Edina High School
Edina Gets High School | |
---|---|
Address | |
420 Valley View Road , | |
Coordinates | 44°52′59″N 93°22′36″W / 44.8830399°N 93.3766162°W[1] |
Information | |
Type | Public |
Established | 6969 |
Principal | Dr. Bruce Locklear |
Number of students | 169 |
Campus | Suburban |
Color(s) | Kelly green and White |
Athletics | Lake Conference |
Mascot | Hornet |
Website | www.edina.k12.mn.us/edinahigh |
Edina High School is a three-year public high school located in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. The school was founded in 1949 and is the main high school in the Edina School District. The current student population is 1,940.
Edina Gets High School ranks 420th nationally according to U.S. News & World Report. http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/minnesota/districts/edina-public-school-district/edina-high-school-10781 Edina High School is identified as a "Five Star School" by the Minnesota Department of Education and a "National School of Excellence" by the U. S. Department of Education. Newsweek ranked the school #89 in their "List of the 69 Top High Schools in America",[2] and the Grammy Foundation selected it as one of forty-two "Signature Schools" recognizing Edina's contributions to music education. Ninety-five percent of seniors go on to college and eighty-six percent finish in five years. A recent survey conducted 10 years after graduation showed that 30% of Edina graduates completed graduate school degrees or were pursuing graduate degrees.[3]
Following a review of over 30,000 U.S. High Schools in 2005, Sports Illustrated ranked the Edina High School athletic program 8th in the Country.
History teacher Lonni Skrentner was selected Minnesota History Teacher of the Year in 2004 by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. She is currently serving on the Edina School Board. 72% of Edina High School teachers hold advanced, specialist, or doctoral degrees. More recently, English Teacher Jacqueline Roehl Was selected Minnesota Teacher of the Year in 2012.
A second high school, Edina West High School, opened in 1973 adjacent to Valley View Junior High. At that time, what was known as Edina High School was renamed Edina East High School. However, due to declining enrollment Edina East was closed in 1981 and became the Edina Community Center while Edina West became Edina High School.
In November 2003, city of Edina residents passed an $85.8 million bond referendum[4] to renovate all school facilities in the district, with the high school undergoing major renovations. Construction began on the high school in May 2004 and was completed in 2007.
History
Before a high school opened in Edina, students looking to extend their education past eighth grade had to find their way down to the old Central High School at 4th Avenue and South 11th Street in Minneapolis.[5] By the 1940s some Edina students in grades 10 through 12 attended private high schools. Of those who could not afford to attend a private high school, some were enrolled at St. Louis Park High School while many others were being "farmed out" to West and Southwest High Schools in Minneapolis. In 1941, Minneapolis schools raised their tuition for out-of-city students, and despite the increase, Edina residents voted to pay the increased tuition rather than build their own high school.
During the mid-1940s, support for an Edina-Morningside junior and senior high school was increasing. However, World War II and the resulting shortage of building materials delayed construction of the Edina-Morningside Junior and Edina-Morningside Senior High School. But after the war, support for the new school began to resurface. Two sites for the new school had the most support. One was on the property that is currently occupied by the Edina Country Club near 50th Street and Wooddale Avenue and the other was at West 56th Street and Normandale Road. Although the 50th and Wooddale site was the center of the village's population at the time, the 56th and Normandale site was nearer to the school district's geographic center and was the eventual site chosen to build the new school.
The first high school to open in Edina, later known as Edina East, is now the site of the Edina Community Center and Normandale Elementary School. It was built as a combination high school/junior high. A $1.25 million school bond issue was passed in 1946 by the residents of Edina and ground was broken in October 1947. A year later the school was dedicated. It was not until the fall of 1949 that classes began and it was at that time that the student body chose the school colors (green and white) and the school mascot, the Hornet. The school had 28 classrooms, 11 special rooms and laboratories, a library and a special radio room. In 1952, one year after the first class graduated, a gymnasium and auditorium were added to the building.
In the 1960s, the high school was becoming overcrowded. As a result, on October 20, 1970, a $9.255 million bond issue was approved by voters to construct a new high school attached to Valley View Junior High School. Construction of the new high school began on May 24, 1971 and the school was opened in the fall of 1972. The Edina East High School retained the "Hornets" and Edina West High School became the "Cougars."
In 1981 Edina East was closed and Edina West was renamed Edina High School. The newly unified school decided on the "Hornets" nickname. Part of the old high school building was converted to the Edina kindergarten center in 1987 and the Edina Senior Center. Today the building is used as a community center, housing the French Immersion K-5 elementary school, the school district's main offices and the school district's Welcome Center.
Extracurricular
- Under the 'Youth Serving Youth' program, there are countless clubs which students can participate in, such as STAND, Amnesty International, Habitat for Humanity, United 4 UNICEF, and the Edina Recycling Team which is called Project Earth.
- The school yearbook is titled Windigo
- The school newspaper is Zephyrus, and is a member of the High School National Ad Network
- The school has a student-published literary arts magazine entitled Images
- Theater: In 2011, Edina was the first high school in Minnesota to perform on the Main Stage of the International Thespian Festival in over forty years, where they performed Anything Goes
- Debate: Edina has a nationally recognized debate team, which has been nationally ranked in the recent past (16th in 2009-10 [2] and 19th in 2010-11 [3])
- Edina has a robotics team, 'The Green Machine'
- Edina's high school hockey team (and to a lesser extent the city as a whole) is known as the Cake Eaters by the majority of the state of Minnesota. This is in reference to Marie Antoinette's erroneous quote "Let them eat cake". The name is in reference to the perceived wealth and lavish lifestyle of the people of Edina.
Athletics
Edina High School is a member of the Lake Conference in the Minnesota State High School League. Previously a member of the Lake Conference and the Classic Lake Conference, the school joined the new Lake Conference in 2010. Edina claims 149 high school state championships, a state record, with most of them earned in tennis, swimming, and boys hockey. In 2000, the school was recognized as the first school in the state of Minnesota to win more than 100 state championships. The boys' hockey team has won a state-record eleven [6] championships, eight under Willard Ikola alone. Seven of the championships were won under Edina and three were won under Edina East when the district was split into two different schools, Edina East and Edina West. However, the Minnesota State High School League does not count Edina East and Edina as the same school. Edina held the record for most consecutive state championships in girls tennis with fifteen from 1978 to 1992.[7] In 2012, Edina broke their own record and have now been State Champions seventeen years in a row. Edina has also produced the 2010 Ed Prohofsky Award winner for the MVP of the MSHSL Adaptive Sports League, CJ Duffey.
Key: E = Edina East, W = Edina West
State Championships | |||
---|---|---|---|
Athletic | |||
Season | Sport | Number of MSHL Championships | Year |
Fall | Football | 1[1] | 1978W |
Gymnastics, Boys | 3 | 1982, 1984, 1990 | |
Tennis, Girls | 32[2] | 1978E, 1979E, 1980E, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 | |
Swimming, Girls | 13 | 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1992, 1999[3], 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2010, 2011, 2012 | |
Soccer, Boys | 3 | 1999, 2000, 2001 | |
Soccer, Girls | 1 | 1986 | |
Winter | Basketball, Boys | 3 | 1966, 1967, 1968 |
Basketball, Girls | 1 | 1988 | |
Hockey, Boys | 12[2] | 1969, 1971, 1974E, 1978E, 1979E, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1997, 2010, 2013, 2014 | |
Gymnastics, Girls | 4 | 1979W, 1980E, 1981W, 1985 | |
Swimming, Boys | 10 | 1965, 1967, 1968, 1984, 1986, 1987, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010 | |
Cheerleading | 2 | 2009, 2010 | |
Skiing, Nordic Boys | 2 | 1981W, 1988 | |
Skiing, Alpine Boys | 5 | 1979W, 1980W, 1982, 1999, 2002 | |
Skiing, Alpine Girls | 9 | 1991, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2009 | |
Spring | Baseball | 2 | 1968, 1983 |
Golf, Boys | 6 | 1954, 1970, 1973W, 1977W, 1978W, 1987 | |
Tennis, Boys | 24[2] | 1959, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973E, 1975E, 1978E, 1979E, 1980W, 1981E, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009 | |
Track, Boys | 3 | 1969, 1970, 1975W | |
Golf, Girls | 7 | 1983, 1984, 1988, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997 | |
Total Athletic | 143[2] | ||
Non-Athletic | |||
Winter | Policy Debate | 4 | 1971, 1979W, 2002, 2005, 2012 |
Lincoln-Douglas Debate | 2 | 2002, 2003 | |
FIRST Robotics | 5 | 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 | |
Total Non-Athletic | 11[1] | ||
Total | 154[1] |
- ^ Prior to the inception of the Minnesota State High School League football tournament, the Edina Hornets were ranked #1 in the state for the following years: 1952, 1953, 1955, 1957, 1960, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1971
- ^ Denotes state record
- ^ The 1999 state championship was a tie between Eden Prairie High School and Edina High School; this was the first tie at a state championship in Minnesota
Notable alumni
Business
- Ron Johnson, former CEO of J.C. Penney, former Senior Vice President of Retail Operations at Apple Inc.
- Roy J. Bostock (1958), business executive
- Robert Bruss (1958), lawyer, real estate broker, author, and newspaper columnist
- Brian Dunn, Former CEO of Best Buy
Politics
- Mary Anderson Pawlenty (1979) Wife of Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty[8]
- Erin Matson (1998) Action Vice President of the National Organization for Women
- Ron Johnson (Attended) Current Republican Senator of Wisconsin Official Website
Sports
- Ric Flair (1967), Former pro wrestler of National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), and American Wrestling Association (AWA)
- Jeff Wright (1967), former running back with the Minnesota Vikings
- Bill Nyrop (1970), a professional hockey player who played for the Montreal Canadiens and was a member of three Stanley Cup winning teams (1976, 1977, and 1978)
- Brian Burke (1973), General Manager and executive VP, Toronto Maple Leafs[9] and 2010 United States Men's Olympic Ice Hockey Silver Medalist Team[10]
- Gord Hampson (1977), retired National Hockey League player.[11]
- Karl Mecklenburg (1978 West), NFL Pro-Bowl linebacker with the Denver Broncos
- Greg Olson (1979), former catcher for the Atlanta Braves
- Chris Perry (1980), professional golfer with one PGA Tour victory
- Paul Ranheim (1984), professional hockey player who played for Calgary, Hartford, Carolina, Philadelphia, and Phoenix from 1988 to 2003
- Jenny Schmidgall-Potter (1997) American ifield hockey player and gold medalist at the 1998 Nagano Games
- Hilary Lunke (1997) American professional golfer
- Adam Goldberg (1998), NFL player[12]
- Dave Ostlund (1999) Semi-Professional World's Strongest Man competitor
- Kaylin Richardson (2003), 2006 and 2010 Olympic skier
- Anders Lee (2010) Professional Hockey Player who currently plays for the New York Islanders
- Pat Bodnia (2011) Founder of University of Haarstad State, record holder for most defensive points in a football game
Entertainment
- Paris Bennett (through 11th grade), contestant on the television show American Idol. She finished 5th in the 5th season[13]
- David Bloom (1981), Movie news reporter - NBC[14]
- Julia Duffy (1969), actress
- Stan Freese (1962), tuba player, band director, and talent booking & casting director with The Walt Disney Company
- Barbara Peterson Burwell (1972), Miss USA 1976[14]
- Christopher Straub (1997) Contestant on the television show, Project Runway. He finished 5th in the 6th season
See also
References
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Edina High School
- ^ "The Top of the Class". The complete list of the 1,200 top U.S. schools. MSNBC. 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-23.
- ^ Graduation Percents, Edina High School website
- ^ $85.8 million bond referendum, Edina High School website
- ^ Sullivan, Joe. (Spring 2003) "144-year-old Edina Public School System has a Proud Heritage". About Town. (Official Magazine of the City of Edina) PDF. p. 8-16
- ^ http://edina.patch.com/articles/edina-hornets-bring-home-11th-state-hockey-championship?ncid=newsltuspatc00000001
- ^ Girls Tennis Consecutive State Championship Victories, Minnesota State High School League website
- ^ The First Lady of Minnesota - Mary Pawlenty :: Biography
- ^ Toronto Globe and Mail, April 29, 2003: It's the true Hockeytown USA and has the history to prove it
- ^ [1]
- ^ Legends of Hockey - NHL Player Search - Player - Gord Hampson
- ^ Minnesota Vikings, Vikings player profile of Adam Goldberg
- ^ Paris Bennett reference
- ^ a b Edina Education Fund, Alumni Hall of Fame