Due in part to young Israel Goldstein as an example of student possibilities, the 3-year training facility became a full four-year co-ed high school.

[8] While vibrant Italian-American and Irish-American communities remain vital components of the new multicultural South Philadelphia, these groups now compose 19.6% and 10.4% in zip codes of 19145 through 19148.

[11] Officials involved in resolving the incident, including Superintendent Arlene Ackerman and retired U.S. District Court Judge James T. Giles, were accused of failing to address the rising racial tension between different ethnic groups within the school, mishandling key evidence and eyewitness accounts in recent related attacks, and falsely accusing and punishing Asian-American students for inciting the attacks.

Students living at least 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away are given a free SEPTA transit pass which is issued every week in order to get to school.

[14] By September 1998 the school established a bilingual English-Chinese program to serve Chinese immigrant students, and that month it began hiring teachers fluent in both languages to teach core subjects.

[21] The original school building was constructed 1907 in a Norman Romanesque style designed by Board of Education Architect Lloyd Titus.

It expanded in 1914 for more boy students and a duplicate structure built for a new Girls' School with a passage connecting the two buildings that was referred to as "The Tunnel".

The frontage included a new grand sized patio plaza entrance, large asphalted school yard and significant green space enclosed with a regal looking four foot black iron railing tipped in gold painted points.

The modern architecture style utilized interior walls of cinder block, cement flooring and staircases, with a facade of light colored tan brick and large galvanized steel metal framed classroom windows.

[citation needed] In 2013 South Philadelphia High School in partnership with the Lower Moyamensing Civic Association gathered resources for a new sustainable master plan on urban crowdsourcing platform Projexity.

The master plan anticipates the creation of rooftop agriculture, outdoor classrooms, porous pavement, solar panels, and many more improvements.