Humboldt Senior High School
Encyclopedia
Humboldt Senior High School is a public high school located in Saint Paul, Minnesota
which serves students in grades 9-12. The school is the smallest of the seven high schools in the Saint Paul Public Schools
district with an enrollment of 858 students. It is the only high school located on the West Side of Saint Paul. The school was founded in 1889 and is one of the oldest in Saint Paul.
A founding member of the Saint Paul City Conference, Humboldt fields regular and adapted sports teams.
Humboldt has a large percentage of low-income students and has struggled on national standardized tests. The school shares facilities with Humboldt Junior High School and both schools have a program focus on environmental studies and career preparation. The school offers a number of college prep classes and has several programs to help low-income students prepare and attend college.
In the 1999-2000 school year Humboldt was placed on academic probation by Saint Paul Public Schools due to low test scores. A related report stated problems for the junior high as: "Poor attendance and a huge tardiness problem. Teacher competency varies. Technology is not meaningfully worked into instruction. School needs its own principal, not shared with the high school" and problems for the high school included "Too many students do not take school seriously. Many staff members set low expectations for students." The following year Humboldt posted some of the largest gains in a state standardized tenth grade writing test. Competency increased from 58% to 75%. In June 2001 the junior high was placed off probation but the high school remained on.
In 2005 plans were approved to give Humboldt a $1.4 million upgrade to the school's athletic facilities. A new artificial turf stadium with new bleachers and a new scoreboard was built. Soccer, football and softball fields received upgrades. The project was part of a larger plan intended to boost enrollment especially from the local neighborhood.
As part of No Child Left Behind Act
Humboldt Junior High needed restructuring for the 2009–2010 school year as a result of continual low test scores and not making Adequate Yearly Progress
. The high school portion was restructured as well because of its alignment with the junior high. As part of the restructuring 23 teachers were transferred from the school and a new program focus was created.
classes Students are able to enroll in PSEO classes at local colleges and universities. Two languages, French and Spanish, and American Sign Language classes are offered. There are several different programs to help low income students attend college including AVID
, Admission Possible
and Upward Bound
.
The school has had a number of different program focuses throughout the years and has struggled to have a clear identity. In 1987, there were plans for an international careers program at Humboldt. In 2002 Humboldt applied grant money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to establish several Small Learning Communities (SLCs). The $450,000 grant created four SLCs; ninth-grade academy, community leadership academy, humanities academy, and a science, engineering and technology academy. The SLCs are no longer in place. Since the 2009-2009 school years Humboldt has partnered with Humboldt Junior High School creating a grade 7-12 program focusing on environmental science and career preparation.
Humboldt is one of only six schools in the state of Minnesota to have a Army JROTC unit. The program began in 1994. The school has community partnerships with several local colleges including: University of Minnesota
, Hamline University
, St. Olaf College
, University of St. Thomas
, and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system. It has business partnerships with local companies such as Ecolab
and The Travelers Companies. There are Family And Consumer Science (FACS) classes, urban journalism classes and the school has an automotive repair program. Band and choir classes are offered. There are a number of extracurricular clubs including diversity clubs and Friendship club. English Language Learners (ELL) classes are also offered.
. The school has struggled to attract local students with only 30% of high school aged kids on the West Side attending Humboldt. A large proportion of students come from outside the neighborhood with only 37% of students being neighborhood kids. When attendance at the school declined students who could not fit into their neighborhood schools were sent to Humboldt as well as students who had been kicked out of other schools.
khalil.
As of the 2006-2007 school year, Humboldt enrolled 898 students. The plurality were Black, at 41%, with Hispanics, 20% and Asians, 19% being the other major ethnic groups. 17% of students identified as White. The school has the second highest rate of poverty in high schools from the Saint Paul Public School system with 80% of students qualifying for Free and Reduced Price Lunch. Free and Reduced Price Lunch is the measure of poverty for the district. The school has a large percentage of students who have limited English proficiency (39%). 24% of students qualify for special education. The school has an Adequate Yearly Progress
graduation rate of 76% while only 43% of students who initially enroll graduate within four years. 41% of students had grade level reading proficiency and 8% of students had proficiency in mathematics.
. competes in the Saint Paul City Conference
. The school was one of the founding members of the Saint Paul City Conference. Humboldt's football team has not had a winning season since 1974. The boys soccer team holds the three longest losing streaks in the City Conference with a 60 game losing streak stretching from 1997 to 2001. Since 2006 the boys soccer program has improved greatly. In 2007 the team won their first outright City Conference Championship since sharing the title with Central in 1987, the inaugural season.
Humboldt offers nine boys' and nine girls' varsity sports. These include football
(boys), wrestling
(boys), tennis
(boys and girls), basketball
(boys and girls), baseball
(boys), softball
(girls), golf
(boys and girls), soccer (boys and girls), volleyball
(girls), badminton
(girls), cross country
(boys and girls) and track and field (boys and girls). Sports that are not offered at Humboldt are played in co-ops with other Saint Paul City Conference members. The school fields adapted Softball, Soccer, Bowling and Floor Hockey teams for Physically Impaired and Cognitively Impaired students. The PI and CI teams represent the entire Saint Paul City Conference.
. In 1988, the school's Parent/Community Advisory Committee decided to keep the name after a 555 to 64 vote (90%). The school then proceeded to add an Indian education curriculum. There were several attempts to convince the Saint Paul School Board to keep the mascot. In 1989, a committee of the school board asked that Humboldt change its logo after the State Board of Education requested all schools in Minnesota change their mascots. Local American Indians viewed the mascot as a "symbol of ethnic and community pride". A week later the school board required Humboldt to change its mascot. The school hosted several rallies to try to save the mascot and held walk outs led by Native American students. After the district asked the state Department of Education for assistance the state department deferred the decision to the district. The district then deferred the change to the community who voted to keep the mascot. The school board attempted to change the mascot again in 1992, when almost 88% of the school's Native American
students voted to keep the name. After four years the school board changed the school's name with the new logo, the Hawks, being used in the 1992–1993 school year.
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
which serves students in grades 9-12. The school is the smallest of the seven high schools in the Saint Paul Public Schools
Saint Paul Public Schools
Saint Paul Public Schools is a school district that covers all of the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota.Saint Paul supports a robust network of publicly-funded primary and secondary schools....
district with an enrollment of 858 students. It is the only high school located on the West Side of Saint Paul. The school was founded in 1889 and is one of the oldest in Saint Paul.
A founding member of the Saint Paul City Conference, Humboldt fields regular and adapted sports teams.
Humboldt has a large percentage of low-income students and has struggled on national standardized tests. The school shares facilities with Humboldt Junior High School and both schools have a program focus on environmental studies and career preparation. The school offers a number of college prep classes and has several programs to help low-income students prepare and attend college.
History
Humboldt opened for the 1889-1890 school year in a 316000 square feet (29,357.4 m) building, built in 1888. The school was the first high school on the West Side and the only one to be built since. The original building housed the school for twenty-three years, until 1909 when a new building was built. Additions were made to the 1909 structure in 1924 and 1959. In 1971 there was talk of closing the school. As a result of the campaign to keep the school open the latest portion of the building was built in 1976.In the 1999-2000 school year Humboldt was placed on academic probation by Saint Paul Public Schools due to low test scores. A related report stated problems for the junior high as: "Poor attendance and a huge tardiness problem. Teacher competency varies. Technology is not meaningfully worked into instruction. School needs its own principal, not shared with the high school" and problems for the high school included "Too many students do not take school seriously. Many staff members set low expectations for students." The following year Humboldt posted some of the largest gains in a state standardized tenth grade writing test. Competency increased from 58% to 75%. In June 2001 the junior high was placed off probation but the high school remained on.
In 2005 plans were approved to give Humboldt a $1.4 million upgrade to the school's athletic facilities. A new artificial turf stadium with new bleachers and a new scoreboard was built. Soccer, football and softball fields received upgrades. The project was part of a larger plan intended to boost enrollment especially from the local neighborhood.
As part of No Child Left Behind Act
No Child Left Behind Act
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a United States Act of Congress concerning the education of children in public schools.NCLB was originally proposed by the administration of George W. Bush immediately after he took office...
Humboldt Junior High needed restructuring for the 2009–2010 school year as a result of continual low test scores and not making Adequate Yearly Progress
Adequate Yearly Progress
Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, is a measurement defined by the United States federal No Child Left Behind Act that allows the U.S. Department of Education to determine how every public school and school district in the country is performing academically according to results on standardized...
. The high school portion was restructured as well because of its alignment with the junior high. As part of the restructuring 23 teachers were transferred from the school and a new program focus was created.
Curriculum
Humboldt is a comprehensive high school and offers courses for college preparation and vocational training. Humboldt offers Advanced Placement classes as well as College in the SchoolsCollege in the Schools
College in the Schools is an educational program for high school students run by the University of Minnesota. It allows students to take college level classes in their high school and, as a result, earn college and high school credit for free. The classes are taught by high school teachers who...
classes Students are able to enroll in PSEO classes at local colleges and universities. Two languages, French and Spanish, and American Sign Language classes are offered. There are several different programs to help low income students attend college including AVID
Advancement Via Individual Determination
Advancement Via Individual Determination is an American college-readiness system designed to increase the number of students who enroll in four-year colleges, focusing on students in the academic middle. The formula is to raise expectations of students...
, Admission Possible
Admission Possible
Admission Possible is a nonprofit AmeriCorps organization whose mission is to make college admission and success possible for academically motivated, low-income students in the United States through an intensive curriculum of coaching and support...
and Upward Bound
Upward Bound
Upward Bound is a federally funded educational program within the United States. The program is one of a cluster of programs referred to as TRIO, all of which owe their existence to the federal Higher Education Act of 1965. Upward Bound programs are implemented and monitored by the United States...
.
The school has had a number of different program focuses throughout the years and has struggled to have a clear identity. In 1987, there were plans for an international careers program at Humboldt. In 2002 Humboldt applied grant money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to establish several Small Learning Communities (SLCs). The $450,000 grant created four SLCs; ninth-grade academy, community leadership academy, humanities academy, and a science, engineering and technology academy. The SLCs are no longer in place. Since the 2009-2009 school years Humboldt has partnered with Humboldt Junior High School creating a grade 7-12 program focusing on environmental science and career preparation.
Humboldt is one of only six schools in the state of Minnesota to have a Army JROTC unit. The program began in 1994. The school has community partnerships with several local colleges including: University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
, Hamline University
Hamline University
-Red Wing location :Hamline was named in honor of Leonidas Lent Hamline, a bishop of the Methodist Church whose interest in the frontier led him to donate $25,000 toward the building of an institution of higher learning in what was then the territory of Minnesota. Today, a statue of Bishop Hamline...
, St. Olaf College
St. Olaf College
St. Olaf College is a coeducational, residential, four-year, private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, United States. It was founded in 1874 by a group of Norwegian-American immigrant pastors and farmers, led by Pastor Bernt Julius Muus. The college is named after Olaf II of Norway,...
, University of St. Thomas
University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)
The University of St. Thomas is a private, Catholic, liberal arts, and archdiocesan university located in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States...
, and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system. It has business partnerships with local companies such as Ecolab
Ecolab
Ecolab, Inc. is a St. Paul, Minnesota based sanitation supply company founded in 1923.The company provides sanitation and pest control supplies, foodservice equipment repair and parts, food safety services and consulting to restaurants, hospitals, food and beverage plants, laundries, schools,...
and The Travelers Companies. There are Family And Consumer Science (FACS) classes, urban journalism classes and the school has an automotive repair program. Band and choir classes are offered. There are a number of extracurricular clubs including diversity clubs and Friendship club. English Language Learners (ELL) classes are also offered.
Students
Humboldt is the smallest high school in the Saint Paul Public School District. The school's neighborhood attendance area covers all of the West Side of Saint Paul and stretches across the Mississippi river to cover Downtown Saint Paul and portions of the West Seventh neighborhoodWest Seventh, Saint Paul
West Seventh is a neighborhood in Saint Paul, Minnesota. This area is colloquially known as the West End, and is not to be confused with the West Side, a different neighborhood. The West End lies at the base of Summit Hill and along the western bluffs of the Mississippi River, spanning the entire...
. The school has struggled to attract local students with only 30% of high school aged kids on the West Side attending Humboldt. A large proportion of students come from outside the neighborhood with only 37% of students being neighborhood kids. When attendance at the school declined students who could not fit into their neighborhood schools were sent to Humboldt as well as students who had been kicked out of other schools.
khalil.
As of the 2006-2007 school year, Humboldt enrolled 898 students. The plurality were Black, at 41%, with Hispanics, 20% and Asians, 19% being the other major ethnic groups. 17% of students identified as White. The school has the second highest rate of poverty in high schools from the Saint Paul Public School system with 80% of students qualifying for Free and Reduced Price Lunch. Free and Reduced Price Lunch is the measure of poverty for the district. The school has a large percentage of students who have limited English proficiency (39%). 24% of students qualify for special education. The school has an Adequate Yearly Progress
Adequate Yearly Progress
Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, is a measurement defined by the United States federal No Child Left Behind Act that allows the U.S. Department of Education to determine how every public school and school district in the country is performing academically according to results on standardized...
graduation rate of 76% while only 43% of students who initially enroll graduate within four years. 41% of students had grade level reading proficiency and 8% of students had proficiency in mathematics.
Sports
Humboldt is a member of the Minnesota State High School LeagueMinnesota State High School League
The Minnesota State High School League is a voluntary, non-profit association for the support and governance of interscholastic activities at high schools in Minnesota, United States. The association supports interscholastic athletics and fine arts programs for member schools...
. competes in the Saint Paul City Conference
Saint Paul City Conference
The Saint Paul City Conference is the conference for seven high schools in the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Much like the divisions in professional sports, the Saint Paul City Conference is one of many in the state that divides schools in close proximity into different conferences. It is the...
. The school was one of the founding members of the Saint Paul City Conference. Humboldt's football team has not had a winning season since 1974. The boys soccer team holds the three longest losing streaks in the City Conference with a 60 game losing streak stretching from 1997 to 2001. Since 2006 the boys soccer program has improved greatly. In 2007 the team won their first outright City Conference Championship since sharing the title with Central in 1987, the inaugural season.
Humboldt offers nine boys' and nine girls' varsity sports. These include football
High school football
High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....
(boys), wrestling
Wrestling
Wrestling is a form of grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...
(boys), tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
(boys and girls), basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
(boys and girls), baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
(boys), softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
(girls), golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
(boys and girls), soccer (boys and girls), volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
(girls), badminton
Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...
(girls), cross country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
(boys and girls) and track and field (boys and girls). Sports that are not offered at Humboldt are played in co-ops with other Saint Paul City Conference members. The school fields adapted Softball, Soccer, Bowling and Floor Hockey teams for Physically Impaired and Cognitively Impaired students. The PI and CI teams represent the entire Saint Paul City Conference.
Mascot
Humboldt's teams were formerly stylized as the "Indians". School officials spent months deciding whether to change the school's team name and mascot due to the continuing Native American mascot controversyNative American mascot controversy
The propriety of using Native American mascots and images in sports has been a topic of debate in the United States and Canada since the 1960s.Americans have had a history of drawing inspiration from native peoples and "playing Indian" that dates back at least to the 18th century...
. In 1988, the school's Parent/Community Advisory Committee decided to keep the name after a 555 to 64 vote (90%). The school then proceeded to add an Indian education curriculum. There were several attempts to convince the Saint Paul School Board to keep the mascot. In 1989, a committee of the school board asked that Humboldt change its logo after the State Board of Education requested all schools in Minnesota change their mascots. Local American Indians viewed the mascot as a "symbol of ethnic and community pride". A week later the school board required Humboldt to change its mascot. The school hosted several rallies to try to save the mascot and held walk outs led by Native American students. After the district asked the state Department of Education for assistance the state department deferred the decision to the district. The district then deferred the change to the community who voted to keep the mascot. The school board attempted to change the mascot again in 1992, when almost 88% of the school's Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
students voted to keep the name. After four years the school board changed the school's name with the new logo, the Hawks, being used in the 1992–1993 school year.
Notable alumni
- Jim Fritsche was an professional basketball player in the NBANational Basketball AssociationThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
(1953–55). - Alfred O. C. NierAlfred O. C. NierAlfred Otto Carl Nier was an American physicist who pioneered the development of mass spectrometry and used it in innovative ways to establish some major scientific results.-Early career:...
was a physicist and pioneer in the field of mass spectrometryMass spectrometryMass spectrometry is an analytical technique that measures the mass-to-charge ratio of charged particles.It is used for determining masses of particles, for determining the elemental composition of a sample or molecule, and for elucidating the chemical structures of molecules, such as peptides and...
. - Harold StassenHarold StassenHarold Edward Stassen was the 25th Governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943. After service in World War II, from 1948 to 1953 he was president of the University of Pennsylvania...
(1922) was the Governor of MinnesotaGovernor of MinnesotaThe Governor of Minnesota is the chief executive of the U.S. state of Minnesota, leading the state's executive branch. Forty different people have been governors of the state, though historically there were also three governors of Minnesota Territory. Alexander Ramsey, the first territorial...
(1939–43).
- Ken YackelKen YackelKenneth James Yackel was an American ice hockey player. Yackel was a member of the American 1952 Winter Olympics team. He briefly played professionally in the National Hockey League, appearing in six games with the Boston Bruins in 1959, becoming only the second American-developed player to...
(1949) was an Olympic and professional hockey player who was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of FameUnited States Hockey Hall of FameThe United States Hockey Hall of Fame was established in 1973 with the goal of preserving the rich history of the game in the United States while recognizing the extraordinary contributions of select players, coaches, administrators, officials and teams....
. - Dave HansonDavid Hanson (ice hockey)David J. "Dave" Hanson is a retired American professional hockey player. He played 33 games in the National Hockey League, and a total of 103 games in the World Hockey Association.-Early life:...
- NHL/WHA player most famous for his role in the 1977 movie Slap ShotSlap Shot (film)Slap Shot is a 1977 film comedy starring Paul Newman and Michael Ontkean directed by George Roy Hill. It depicts a minor league hockey team that resorts to violent play to gain popularity in a declining factory town.- Plot :...
.