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Malden High School
Original building from 1857
Address
77 Salem Street

Malden
,
Massachusetts
02148

 United States
Information
TypePublic Coeducational Secondary
Opened1857
School districtMalden Public Schools
PrincipalDana F. Brown
Faculty119 teachers[1]
Grades9–12
Number of students1,739(2008-09)[1]
Color(s)Blue & Gold   
MascotLion (Nedlam, Malden spelled backwards)
Team nameMustangs
RivalMedford High School (Medford, MA)
YearbookThe Maldonian
WebsiteHomepage

Malden High School is a public high school located in Malden, Massachusetts founded in 1857. The high school is led by Principal Dana F. Brown.

Accredited by New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC).


History

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Centre St.

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Malden High School was established in 1857 by the school committee after a vote in favor for the establishment. [2] The school first started in the Centre Grammar School Building of Pleasant Street with Joseph H. Noyes as Principal, Annie L. Woodford as his assistant and 38 students, which would later grow to 57 over the year. [2] The school grew quickly taking the lower story of the townhouse two years later, started library on 1863, and faced increasing overcrowding until 1872 where a new building was erected on Salem Street at the cost of $100,000. [3]

Salem St.

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However, the first Salem Street building, after only a few years already became as overcrowded as the old school. [2]The school was not designed for the future rapid enrollment as the school grew well into the hundreds. By 1892, three rooms of the Centre School Building were reopened to help serve the students as the Salem building became too overcrowded. [2] After some debate, to accommodate the school's growing size, another new building was built and opened on 1896. [3] The 1872 building continued as a manual training school until 1937 where the land was used for an addition to the high school that opened in 1940. [3] [4] In the following years of the 1950s and 1960s, the Malden High School reached its zenith as the school grew to become one of the preeminent schools in the state with wide praise and strong reputation sending many to the Ivy league. In 1958, the school saw 54% (13% higher than the state average) of its graduating class to continue on to college to 45 schools. [5] This was especially impressive for a working class town in the late fifties.

Decline

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The Malden High School entered into a slow decline in the subsequent years during the seventies. The school's College Board scores declined steadily over the decade becoming well-below the national average in 1979. [6] With the declining scores, the percentage of college-bound graduates dropped to only 42% for the class of 1975 (while college-bound graduates rose nationally). [7] Even some students recognize the problem and asked the school committee to be allowed to take a heavier workload by taking more than five courses to able to compete for college admission better. [8] In addition, the school building began to show its age and marred the school with disruptive and behind-schedule repairs that even forced an early dismissal for a day. [9] Construction for a new addition in the mid to late seventies was riffled with delays and cost overruns from unexpected problems including discovering undetected peat and mysterious tunnels that needed to be excavated and filled with gravel. [10] One of the new addition buildings was nearly torn down to start after the contractor ignored an error that one of the foundation footings were misaligned nine inches the correct line . [10] [11] Even after it reached completion, the school in 1980, problems continues to persist well after construction including leaking roofs and even falling concrete. [12] [13] Adding to the decline, school vandalism reached unprecedented levels in the late seventies with trashed bathrooms, ransacked classrooms, damage to the new school pool, and even fires during the early eighties. [14] [15] Teachers and the city began openly talking about the decline of the student body and disciple with rampant truancy, drugs, and alcohol with intimidation to more studious students. [16] Finally cutbacks from funding (many blamed on the controversial proposition 2 1/2) forced layoffs and cutbacks to many of the school offerings. [15]

Latest Developments

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Since the mid-1980s, the school has become highly diverse with the minority now the majority. Its large diversity has grown to become a prominent feature of the school and was recognized during a speech in the 2007 graduation ceremony. [17] The school since then has begun to recover and now beginning to receive new lockers, desks, computers, and other new equipment. The courses continue to expand breadth of its offerings with new courses including Chinese Mandarin and new APs courses. [18] Renovations to the school buildings and plans for expansion are also underway under the school improvement plan. [19]

Academics

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The school normally operates from 7:45 AM to 2:15 PM with a schedule of 7 classes with 6 classes a day on a daily rotation. Monday's classes end earlier at 1:45 PM with shorten classes with exception to late entry days where a special schedule is used. [20] Students take college preparatory level courses with options for honors and advanced placement level courses if met required recommendations and requirements. [20] Graduation requirements requires to pass the MCAS test with taking a minimum of 2 years of History, Foreign Language (single language), and Electives as with 3 years of Mathematics and Sciences, and 4 years of English. [20]

For its foreign language requirement or as an elective, students can chose to take French, Spanish, Italian, or Latin. A half year Mandarin Chinese elective have been recently created with plans for future expansion is offered in recognition to the robust Asian American population in the school. [18]

Students have the option, permitting meeting academic requirements, a choice of 15 advanced placement courses. [18]

In addition, Malden High School Students also have the option to participate in Virtual High School program. [18]

Extracurricular Activities

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Sports

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The school is a member of Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA). The school maintains a number of varsity teams including a swimming team, as well as golf, volleyball, soccer, basketball, gymnastics, lacrosse, wrestling, tennis, track/cross country, and football teams. [20] In addition, the school have a few upstart club sports teams looking to gain official recognition, the most recent sport to gain this was the girl's volleyball team. The Malden High School once featured a rifle team who competed against college teams and enjoyed several long running championship dynasties until it was shut down. The school's team name is the Golden Tornadoes with its mascot a lion named Nedlam. Malden High School, in conjunction with Medford High School, has the 2nd oldest continuous high school football rivalry in the United States, with the first Thanksgiving Day Game dating back to 1889.[21]

Clubs, Organizations, Publications

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Outside of sports, Malden High School offers a wide variety of extracurricular activities. These includes service clubs (including Key Club and Interact Club), ethnic cultural clubs, activism clubs, interests clubs, and a number of others both fully recognized by the school and unofficial (clubs have to reach some notability and apply before full recognition and have to wait until contract negotiations before stipends are added).

Blue and Gold

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The school's official newspaper had followed a long and proud tradition publishing for over 90 years making it the second-oldest running public high school newspaper. Over the years, it had won over many awards including 40 Columbia Scholastic Press Association awards, New England Scholastic Press Association (NESPA), and Suffolk University. The most recent award was received in 2006 for best editorial from Suffolk.

Oracle

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The Oracle is the second-oldest literary society in the country. Recently, the society was given the ranking of “Superior,” the highest possible rating, with only one other school literary society in the state. [22]

Junior Varieties

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Junior Varieties is the oldest high school variety show in the country. The variety feature yearly themes with a mix of comedy, vocal talent, instrumental performances, dance performances, and other skits. The show is largely lead by the year’s junior classmen, but students of all grade levels participate including their own part in the show.

Other Activities, Organizations, and Clubs

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Fine Arts Club, Key Club, and Interact Club maintains as three largest school clubs.[citation needed] MHS Band and color guard has continually operated with many successes over the years. Reverie operates as another literary society in the school. Many other clubs operates in the school as well. Historically there been numerous publications that have risen and fallen including the literary society “The Lion,” a Jewish run school newspaper “The Optimist,” and the “the Usonian.”

References

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  1. ^ a b "2008-2009 Enrollment Plan". Retrieved 2009-06-09.
  2. ^ a b c d [1]Catalogue of the Public High School Malden, Mass. and Alumni Register 1863 – 1895
  3. ^ a b c “Old Malden High Building Goes after 65 Years of Service”, Malden Evening News, 1937-29-12, pp. 1 c.3
  4. ^ “Public Inspection Day Nov 6th”, Malden Evening News, 1940-10-15, pp. 1 c. 8
  5. ^ "54% Malden Graduates Plan to Enter College", Free Press, 1958-5-8, pp. 1 c.3
  6. ^ Burke, Deborah: “MHS College Bd. Scores are well below average”, Malden Evening News, 1979-2-12, pp. 1 c. 2
  7. ^ 42% of MHS Class of 1975 Plan to Attend College, Malden Evening News, 1975-6-5, pp. 4 c. 1
  8. ^ ”Ask to Take “extra” Course at Malden High”, Malden Evening News, 1975-3-11, pp. 12 c. 1
  9. ^ Nealon, Patricia: “Repairs delay forces early MHS dismissal”, Malden Evening News, 1977-9-7, pp. 1 c.3 pict.
  10. ^ a b Rappoli, Rick: “Problems plagued first addition, but not the second”, Malden Evening News, 1981-1-16, pp. 12 c.1
  11. ^ Hahesy, John: “Testifies MHS contractor told of error in Feb. ‘77”, Malden Evening News, 1978-3-24, pp. 1 c. 6
  12. ^ “Problems Persist in New Addition”, Malden Evening News, 1981-1-16, pp. 1 c. 3
  13. ^ “Concrete continues to fall”, Malden Evening News, 1982-6-5, pp. 1 c. 4
  14. ^ “Vandals Damage Swimming Pool with Bleachers”, Malden Evening News, 1981-7-9, pp. 1 c.1
  15. ^ a b “Will vandals take a gambol at high school?”, Malden Evening News, 1981-8-31, pp. 1 c.1
  16. ^ “Discipline crumbling at MHS, teachers say”, Malden Evening News, 1982-6-4, pp. 1 c. 4
  17. ^ "Students, on a new path". Malden Observer. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
  18. ^ a b c d "Student handbook of program of studies" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-09-01.
  19. ^ "2006-2007 School Improvement Plan" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-09-01.
  20. ^ a b c d "2006-2007 Student Handbook" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-09-01.
  21. ^ Joust The Facts: November 2006
  22. ^ "Oracle ranked superior". Retrieved 2007-09-01.
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Category:Educational institutions established in 1857 Category:High schools in Massachusetts

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