Overview
Hutchinson Senior High School was founded in the fall of 1877 in Hutchinson, Minnesota, United States. The school has over 12,000 graduates since its inception. The first graduating class included H. H. Bonniwell.
Today, HHS graduates anywhere from 200-240 graduates per year. This rate has held fairly steady for the past 50 years. The first class over 100 was in 1942 (110) and the first class of 200 students occurred 23 years later in 1965. The last graduating class under 200 was in 1992. Over that time, Hutchinson HS has had a remarkably stable population of between 800-1100 students. Currently, the enrollment of Hutchinson HS is above 900 and expects to be there through the near future. A new remodeled high school debuted during the 2017-2018 school year.
History
The first HHS graduates were in 1878. High school education generally was exclusive to private tutoring prior to this.
In 1881, the Hutchinson school district became one of the first to receive state money to provide high school study.
In 1890, the Hutchinson school district had 529 pupils, while only graduating 4 students. High school education did not gain popularity until the turn of the century.
In 1913, a Normal School was started. The normal school took place in the summer after graduation and allowed many people to become certified teachers in a six-week program. 50% of the graduating class went to the Normal school in 1915-17. The Normal School continued to operate until 1947. During this period, the teacher training school graduated 10-15 students yearly.
The first documented valedictorian was E. R. Dennis in the Class of 1912. The practice of naming a valedictorian and salutatorian was ended by Principal Scott Douglas in the year 2000.
Graduation classes
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