Highland Park's Franklin High Wins LAUSD Academic Decathlon

HIGHLAND PARK, CA -- Highland Park's Benjamin Franklin High School has won this year's Los Angeles Unified School District Academic Decathlon and will go on to compete in the statewide competition in March.

It was a first-time win for Franklin's eight-member team. The remaining top spots went to Grant High School, which took second place; Garfield High School, third; Bell High School, fourth; and North Hollywood High School, fifth.

Teams from 55 LAUSD high schools competed during the weekend of Feb. 2-3 in speech, interview and essay contests and were also required to demonstrate skill in the arts, economics, language and literature, mathematics, music and social science.

The winners were announced Saturday, Feb. 9 during a ceremony at Hollywood High School.

Franklin High and nine other top-scoring LAUSD schools will compete in the California Academic Decathlon in Sacramento March 21-24. The Top 5 schools will be joined in Sacramento by teams from Van Nuys and Marshall high schools, the Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnets.

City News Service contributed to this report/Image via Shutterstock