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June 17, 2006 – 11:26 PM

James Walsh, Star Tribune

Humboldt High ready to climb back

Thwup! The West Side Boosters pitcher fired the ball into catcher Marissa Franco's mitt. Thwup! Thwup!

Behind the softball backstop at St. Paul Humboldt High School, Santino Franco stood watching his daughter's team, made up of 12-year-old neighborhood girls. And he dared to dream.

Perhaps, someday, all these girls will compete as Humboldt Hawks, said Franco, a Humboldt graduate. "I think eyes are going to open up," Franco said. "People are going to want to come here again."

Tiny Humboldt. Neglected Humboldt. Pick your adjective, but for years, the St. Paul school district's smallest high school has struggled to attract even its own neighborhood children. West Side kids used to yearn to follow brothers, sisters, parents and grandparents here. Not anymore. Years of decline have left Humboldt's enrollment a Twin Cities low 763 kids in grades 9-12.

Now, those who hope to breathe new life into Humboldt believe they're gaining ground. The school hopes to reconnect to its community in various ways:

The St. Paul School Board recently voted to invest in Humboldt, approving a new $1.4 million athletic complex. The school launched a new athletics Hall of Fame that drew hundreds to its first dinner. School leaders are adding more challenging courses. Test scores are rising. Administrators now are talking about going door to door on the West Side, selling their school to wary parents.

Will it work? Franco thinks so. He's sending Marissa to Humboldt Junior High, which is connected to the high school, in the fall. He said he's committed to sending her to the high school later.

"We've just got to do what we can. Get out there. Talk it up," he said.

From small to smaller

Humboldt was always small, but it wasn't insignificant.

Gilbert de la O's brothers and sisters attended Humboldt in the 1950s. De la O and his wife went to Humboldt in the 1960s. And sons graduated from the school in the 1980s and 1990s. "You grew up on the West Side, all your friends, your brother's friends, went to Humboldt," he said. "That's just the way the progression was."

It was the school of athletics that legends Ken Yackel (hockey), Jim Fritsche (basketball and baseball) and Ken Mauer (baseball and football) attended. It belonged to the strangely named West Side -- which is actually just south of downtown across the Mississippi River -- and its waves of immigrants. Over the past 40 years, it has been home base to St. Paul's Hispanic community.

"But it's a little more difficult to have a community school in these days and times," said Donald Luna, a 1967 graduate who has watched two sons graduate from Humboldt and has two others at the school.

First, citywide magnet schools and busing gave West Side families other options. Then open enrollment allowed families to send their children to South St. Paul and Henry Sibley High School in West St. Paul. And private school Cretin-Derham Hall siphons off some of the West Side's top athletes.

As Humboldt's enrollment declined, it became the place where kids who couldn't fit into their neighborhood school were sent. It also became the school for kids who'd been kicked out of other places.

Only 30 percent of high school age children on the West Side attended Humboldt in 2005-06 -- the lowest of the city's seven high schools. And only 37 percent of the students who attended Humboldt this year were from the neighborhood; again, lowest in the city.

A glimpse of promise

Principal John Bianchi came to Humboldt in 2004, after more than 40 years in education, including leading Bloomington Jefferson High School and Minnetonka High School. A short guy with a huge personality, Bianchi said his first order of business was cleaning out the trouble-makers and gang members, installing security cameras. That made Humboldt's numbers drop further, he said. But discipline and morale improved.

Dara Cham, 18, said Humboldt is a better school than three years ago. "Because they kicked all the gang-bangers out."

Michael Sodomka, who has been acting principal while Bianchi nurses a bad back, said, "We are working to push students beyond their expectations because students will rise to their expectations."

The school's state reading and math scores have improved over the past two years. Since 2004, significantly more students are scoring at grade level or better.

Sodomka said Humboldt is working to pull more students into college preparatory classes and is increasing its Advanced Placement offerings. The junior high school, with its popular and challenging Montessori program, is growing.

Two weeks ago, Humboldt teachers and staff gathered at the center of the gymnasium as each senior, one by one, said good-bye.

Norina Huerta, 18, couldn't contain her tears. "I've been here for six years [including junior high]" she said. "I've gotten so close to the teachers. It's just a good school."

Field of dreams

Perhaps the most promising change was the school board's vote for the new artificial turf football/soccer/softball complex -- and the political savvy that made it happen.

At the beginning of the school year, people at school district headquarters were whispering that the school might close. Interim Superintendent Lou Kanavati, a Humboldt graduate, said it needed to attract families if it hoped to survive.

That sparked months of brainstorming by Humboldt parents and staff. They presented ideas to the school board last winter, which included school uniforms and a new athletic complex to replace a small set of fields and a hand-me-down scoreboard. The ideas went nowhere, but by May 10, the board voted unanimously to give Humboldt what it wanted.

How did that happen?

Andy Mosca, whose son is a 10th-grader, said Humboldt has learned to push the right buttons. The school now has parents who've spent years on district committees, years writing grants, years pushing school board members.

"Knowing how to ask for the right things at the right time in the right way with the right support makes all the difference," he said.

Indeed, when the issue came up May 10, Humboldt parents and students past and present -- along with the baseball team in full uniform -- were there to applaud the surprise vote. Officials hope to begin work by next spring.

No one thinks a new field, grandstands and scoreboard will cure all that still ails Humboldt. But many say that the $1.4 million project is proof that better days are ahead. If you build it, families will come.

Rick Cerda, another West Side parent watching his daughter play softball, isn't sure yet if he'll send his three youngest kids to Humboldt. An older son already attends Cretin-Derham Hall. But what he's hearing is encouraging, Cerda said.

"We're contemplating it," he said, as another pitch hit the catcher's mitt. "It sounds as if things are getting better. But do I want to sacrifice my child's education to make a school better? That's a tough decision to make."

James Walsh • 612-673-7428