Palmer High School
301 North Nevada Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903-1299 - Map Map

School Overview:
Definition of Terms
Palmer High School
School Level High school
Grades Offered Grades 9 - 12
County El Paso County, CO
Students & Faculty
Total Students 2057 students
% Male / % Female 50%  /  50%
Total Classroom Teachers 105 teachers
Students by Grade
Grade 9 - 508 students
Grade 10 - 559 students
Grade 11 - 466 students
Grade 12 - 524 students
This School
(CO) School Average
Teacher : Student Ratio 1:20 1:17
Students by Ethnicity
This School
(CO) School Average
% American Indian 2% 2%
% Asian 3% 2%
% Hispanic 16% 26%
% Black 8% 5%
% White 71% 66%
Additional Student Information
This School
(CO) School Average
% Eligible for Free Lunch 19% 19%
% Eligible for Reduced Lunch 6% 5%
% Migrant Students Enrolled n/a n/a
School Performance:
(CO) Statewide Testing Performance
School Statewide Performance View Education Department Test Scores
School District:
School District Name Colorado Springs 11 School District
This School's Agency
(CO) District Average
Number of Schools Managed 62 3
Number of Students Managed 31,618 students 677 students
District Total Revenue $265,898,000 $6,335,000
District Expenditure $283,248,000 $6,229,000
District Revenue / Student $8,410 $9,357
District Expenditure / Student $8,958 $9,201
District Graduation Rates n/a n/a
In the News:
View all past news stories
School Notes:
  • This article is on the high school located in Colorado Springs. For the high school located in Monument, Colorado, please see Lewis-Palmer High School.
  • General William J. Palmer High School is a secondary school located in downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. The school has a student population of approximately 1800, and attracts enrollment from all over the city. The flagship high school of School District 11, Palmer has the oldest International Baccalaureate (IB) program in the area, founded in 1991.
  • History
  • Palmer High School is located at 301 North Nevada Avenue in Colorado Springs. The present building was built by the Works Progress Administration under Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940. Originally named Colorado Springs High School, Palmer High School was re-named in 1959 after the city's founder, General William Jackson Palmer. At that date, the city had expanded enough to warrant the building of a second high school, Roy J. Wasson High School.
  • The school traces its history back to the 1870s and still uses a "C" for varsity letters, which through 1986 was referred to as the Broken Circle Tribe. In 1894, the successful football team earned the nickname "holy terrors," and so the school adopted the nickname "Terrors." In 1923, the football team won the national championship, the same year that Fred Fink wrote the beloved "Terror Fight Song." Prior to 1945, the school's mascot was a pit bull.
  • In 1945, a Native American student, Don Willis, designed Eaglebeak, a caricature of a fictitious Indian chieftain, beloved and respected by students and faculty alike, and the teams became the Terrors. In 1985 a local political hopeful criticized the mascot as racist to further his election bid, making Palmer one of the very first cases of controversy over a Native American mascot in the United States. Despite the fact that the politician, having lost the election, later publicly apologized to the student body and retracted the charge of racism, the damage was done and Eaglebeak was not to return. In the following years, Palmer experimented with a variety of mascots, to include a two-month flirtation with the Tasmanian devil from Warner Brothers, which nearly led to a lawsuit.
  • In the early 1990s the high school chose an eagle as its mascot, naming it "Eaglebeak", but without the historical background of the original.
  • School activities and programs
  • The Lever is Palmer's student run newspaper. It is run by students with a teacher serving as an advisor. The newspaper is published nearly every school month, and is free to all students and staff members. Recently, the newspaper digitized its previous issues, and can now be accessed online.
  • Terror TV is a student television program, about five minutes long, featuring current students and teachers in skits, interviews, Palmer events and coverage.
  • Feeder patterns
  • Middle schools that feed into Palmer include
  • Horace Mann Middle School
  • North Middle School
  • Notable alumni
  • Notable alumni of Palmer High School include:
  • Robert M. Isaac (1945, as Colorado Springs High School), mayor of Colorado Springs
  • Cassandra Peterson (1969), who played Elvira, Mistress of the Dark
  • Reginald McKnight (1974) novelist, short story writer, Hamilton Holmes Professor of English at the University of Georgia
  • Chris Fowler (1980), host of ESPN College Gameday
  • Lance Armstrong (graduated elsewhere), seven-time consecutive Tour de France winner, founder of the philanthropic Lance Armstrong Foundation
  • Bryce Case (2000), rapper, former hacker, and internet entrepreneur
  • External links and references
  • official Palmer High School website
  • history
  • CSHS/Palmer Alumni Association
  • Student's art battle winds up unifying, Mark Arnest, The Gazette (May 20, 2005)
  • Class dismissed: Planned Parenthood ejected from District 11 schools, deYoanna, Michael, The Independent (February 24, 2005)
  • Source: Wikipedia; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.
  • Add/edit information about this school (e.g., awards, news stories, notable alumni, fun facts)
 
School Zip Code:
About This Zip Code (80903)
School Zip (80903)
(CO) State Average
Population (Approximate) 15,091 people 4,157,972 people
% (age 25+) w/College Degree 38% 33%
Population Average Age 30 years old 34 years old
Average Household size 2.0 persons 2.5 persons
Median Household Income $27,057 $49,703
Avg. # of Rooms in Household 4.3 rooms 5.7 rooms
Median Age of Housing Structure 70 years old 35 years old
View Current Housing Listings View current housing listings in this area
Median Value of Housing Unit
Zipcode (80903)


Zillow Median Value of Housing Unit
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Zillow Median Value of Housing Unit
% Owning / % Renting 41% / 59% 67% / 33%
School Map:
1. Palmer Night School - 124 students - view location
2. Community Prep Charter School - 170 students - 0.3 mi. away - view location
3. Bijou Alternative Program High School - 135 students - 0.8 mi. away - view location
4. Special Programs - 179 students - 0.9 mi. away - view location
5. Adult Education Center - 213 students - 1.1 mi. away - view location
View all schools in: Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Zip 80903 
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Note: Data has been gathered from several government and commercial data sources. School data reflects 2006 statistics (most recent year available).

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