McKinley Tech is a STEM-focused DCPS application high school. Students focus on one of three courses of study: Engineering, Information Technology, or Biotechnology.
History
The school was exclusively for white residents of the City of Washington until integrated with other DC schools by an Executive Order by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in June 1954. The school underwent a rapid change in the ethnic groups attending the school, similar to other schools in Washington, DC, and was a majority African-American school by 1960. The school continued to offer outstanding programs in printing, automotive technology, and other technical fields. Between 1929 and 1940 and again in 1942-1943 the school's gymnasium, Tech Gymnasium, served as a home court for the Georgetown Hoyas basketball team. In 1965, the school's football field was a secret emergency landing area for President Lyndon B. Johnson in the event of a national emergency or attack on the United States. By the late 1960s, Tech's boys basketball teams, nicknamed the "Trainers", coached by the late McKinley Armstrong, reached national prominence, winning city, league, and even parochial school invitational tournaments. The school had a television production program taught in the Lemuel Penn Center in the 1970s. Its quiz teams during that era fared well on America's longest running television quiz program, It's Academic. Enrollment fell from a peak of 2400 in the late 1960s to approximately 500 in the mid-1990s. The school was selected for closure during the period of the congressionally authorized financial control board. The school was shuttered in June 1997. During the mayoral election campaign of 1998, then Chief Financial Officer Anthony A. Williams promised the city a technology-focused high school to connect city youth with the growing technology base of the Washington-area economy. After assuming the position of Mayor in January 1999, planning began on a school that did not have a decided location. In 2000 a decision was made to place the new school in the closed McKinley facility. Plans at that time included placing incubator companies in the facility and using the facility for professional development for the DC Public Schools and for the growing charter schools movement. In July 2001, the school's opening was delayed from 2002 to 2003. In January 2002, Daniel Gohl assumed the role of Founding Principal, coming from the Science Academy of Austin in Austin, Texas. In October 2002 the DC School Board delayed the opening again to September 2004. Renovations to the older campus and modernization in a manner consistent with its intended role as a technology school were cited as reasons for the delay. The school finally reopened on September 1, 2004, for grades 9 and 10. On August 28, 2006, the school had a complete program for grades 9-12 and an enrollment of 800 students. David Pinder was appointed principal in 2007. On September 7, 2012 Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan named McKinley a National Blue Ribbon School. David Pinder was awarded DCPS Principal of the Year, 2012.
Athletics
The McKinley Tech Trainers compete in the DCIAA. They offer baseball, bowling, boys' basketball, boys' soccer, cheerleading, cross country, flag football, football, girls' basketball, girls' soccer, indoor track, softball, swimming, tennis, track, and volleyball.
