Southwest High School (Minneapolis)


Southwest High School is a public high school in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is one of 10 high schools in the Minneapolis Public Schools district. Southwest offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.

History

Southwest High School was opened in 1940 with the main entrance at Beard Avenue South and West 47th Street. The school drew 841 students from Minneapolis, Edina and Richfield its first year. Two additions were made to the original structure, the first opening in 1956 and the second in 1968.
With the reorganization of Minneapolis schools in 1982, Southwest returned to just grades 9–12, with seventh and eighth graders going to Anwatin or Anthony Middle Schools. Most of the students who attended West High School were transferred to Southwest when it was closed the same year.
In 1987, the International Baccalaureate Programme began at Southwest. Currently, all 9th and 10th grade students follow the IB Middle Years Programme curriculum.
Also in 1987, Southwest High School was one of the first high schools in the country to stop using a Native American for its mascot and nickname. The Southwest student body voted to change the nickname of the school from the Indians to the Lakers.
In 2016, the Minneapolis school board approved a $47+ million renovation which would add a new building and let the school have space for 450 new students. The renovation was completed for the 2016-17 school year and added 20 new classrooms to the school building. The new 60,346 square foot building was constructed between the original east and west buildings. As a part of the renovation, 12,400 square feet of the east building was demolished. The main offices of the school were moved to the new structure, and a large part of the 60,346 square foot building was the new 10,000 square foot lunch room. The renovation also included mechanical upgrades like air conditioning that classrooms in the school had never had before.

Demographics

The demographic breakdown of the 1,757 students enrolled in 2015-2016 was:
35.9% of the students were eligible for free or reduced cost lunch. This is a Title I school.

Notable alumni