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Malden High School
- Address: 77 Salem Street, Malden, Massachusetts, United States of America 02148
- Phone:
- (781) 397-6000
- (781) 397-7224 (fax)
- Website: [1]
- Overview
Centre St. The Malden High School was established in 1857 by the school committee after a vote in favor for the establishment. 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. 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. [1]
Salem St. However, the first Salem Street building, after only a few years already became as overcrowded as the old school. 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. After some debate, to accommodate the school's growing size, another new building was built and opened on 1896. 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. 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. This was especially impressive for a working class town in the late fifties. [1]
Decline 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. 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). 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. 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. 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. 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. Even after it reached completion, the school in 1980, problems continues to persist well after construction including leaking roofs and even falling concrete. 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. 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. Finally cutbacks from funding (many blamed on the controversial proposition 2½) forced layoffs and cutbacks to many of the school offerings. [1]
Latest Developments 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. 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 AP courses. A comprehensive $77 million renovation to school buildings is now underway and is planned to be completed in 2012. [1]
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