Atholton High School

Atholton High School
Address
6520 Freetown Road
Columbia, MD
USA
Information
Type Public Secondary
Established 1966
School district Howard County Public Schools
Principal JoAnn Hutchens
Grades 9–12
Enrollment 1,444(2008)
Color(s) Green and White          
Mascot Raider
Website http://ahs.hcpss.org

Atholton High School is a high school in Columbia, Maryland and is a part of the Howard County public school system. The school hosts an Army JROTC program.[1] The mascot is the Raider and colors are green and white.[2]

The campus features extensive sports facilities, including a large open-air astro-turf football field and a baseball diamond with conventional "dug in" dugouts instead of open air dugouts that you would find at other Howard County high schools. Atholton also has a large drama program, with its own dedicated stage, auditorium and related rooms. Over the years it has hosted many programs and talent shows, held outside of school hours and attended by students and parents alike.

The second floor of the main building hosts multiple science labs.

History

Atholton takes its name from a 600-acre (240 ha) land grant named "Athole" granted from King Charles to James McGill 17 August 1732. He built a nearby manor house named "Athol" built between 1732 and 1740.[3][4] In 1845, Nicolas Worthington freed seventeen of his slaves, and gave them 150 acres (61 ha) of the "Athol enlarged" land which was then called "Freetown".[5] The community was briefly a postal town named Atholton, Maryland. The school sites were later considered part of Simpsonville, Maryland, and later Columbia, Maryland.

The Howard County school system was segregated since the building of the Ellicott City Colored School in 1888. The first Atholton school was a one room colored school house next to Locust Church given by John R. and Susie Clark in 1885. Students transferred to Guilford in 1939. School property was bought for $200 by the Locust Church. In 1941, an additional acre was not accounted for, then sold on a separate bid for $701 to Herbert M Brown.

Harriet Tubman Site

In 1948, a new 10-room high school called Atholton Colored School was ordered. It was designed by Francis Thuman to be built in Simpsonville with a $280,000 budget.[6] The cornerstone was set on September 25, 1948 by the Colored Masonic Lodge.[7] Clarksville students were used to operate the bulldozers used in grading.[8] At the students request, the school was renamed to the Harriet Tubman High School.[9] In 1954, Segregation was outlawed by the supreme court in Brown v. Board of Education. Howard County eliminated one class of segregated students a year, taking 11 years to implement integrated classes.[10][11] Modern accounts of the development of Columbia note that Rouse Company donanted land for public schools, but prior to the requirement, the company sold unusable land from its 1963 purchases to build Columbia back to the school board. The company sold 10 usable acres (4.0 ha), and 10 unbuildable acres adjoining the school, at market rate, to "meet new state standards".[12] The High School would later be renamed the Harriet Tubman building, to be used by the Board of Education. In 1981 Grassroots Crisis Center operated a homeless shelter from the facility. In 2006, James N. Robey issued $1.6 million in Howard County loans to Grassroots to build an enlarged homeless facility on the Atholton School grounds.[13] Centered around the 50th anniversary of desegregation at the school, The Howard County Center of African American Culture has petitioned to relocate from Oakland Manor to the Harriet Tubman building. The offices used by school system were listed as the top endangered historical site in Howard county by Preservation Howard County in 2015.[14]

Atholton High School

Atholton High School

In 1966 a new integrated high school was built alongside the old school taking the name Atholton High School. The school has been renovated and expanded several times. In 2012 a $51.3 million project was started to renovate the school again with students in place. The structure will use temporary classrooms in its expansion from 203,074 square ft to 250,000 sf.[15]

Students

Atholton's student population has been in flux over the past 15 years. As Howard County's population has grown rapidly in the past 25 years, one can expect that new schools will be built and existing schools' populations will continue to grow, then drop as the students are shifted to the new schools. In 2013, Atholton is designed for 1360 students with a current enrollment of 1474 students. Atholton is currently a 3A school.

The student population as of 2010 is 0.2% Native American, 15.2% Black or African American, 15.9% Asian, 57.9% White or Caucasian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 5.9% Hispanic, and 4.8% Two or more races.[16]

Student population[17]
1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
1,162 1,241 1,407 1,487 1,120 1,070 1,094 1,113 1,182 1,218 1,154 1,198 1,251 1,365 1,370 1,442 1,474

Athletics

Atholton has won the following state championships & athletic accomplishments:

Has a state of the art lighted turf field that is used by all field sports.[33]

Notable alumni

Special programs

See also

References and notes

  1. ↑ "Profile - Atholton" (PDF).
  2. ↑ "Atholton High School Boosters - homepage". March 2016.
  3. ↑ "Athol" (PDF). Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  4. ↑ "HO-37" (PDF). Retrieved 14 July 2013.
  5. ↑ Barbara W Feaga. Howard's Roads to the Past. p. 85.
  6. ↑ "Howard County School Board Meeting October 12, 1948" (PDF). Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  7. ↑ "Howard County Board Meetining September 1948" (PDF). Retrieved 6 March 2013.
  8. ↑ "1949 minutes" (PDF). Retrieved 3 June 2013.
  9. ↑ "1949 Board Minutes" (PDF). Retrieved 6 June 2013.
  10. ↑ Janet P. Kusterer, Victoria Goeller. Remembering Ellicott City: Tales from the Patapsco River Valley.
  11. ↑ "Howard County School Board Apologizes for Earlier Segregation". The Baltimore Sun. 15 November 2012.
  12. ↑ "Planning and Operations Report on Howard County". 1 November 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-11-01.
  13. ↑ "Robey Plans Loan to Help Grassroots Build Facility". The Baltimore Sun. 23 August 2006.
  14. ↑ Amanda Yeager (26 May 2015). "Former school tops Howard County's endangered sites list". The Baltimore Sun.
  15. ↑ "Oak Contracting Awarded $51.3 million renovation to Atholton High School". Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  16. ↑ Maryland Report Card
  17. ↑ Maryland State Department of Education
  18. ↑ "Ice hockey: Atholton wins third consecutive Howard County Cup; advances to state tournament".
  19. ↑ "Ice hockey: Atholton wins back to back Howard County Cups; advances to state tournament".
  20. ↑ "Ice hockey: Atholton wins its first Maryland 2A State Championship - The Capitals Cup, 6-2".
  21. ↑ "Ice hockey: Atholton wins first county cup; advances to state tournament".
  22. ↑ MPSSAA
  23. ↑ MPSSAA
  24. ↑ MPSSAA
  25. ↑ MPSSAA
  26. ↑ MPSSAA
  27. ↑ MPSSAA
  28. ↑ MPSSAA
  29. ↑ MPSSAA
  30. ↑ MPSSAA
  31. ↑ MPSSAA
  32. ↑ "Ice hockey: Atholton is one of nine founders of the Maryland Student Hockey League.".
  33. ↑ http://www.baltimoresun.com/explore/howard/news/ph-ho-cf-glances-turf-fields-0202-2-20120126,0,804453.story

External links

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Coordinates: 39°11′22″N 76°52′51″W / 39.1895°N 76.8809°W / 39.1895; -76.8809

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