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Humboldt will be a different school next year.  We will be consolidating the junior and senior highs into one building, intentionally reducing our enrollment, reducing the percent of students receiving special education services, and continue the programming which Humboldt Junior High began this year.  As a result of No Child Left Behind sanctions, Humboldt Junior began the restructuring process this year and the senior high is continuing the process into next year.

We will be continuing the programming which the junior high began this year into the high school next year.  Also, all junior high students will be taking their courses within the current senior high building; the junior high facility will not be utilized by Humboldt students.  I don’t anticipate that we’ll have junior high and senior high students taking classes together, beyond what is currently happening (i.e. junior high taking advanced math classes at the senior high).

The District also has capped our enrollment at 850 students in grades seven through twelve for next year.  Currently Humboldt Junior and Senior have nearly one thousand students enrolled this year.  We also have the highest mobility rate of Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) high schools, at nearly 50%.  This mean nearly 50% of our students which start school in September are different than those which finish the year in June.  The Large Scale Systematic Changes which SPPS is in the midst of, will result in Humboldt having a more balanced mobility rate in comparison to other SPPS high schools.

In an attempt to create similar programming at all of our high schools, SPPS will also be balancing the percent of special education students at each high school.  Currently 28% of Humboldt Senior High students receive special education services; next year we’ll have approximately 24% of our students receiving special education services.

Ecolab has generously provided funding to release staff members from their teaching duties to plan for the environmental studies/college and career prep focus.  The following staff members are being released from all or part of their teaching duties for the remainder of the year to plan the programmatic changes:

Jodie Prohaska, science teacher, Matt Osborne, social studies teacher, Catherine Fredrick, reading teacher, John Iverson, technology teacher and Jennifer Madden, French and math teacher and Tom Degree, administrative intern.

The restructuring of Humboldt Junior and Senior Highs will result in changes of staff for the 2009-2010 school year.   A process was developed with the assistance of the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers to administratively transfer some of our staff to other assignments for the 2009-2010 school year.  We do anticipate that we will need to hire several new staff members and will interview other teachers in the District this spring who are interested in the new environmental focus at Humboldt.  The decision to administratively transfer staff was made by a team of administrators and was based not on performance but on what the District believes to be in the best interest of the school and students at this time.

As you can see, Humboldt is evolving into a school which will better prepare our students for life.  We’re creating a small personalized secondary school which will focus students on their future.  If you have any questions about this process, please give me a call at 651.293.8600 ext. 1017.   

Mike

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