Birmingham High School

Birmingham Community Charter High School (formerly Birmingham High School) is a charter coeducational high school in the neighborhood/district of Lake Balboa in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles, California, United States. It was founded in 1953 as a 7–12 grade combined high school and became solely a senior high school in 1963. The school has a Van Nuys address and serves Lake Balboa, parts of Encino, and Amestoy Estates. It is within the Los Angeles Unified School District but operates as an internal charter school. History The land of Birmingham High School was a US Army hospital called Birmingham General Hospital from August 24, 1943, until March 31, 1946. From 1946 to 1950 the hospital was named the Birmingham Veterans Administration Hospital when it was turned over to the Veterans Administration. In 1952, the hospital was sold to the Los Angeles City Schools for $1.00. The hospital was named after Brigadier General Henry Patrick Birmingham (1854–1932), with the World War I US Army Medical Corps. The school opened in 1953, during the immediate post-World War II era. Originally it served children grades seven to 12 from families newly settled in the San Fernando Valley. As of the 1960s the families were middle-class, and many of them had settled in the San Fernando Valley from the East Coast and the Midwest. It was in the Los Angeles City High School District until 1961, when it merged into LAUSD. On November 13, 1992, a 17-year old student was stabbed twice in the back from a gang-related fight. He was immediately treated and sent to Northridge Hospital Medical Center for non-life threatening wounds.