Early years This school was created in 1947 by educator and creative thinker Franklin J. Keller, as a part of
Metropolitan Vocational High School, His production in 1948 was
The Young & Fair.
Development of a new building and a joint school Beginning in the mid-1950s, the New York City administration announced plans to move PA out of its ancient building and into new quarters. These plans evolved to joining the student body with that of the
High School of Music & Art (“M&A”) in a newly constructed building. A site in the
Lincoln Square area was chosen, eventually settling to within the newly developed
Lincoln Center complex. A groundbreaking ceremony was held in 1958, where Mayor
Robert F. Wagner and the
City Council publicly promised completion by 1964. In anticipation of this, PA and M&A formally merged in 1961 as "sister schools" on paper while retaining their respective campuses. In 1969, the combined institution was coined the
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, named after the founder of M&A. PA continued to audition, educate, and graduate students in its old location during these decades of uncertainty. In 1973, ground was again broken for a new building at Lincoln Center, but New York City's budget crisis forced all construction to be suspended until the early 1980s. Finally, in September 1984, the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts welcomed students from both schools into their new building. Its facade and several exterior walls survived; the interior needed complete reconstruction. It reopened in 1995 as the
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of International Careers. ==Film==