Soldan International Studies High School | |
---|---|
Location | |
918 Union Boulevard St. Louis, Missouri 63107-2003 United States | |
Information | |
Type | Magnet school |
Opened | 1909 |
School district | St. Louis Public Schools |
Superintendent | Kelvin Adams |
Principal | Thomas Cason |
Faculty | 40.80 (on full-time equivalent (FTE) basis) [1] |
Grades | 9–12 |
Enrollment | 487 (2022-23) [1] |
Student to teacher ratio | 11.94 [1] |
Campus type | Urban |
Color(s) | Maroon and Gold |
Athletics conference | Public High League |
Mascot | Tiger |
Newspaper | Soldan World, formerly Scrippage |
Yearbook | Soldan, formerly Scrip |
Information | (314) 367–9222 |
Website | School web site |
Soldan International Studies High School (also known as Soldan High School) is a public magnet high school in the Academy neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, US, that is part of the St. Louis Public Schools. Soldan was known for its wealthy and predominantly Jewish student population, from its opening in 1909. The student population underwent a rapid change in demographics, starting in the 1950s. It was predominantly African American by the mid-1960s. The school was renovated and reopened as a magnet school, with a focus on international relations, in 1993.
The population of the city had increased to more than 575,000, by the end of the 1890s. The St. Louis Public Schools had operated only one high school since 1855. The school district built two new high schools in 1904, in order to meet the need for greater space for high school students. The district began building a fourth high school, three years later, which became Soldan. [2] The school was known during its construction as Union Avenue High School. The school was renamed Soldan High School upon opening, in honor of Frank Louis Soldan, the superintendent of St. Louis schools from 1895 until his death in 1908. [3] Land acquisition costs for the building were $10,000, and construction cost $630,000. [4]
William B. Ittner's design for the school received praise from the United States Bureau of Education for its attention to detail and to the needs of students It was designed to stylistically complement the nearby Clark School, which was designed in Gothic Revival style, with fittings and brickwork to suggest a Tudor period Gothic structure built in approximately 1620. With a capacity of 1,600 students, the building originally occupied an area of 288 by 256 feet and had three stories. The original design of the building had 41 classrooms, with 23 designed for 48 students and 18 for 35 students. The building's 18 science demonstration rooms and laboratories accommodated physiology, physiography, chemistry, botany, and physics, and in the basement, the building was designed with shops for woodworking, machining, and domestic science. The building also had four art rooms with skylights for studio work and three mechanical drafting rooms. The auditorium was the largest in the school system up to that time, with a seating capacity of 1,750, while the music room was built with a capacity of more than 300 students. To provide for ample physical education opportunities, the school was built with two gymnasiums. [5] The school originally had two separate cafeterias for male and female students, although the practice of gender segregation at lunch was ended in the late 1940s. [3]
During the 1930s and 1940s, the school became widely known as the city's "predominantly Jewish" school, with students from several notable or wealthy families in the Central West End. [6] Although the school remained open on Jewish holidays, it often had significantly lower attendance. [7] During its early years, Soldan graduated several notable individuals, including William McChesney Martin, Jr., the longest-serving Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve, and Clark Clifford, a presidential adviser and United States Secretary of Defense. In 1922, Clifford and Martin were tennis doubles partners on the school's team. [8] It also was during the 1920s that Tennessee Williams attended the school; in the 1940s, Soldan received notability as the school attended by some of the characters in Williams' The Glass Menagerie . In 1948, the school received students after the closure of nearby rival Blewett High School, which was located one block from Soldan. [3] After the merger, the school was briefly known as Soldan-Blewett; it returned to its original name in 1955. [3]
After the Brown v Board of Education decision in 1954, white parents and students of Soldan were among the most welcoming in the city toward integration. [9] On the first day of integration, the school saw no protests, although national media personalities such as NBC evening news anchor John Cameron Swayze covered the event. [10] Neither black nor white students reported significant incidents of racial tensions or problems, although black students often chose to eat in separate areas of the building from whites in the cafeteria. [11] Despite the relatively uneventful process, Soldan experienced a rapid change in the demographics of its student population. [3] During the 1940s, more than 90 percent of Soldan students were Jewish whites; by the early 1960s, the majority were African American. [3] By 1965, only one white student attended Soldan, and many of the school's African American students had moved into the area from poorer neighborhoods such as Mill Creek Valley after urban renewal projects had displaced them. [12]
Starting in the late 1980s, St. Louis schools were required to improve physical conditions and create magnet schools as part of promoting a court-ordered desegregation program. The international studies magnet program originally was set for implementation at Northwest High School, but in August 1988, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh revised the district magnet school program. [13] Among the changes was that Soldan would become a magnet school for international studies, and that it would become the highest part of a "cluster" of magnet schools focused on international relations, with lower-level schools having a focus on foreign languages. [13]
Also part of the court desegregation plan was the physical improvement of city schools. [14] Significant renovations to Soldan began in late 1989 and included interior renovations and the replacement of the school's two 2,000-square-foot gymnasiums with one 10,000-square-foot gymnasium. [14] Due to the renovations, the building was closed from the 1990–1991 to the 1992–1993 school years, and its students were reassigned to Roosevelt High School. [15] [16] While the building was undergoing renovations, the city's Center for Management, Law and Public Policy magnet school was folded into the international studies program at Soldan. [17] After three years of construction, the renovated building reopened on September 2, 1993. [18] However, an electrical rewiring of the school and the installation of a synchronized clock system, which were to be completed as part of the renovation work, were not finished until early 1995 owing to a contractual dispute with an electrical company. [19]
After the conversion to a magnet school, Soldan became home to a significant international student population. [20] By 1996, nearly 40 percent of students were from 32 countries other than the United States. [20] As part of the merger of the Center for Management, Law and Public Policy, the school became the only high school in the state to have a law library as part of its facilities. [21] During the 2010–2011 school year, as part of a district budget process, Soldan began to accept seventh and eighth grade students. [22]
In the 2017-2018 it had an enrollment of 507, making it an average-sized high school in Missouri. [23] [ unreliable source? ]
Soldan currently offers its students several athletic and academic opportunities, that include: cross country, football, soccer, tennis, softball, and volleyball. For the 2010–2011 school year, the school offered seven activities approved by the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA): boys' and girls' cross country, 11-man football, boys' and girls' soccer, girls' tennis, girls' softball, and girls' volleyball. [24] In addition to its current activities, Soldan students have won several state championships, including:
Ronnie Pines-Men's Track and Field: 100 meter dash Missouri Class 3 state champion in 2002 and 2003
The school also has produced one tennis doubles state champion and three boys' outdoor track and field individual events champions. [25]
This article needs to be updated.(March 2019) |
In the 2009–2010 school year, Soldan had an enrollment of 749 students with 53.6 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio of 13.97. [26] In 2010, more than 80 percent of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunches. [27] Since 2006, more than 65% of the student population at Soldan has been African American and the white student population has declined by roughly half. [27]
Year | Black | White | Hispanic | Asian | Indian |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2006 | 65.7 | 23.5 | 5.7 | 5.1 | 0.0 |
2007 | 68.0 | 20.9 | 6.1 | 4.6 | 0.0 |
2008 | 65.7 | 21.4 | 8.3 | 4.6 | 0.0 |
2009 | 69.0 | 16.5 | 9.0 | 5.2 | 0.3 |
2010 | 76.5 | 12.1 | 7.1 | 3.9 | 0.4 |
Year | Percent |
---|---|
2006 | 83.0 |
2007 | 83.3 |
2008 | 67.5 |
2009 | 69.0 |
2010 | 86.3 |
2023 | 99 |
Year | Average years experience | Percent with master's degree |
---|---|---|
2006 | 14.6 | 64.2 |
2007 | 15.5 | 64.6 |
2008 | 8.9 | 54.9 |
2009 | 7.3 | 58.1 |
2010 | 6.8 | 48.5 |
Soldan has a low dropout rate; for the 2009–2010 school year, 1.8 percent of students dropped out compared to the Missouri state dropout rate of 3.5 percent. [28] Soldan also has a discipline incident rate of 3.1 percent, which is comparable to the average Missouri rate. [28] [29] Since the passage of No Child Left Behind in 2001, Soldan has met the requirements for adequate yearly progress (AYP) twice. In 2006, Soldan students achieved 17.2 percent proficiency in communication arts, allowing the school to meet AYP via making satisfactory progress. [28] In 2009, the school met AYP in communication arts via a confidence interval. [28]
Year | Graduates | Cohort dropouts‡ | Graduation rate† |
---|---|---|---|
2006 | 169 | 55 | 75.4 |
2007 | 116 | 37 | 75.8 |
2008 | 146 | 64 | 69.5 |
2009 | 138 | 55 | 71.5 |
2010 | 151 | 23 | 86.8 |
‡ Cohort dropouts is the number of students from the grade level graduating for that year who dropped out. † Graduation rate is calculated as number of graduates divided by number of graduates plus dropouts, multiplied by 100. |
Parkway North High School is a public high school in unincorporated St. Louis County, Missouri.
The Saint Louis Priory School, a Catholic secondary day school for boys, is located on a 150-acre campus in Creve Coeur, St. Louis County, Missouri, within the Archdiocese of Saint Louis. The school is run by the Benedictine monks of Saint Louis Abbey as part of their religious ministry.
Affton High School is a public comprehensive high school in Affton, St. Louis County, Missouri that is part of the Affton School District.
Parkway Central High School is a public high school in Chesterfield, Missouri, that is part of the Parkway School District.
Parkway West High School is a public comprehensive high school in Chesterfield, Missouri, US, that is part of the Parkway School District.
Saint Louis Public School District (SLPS) is the school district that operates public schools in the City of St. Louis, Missouri.
Metro Academic and Classical High School is a magnet public high school in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, that is part of the St. Louis Public Schools school district.
Lindbergh High School is a public high school in the Lindbergh School District. It is in Sappington, an unincorporated area in St. Louis County, Missouri, in the suburbs of St. Louis. It is the only high school in the district. The 2022 graduating class had 555 students.
The Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) is the governing body for high school activities throughout the state of Missouri. Approximately 580 high schools are members of MSHSAA.
Clayton High School is a public high school in Clayton, Missouri.
Wentzville Holt High School is the oldest of the four high schools in the Wentzville R-IV School District and second oldest high school in St. Charles County, Missouri. With a 2020-21 enrollment of 1,934, Holt is the largest high school in St. Charles County. Although officially known as Emil E. Holt Senior High School since 1969, it was generally known only as Wentzville High School until 2000, when a renewed emphasis was placed on the "Holt" name in preparation for the addition of a second high school in the district.
Central Visual and Performing Arts High School is a magnet high school in St. Louis, Missouri, part of the St. Louis Public Schools.
Cleveland Junior Naval Academy was a magnet military academy high school in St. Louis, Missouri and was a part of the St. Louis Public Schools. Cleveland High School opened in 1915 as a comprehensive high school, merging with the Junior Naval Academy in 1984. The Junior Naval Academy was a magnet military academy, founded in 1981. In 2006, the school moved from its original location on Louisiana Avenue (38.5777°N 90.2429°W) to the Pruitt Military Academy building on North 22nd Street, then, in 2010, it moved from Pruitt to the Southwest High School building at Arsenal and Kingshighway. In 2021, the St. Louis Public Schools board voted to close the location effective the upcoming school year.
Mehlville High School is a public comprehensive high school in Mehlville, Missouri, United States. It is part of the Mehlville R-9 School District.
Roosevelt High School is a public high school in St. Louis, Missouri that is part of St. Louis Public Schools. Roosevelt opened in 1925 after two years of construction and the evacuation of a cemetery for the building site. From the 1930s through the 1970s, Roosevelt served a predominantly white, ethnically German population, and among its graduates was Clyde Cowan, the co-discoverer of the neutrino particle. As a result of intradistrict busing in the 1980s and 1990s, Roosevelt served increasing numbers of black students, and it continues to be among the most integrated comprehensive schools in the district. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Roosevelt operated a magnet school within its building as a small learning community; however, the magnet school operation shifted to Soldan High School in 1993. Despite a two-year renovation in the mid-1990s, Roosevelt has since suffered from academic and discipline issues, and its test scores and graduation rates remain below state averages.
Maplewood Richmond Heights High School is a public high school in Maplewood, Missouri, United States.
Oakville High School is a public comprehensive high school in Oakville, Missouri that is part of the Mehlville R-9 School District.
Vashon High School is a high school of the St. Louis Public Schools in St. Louis, Missouri. When it opened in 1927, it was the second high school for black students in St. Louis.
Beaumont High School was a public high school in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It has been converted to a technical school, hosting a number of CTE programs today. It is part of the St. Louis Public Schools.It was closed as a high school after the final graduating class on May 14, 2014, but continues its career training mission. After Beaumont was founded in 1926, it became noted for producing several Major League Baseball players in the 1940s and 1950s. During the Civil Rights Movement, the high school's integration was featured in a documentary film that was nominated for an Academy Award. After the closure of Little Rock Central High School after its integration crisis, three members of the Little Rock Nine completed coursework at Beaumont. After the 1970s, however, the school re-segregated as an all-black school, and from the 1970s through the 1990s, the school suffered deteriorating physical conditions, security, and academics.
Rockwood Summit High School is a public high school in unincorporated St. Louis County, Missouri that is part of the Rockwood School District. Summit opened in 1993 on the same day as Marquette High School, another Rockwood high school.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)