Harding Senior High School (Saint Paul, Minnesota)

Harding Senior High School is a public comprehensive high school located on the East Side of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. The school is one of the nine high schools in the Saint Paul Public School District and is the largest high school in the city of Saint Paul, with enrollment at approximately 1,908.[2] The school was opened in 1926 as the second high school on the East Side, after Johnson Senior High School. Harding is part of the IB Diploma Programme. Harding is a member of the Minnesota State High School League and the athletic teams compete in the Saint Paul City Conference.

Harding Senior High School
Address
1540 East 6th Street

Saint Paul
,
Minnesota

United States
Coordinates44°57′33″N 93°2′12″W
Information
TypePublic school
Motto"A place to call home"
Established1926
PrincipalBe Vang
Teaching staff116.05 (FTE)[1]
Grades9–12
Enrollment1,908 (2018-19)[1]
Student to teacher ratio16.44[1]
Campusurban
Color(s)Maroon and Gold
  
MascotKnights
YearbookSAGA
Websiteharding.spps.org

Education
Harding Senior High School's Third Street entrance

Harding Senior High School was 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 were 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 was not enough data to associate the increase with smaller learning communities. There was a limit of 500 students per academy, which 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.

In 2009 the music listening team made up of Matt Howard, Maivboon Vang, and Colton Moyer, took home a second-place finish at the state competition, this was after placing first in sections. The previous year Matt Howard, Connie Sinks, and Colton Moyer, took second in sections and advanced to state. The state placing team of 2009 was featured in the Star Tribune.[3]

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[4][5][6] and one received a WCCO-TV outstanding graduate award.

Athletics
View of Bakken Field, used by the Harding football, soccer, and track teams.

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. 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.[7]

A number of student athletes have, after graduating, found success in collegiate sports (See notable alumni section).

Extracurricular activities

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, NHS, Student Council, Earth Club, ASAP, FIRST Robotics, etc. Harding High school also has a Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Jr. Chapter.[8] l

Miscellaneous

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.

Notable alumni

References
  1. "HARDING SENIOR HIGH". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
  2. "Search for Public Schools - School Detail for HARDING SENIOR HIGH". nces.ed.gov. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
  3. BLANCHETTE, Aimee (February 18, 2009). "Name that tune, classical style - More than 60 high school students vied in a contest testing their knowledge of music by the great composers". Star Tribune.
  4. Kinchlow, Rondah (March 16th, 2005) "Academic All-Star Michael Peden"
  5. Kinchlow, Rondah (December 5th, 2005) "Maria Bateman - Harding High School"
  6. McNiff, Tim (April 20th, 2009) "Harding senior speaks softly, carries a big academic stick"
  7. Fermoyle, Mike (August 31, 1995). "THE GAME//FOR HARDING, IT IS JOHNSON". Saint Paul Pioneer Press.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-12-08. Retrieved 2015-11-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. Tice, D.J. (February 1, 1998). "'WHO THE HELL IS KEN DAHLBERG ?'//THAT'S WHAT PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON ASKED. DAHLBERG IS A WAR HERO OF THE 1940S, A HEARING-AID PIONEER OF THE 1950S AND A POLITICAL ACTIVIST OF THE 1960S AND '70S WHOSE FUND-RAISING INADVERTENTLY BLEW OPEN THE WATERGATE SCANDAL THAT FORCED NIXON TO RESIGN". Saint Paul Pioneer Press.
  10. Selix, Casey (August 18, 1998). "WHAT'S SO FUNNY, YOUNG MAN?//FORMER HARDING HIGH CLASS CLOWN MITCH HEDBERG IS STILL GETTING LAUGHS, ONLY NOW WHEN HE GOES TO THE OFFICE, THEY'RE OFFERING HIM A TV SHOW". Saint Paul Pioneer Press.
  11. "PAUL HOLMGREN BECOMES NHL'S YOUNGEST COACH \". Saint Paul Pioneer Press. June 2, 1988.
  12. Duchschere, Kevin (January 3, 2001). "Randy Kelly announces bid to be St. Paul mayor". Saint Paul Pioneer Press.
  13. Richardson, Ray (March 11, 1996). "SHOULD THE NBA KEEP MAUER, WOLVES APART?". Saint Paul Pioneer Press.
  14. Jensen, Sean (February 19, 2004). "JOINED BY A RING - ST. PAUL'S JASON AND ALLEN LITZAU, WHO GREW UP WITH NOTHING BUT EACH OTHER, WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO SUCCEED IN THEIR SPORT -- EXCEPT GO THEIR SEPARATE WAYS". Saint Paul Pioneer Press.
  15. "Brett Rogers MMA Bio". Retrieved 2014. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  16. Grossman, Mary Ann (2015-04-14). "St. Paul author says new novel different 'but it's still me'". Pioneer Press. [{St. Paul, Minnesota]]. Retrieved 2021-01-31.
  17. Weber, Tom (March 8, 2010). "Hmong author tells of family history". Rochester Post-Bulletin.
  18. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Harding High School
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