| Number of Schools Managed |
134 |
3 |
| Number of Students Managed |
41,728 students |
766 students |
| District Total Revenue |
$544,746,000 |
$7,976,000 |
| District Expenditure |
$557,123,000 |
$8,268,000 |
| District Revenue / Student |
$13,055 |
$10,413 |
| District Expenditure / Student |
$13,351 |
$10,794 |
| District Graduation Rates |
71% |
92% |
|
- Harding Senior High School is located on the east side of Saint Paul, Minnesota and is currently one of seven high schools in the Saint Paul Public School District. It is the second largest high school in the city of Saint Paul with enrollment at 2150.
- Education
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Harding Senior High School is one of several schools participating in smaller learning communities. In a somewhat similar fashion to specific colleges within the University of Minnesota, smaller learning communities were implemented in the 2002-2003 school year to group students that had similar interests together for a career. Freshmen are automatically placed in the 9th Grade Academy, and the following year, select to be in the Academy of Fine Arts, the Medical and Environmental Sciences Academy (MESA), the Human Services Academy, or the Science, Engineering, & Information Technology Academy (SEIT). However, the Academies have been facing difficulties with the large student body and change has been slow. While academic performance has improved over the past few years, there is not enough data to associate the increase with smaller learning communities.There is a limit of 500 students per academy, which has presented a dilemma with the Academy of Fine Arts who have had to reject a number of students. A possible cause is the large base of students involved in some form of fine arts. Another challenge is scheduling students to just their academy teachers.
- One student from the class of 2006 was the recipient of the Gates Millennium Scholarship, five Harding alumni were named KARE-11 Academic All-Stars and one received a WCCO-TV outstanding graduate award.
- Electives
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Harding High School's selection of elective courses allow students to experiment with their possible career interests while fulfilling the number of elective credits students need in order to graduate. Harding is the only school that has their own graphic arts center, which often produces clothing and programs for other district schools.
- The school also offers a journalism class where the student newspaper, The Beacon, is produced. One student was named Minnesota High School Press Association journalist of the year for 2005.
- The television production program allows students to develop and make their own videos. They produced a cable show that aired on the Saint Paul Neighborhood Network for one year.
- Athletics
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Harding's athletic program offers several sports. The girls badminton team have dominated the sport in the decade of 2000-2009, winning eight state titles (2000, 2002-2004, 2006-2009) in ten years and becoming the first school to win four consecutive team titles. No other Harding sport has won a state title.
- In the spring of 2005, freshman Sade Pollard won state titles in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. In 2006, she swept all of the sprinting events, taking home state titles in the 100m, 200m and 400m runs. Interestingly, she was the only competitor from Harding to participate in the state meet that year, but scored enough points to give Harding a third place finish in the state tournament. Pollard won the 200m and 400m dashes again in the 2007 state meet.
- In the spring of 2002, Sheila Emms broke the Minnesota single season record for strikeouts as a high school fastpitch softball pitcher. During her final season as a Harding Knight she struck out a staggering 353 batters and pitched seven perfect games. Following her high school career she was offered a full tuition scholarship to pitch for Illinois State University.
- All sports are offered for both boys and girls, with exceptions for football, gymnastics, volleyball, wrestling and badminton. Other sports include soccer, tennis, swimming, cross-country, baseball/softball, Nordic skiing, basketball, hockey and golf.
- Its chief rival is Johnson Senior High School, also located on the east side of Saint Paul. Both football teams have an annual regular-season game where they play for the Hatchet trophy.
- A number of student athletes have, after graduating, found success in collegiate sports (See notable alumni section).
- Extracurricular activities
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In addition to sports, Harding offers several, non-athletic related activities for students. They include, but are not limited to, Korean Club, S.E.A. Club, Speech Team, Upward Bound, Comic Club, Music Listening, Harry Potter Club, BOOK CLUB, Madrigals Chamber Choir, Jazz Band, Fresh Force, Math Team, Chess Club, Japanese Club, Earth Club, ASAP, etc.
- Miscellaneous
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The majority of the student body is made up of youth of Southeast-Asian descent.
- Upon the death of comedian Mitch Hedberg, students ran several pictures of him in student of the month columns for various academies along with the inscription "Mitch Hedberg, R.I.P. 1968-2005," to honor him. Hedberg graduated from Harding in 1986.
- Reunion Announcements: See the following St. Paul Schools site for upcoming class reunions for Harding and other St. Paul High Schools - [1]
- Notable alumni
- Ken Dahlberg, class of 1935, WWII fighter ace, businessman
- Mitch Hedberg, popular stand-up comedian.
- Paul Holmgren, former NHL player who spent his career with the Philadelphia Flyers and Minnesota North Stars.
- Randy Kelly, Mayor of Saint Paul from 2002-2006.
- Ken Mauer, NBA referee.
- Bill Nygren, Owner of a multi-million dollar mutual fund.
- Jo Savino, world renowned Classical Ballet artist.
- Jason Litzau, Professional Boxer
- External links
- 2003 Senior Video
- 2004 Senior Video
- 2005 Senior Video
- 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.
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