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On Sept. 10, everyone at Humboldt School went on a Mississippi River boat trip. "I feel like the river's talking to me and I'm talking to it," said Adair Maldonado, a seventh grader. He sat alone in a corner of the boat. "I'm looking at all the things that come up ... how the water moves," he said. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

By Doug Belden      Pioneer Press:
dbelden@pioneerpress.com

Updated: 09/17/2009 12:09:51 AM CDT

Jessica Matson, far left, a classroom aide, holds out her camera to get a picture of herself and Donzeal Epps, a senior at Humboldt School. "It's my first time on a boat ... ever!" Epps said. "Nice tunnels, beautiful rocks, carved and pressed down. It's beautiful. Nice sounds. Water is wavy. Nice Birds. We're going to try to keep it clean this year." (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

The "big pop can" is gone from the front of the building, and new gardens have been planted. The sign above the front door says simply "Humboldt School." Just inside the door, large new aquariums and terrariums are built into a wall in the lunchroom.

Welcome to the new Humboldt, in which the old junior high on St. Paul's West Side has moved in next door with the senior high, and all grades have a new focus on environmental studies and college and career prep.

"We are not the same old Humboldt," Principal Mike Sodomka said. "We are a new school."

The changes, prompted by lagging test scores at both schools but particularly at the junior high — which was facing restructuring under federal accountability guidelines — are more than cosmetic.

About half the teaching staff is new, and some whole departments have had to be rebuilt. All five of last year's tenured high school science teachers are gone, for example.

A business teaching position has been replaced with one teaching agriculture.

Every teacher has been trained in a program called Advancement Via Individual Determination, which aims to improve achievement among middle-of-the-pack students, and every Humboldt student now carries an AVID binder.

Enrollment at the joint complex is capped at 850 to prevent the stream

Heavenlee Sutherlin, an 11th grader at Humboldt,. listens to Rhianna as she rides the Padelford on the Mississippi River. "It's cool, fun and interesting," she said. "I've not been on the river but I've seen it." (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

of late-enrolling students that has plagued both Humboldt and Arlington High — the other St. Paul school in restructuring — for years.

And starting next

year, the school day will be extended by almost three hours.

The question is whether revamping the school's focus, staffing and structure will lead to better test scores.

Sodomka and others at the school say the hope is that focusing year in and year out, across subjects, on the environmental/college/career themes identified by the community as important will give kids a common knowledge base they can apply in real-world ways they find interesting.

"We'll be a more engaging school,"

Sodomka said. "If you're doing cool things in school, kids will want to come."

One of those cool things was a Mississippi River boat trip, for the entire school on the third day of school last week.

Some students had never been on a boat, much less the river.

"It's a good way for us to learn about something different," senior Drina Fuentes said.

It was also a good way to launch the schoolwide

Humboldt School students take a ride down the Mississippi River. The schoolwide topic for the first quarter is the river. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri).

topic for the first quarter, which happens to be the river.

Next quarter's topic is energy and transportation, followed by ecosystems and biomes and, finally, gardens and agriculture.

Having every grade and class focus on the same themes at the same time every year could get boring, said senior Leonela Gonzalez, but teacher John Iverson says it's a way to keep everyone on the same page.

"One thing we have going for us is we have direction," said Iverson, who was one of five staff members freed up from their jobs in February through outside funding to design the new school.

Typically in public schools, he said, efforts go in multiple directions. "We're aligning the arrows here."

The planning process included regular input from students, including on the decision to do away with the "pop can," a big pillar out front with the school's name on it that many considered an eyesore but others felt was an important symbol of the place.

"It's not really missed," said junior Rachel Mosca, who was part of the planning team.

She does miss some of the faculty, however. She was looking forward to having teachers her older brother had, but many of them are gone. "It was a pretty big loss," she said. "The teachers will be sorely missed."

The changes at Humboldt are a big adjustment, said Mosca, who lives on the West Side and has attended the school since elementary school, but "hopefully it will affect the progress of our school in a positive way."

Doug Belden can be reached at 651-228-5136.

 

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