School 411: Washburn High School
Washburn is a very creative, colorful and diverse school in culture and languages.
Mascot: Millers
School type: Public school
Location: 201 West 49th St. Minneapolis, Minn. 55419
Web site: washburn.mpls.k12.mn.us/
School population: 973 students
Demographics: (Population of school broken down by race)
American Indian — 3 percent
Asian — 7 percent
Black — 51 percent
Hispanic — 18 percent
White — 21 percent
Percent of students eligible for the free and reduced price lunch program: 64 percent
Personality: Washburn is a very creative, colorful and diverse school in culture and languages. Students can express themselves through arts, music, sports, clubs, or academics.
The students at Washburn are proud and show it by wearing the school’s apparel to pep-fests or away games. Students also wear the school’s letter jacket, which is something you gain when you’re on a varsity sports team.
The school has recently been painted with the school colors — blue and orange — to make it vivid.
Special programs: The school provides a variety of opportunities like Advanced Placement and College in the Schools classes for 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students, who can earn college credit through the classes.
The school also provides after-school homework help Tuesdays and Thursdays for students who might need extra help understanding their homework.
It also has a Post Secondary Enrollment Options Program (PSEOP) that permits juniors and seniors to take college classes.
Another program the school has are The Special Program for Adolescent Needs (SPAN). This is for students who have been found as having emotional and/or behavioral disorders.
Also there is a program for English Language Learners (ELL), engineering programs, The St. Olaf TRiO (ETS) and Avid. Next school year Washburn will become an International Bachelors (IB) school where more academic opportunities will be open for students.
Traditions: Some of the traditions at Washburn are the National African-American Parent Involvement Day, International Fine Arts Festival, and Winter Concerts among others.
Biggest sport: The biggest sport at Washburn is boys basketball. Since the team, which is coached by former Harlem Globetrotter Reggie Perkins, beat Mankato West 58-45 to win the 2009 Class AAA state championship at the Target Center, basketball has been Washburn’s big sport.
“For the past five years Perkins has rebuilt the boys basketball program into one of the best in the state. Washburn has not been to the state tournament since they won the Class 2A state championship in 1994 coached by Louis Boone,” according to Washburn’s web site.
Challenges the school faces: The main challenge right now is that the school is being fixed so there are closed stairways and cramped hallways, especially right after first and second lunch when everyone is out in the halls.
Then there are the changes the school is facing to turn into an IB school — the school’s academic schedules are changing, which is hard for some of the students. For now the school is having more positive changes than challenges.
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