. Some of the security guards were really cool and were friendly with the student body, which I think helps drive down the amount of trouble.
Oh yeah, and if the pizza truck guy is still around. He drives down here to make some lunch-​time business. Totally recommended.

For All High School Drama Departments:
Our friends’ daughter was in George Washington’s production of The Secret Garden this past weekend. I was very impressed with the production and the fact that the drama teacher acted as a mentor and the students did everything else from director to producer to set and prop designers. It made me realize that this is the ultimate support of local art and education. For the price of the ticket, the Husband and I had a wonderful evening watching a well done production of The Secret Garden and for $ 1.50 more we shared a bottle of water and two cookies. You should check your local high school’s theater productions and have a fun inexpensive evening out.

George Washington has a great International Bacclaurate program. Amazingly bright kids.
In searching for a high school for my daughter, this is our first choice. Even though every time I drive by between 2:15 and 2:45, there are clusters (trying to refrain from negative terms like «gangs» or «packs») of teenagers blocking up Monaco and Leetsdale.
Even though there is a police car stationed outside the front of the school.
Even though… well, this isn’t making my point. But the school community is very diverse, to say the least.
The administration is well informed. The process for the IB is consistent and thorough. and when I visited, the students were polite and informative.
I have met some of the debate team and they are actually competitive with any college level team. The Varsity tennis team is amazing, and I only know this because my nephew placed 2^nd in state or something crazy like that. He, at age 14, gives lessons now. Pretty stellar.

As an alum my viewpoint may be a bit biased and could be outdated, but in keeping up on news tidbits and knowing how the programs there work, I can say with real confidence that GW is a Denver public school worth checking out.
The nearby community is safe and convenient to a lot of businesses and shops. The programs such as IB on top of a strong AP program does produce a lot of good students. In terms of the student population I think GW has always had a healthy mix of varying ethnic and economic backgrounds. Both essential to developing well rounded personalities prepared to deal with the real world.
If you are a planning to live in this school district definitely check things out for yourself, but don’t discount GW just because its a «city» school.