Patrick Henry High School (Minneapolis)

Patrick Henry High School, locally known as Patrick Henry, or just Henry, is a Minneapolis public high school located in the Camden area of North Minneapolis with about 1300 students. Its address has been 4320 Newton Avenue North since it was changed in the late 1990s to reflect renovations that moved the main entrance.Like all Minneapolis high schools, Henry is composed of several "small learning communities" or SLCs. Henry's premier program is its International Baccalaureate program, which draws from parts of North, Northeast, Southeast, and some of South Minneapolis. The Class of 2007 featured twenty IB Diploma candidates. Henry also has an Engineering program, and a liberal arts program. The school is IB Certified for Diploma Programme (DP) and is also certified for IB's Middle Years Programme (MYP) as well.Patrick Henry has been named one of the top high schools in the country for almost a decade, both by Newsweek Magazine and by US News and World Report. The streak continued with the school listed again by both magazines in 2009/2010. Among schools with equivalent levels of poverty, Patrick Henry is one of very few in the country showing significant academic success.For many years, Henry struggled with low enrollment and poor academic quality. Since the 1990s, however, the school has benefited from the introduction of the IB program, corporate grants, a mentorship program for new teachers, and the strong leadership of former principals Cheryl Creecy, Michael Huerth (a recipient of the Milken Family Foundation's National Education Award), and Paul McMahan. The transition from being known as "Minneapolis Henry" to being called "Patrick Henry" occurred under Principal McMahan as part of the school's renaissance.