Minnetonka High School, or MHS (locally referred to as Tonka), is a four-year

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

high school located in

Minnetonka, Minnesota Minnetonka ( ) is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. A western suburb of the Twin Cities, Minnetonka is located about west of downtown Minneapolis. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...

, United States, a western suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul. The school enrolls about 3,444 students, and offers four interchangeable academic curricula:

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...

Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...

, Honors, and G (general). ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' ranked the school at #123 in their list of America's Top High Schools. Minnetonka High School is currently rated #4 in public high schools in Minnesota by

Niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...

. Minnetonka High School is the only

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

within Minnetonka School District, whose enrollment area comprises western Minnetonka, northern

Chanhassen Chanhassen is a city about southwest of Minneapolis in Carver County and partially in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. The southwest edge of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul suburbs, there is a mix of residential neighborhoods and rural ...

, Deephaven,

Excelsior Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...

, Greenwood, Shorewood, Tonka Bay,

Woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

, northern

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, and northern

Eden Prairie Eden Prairie is a city southwest of downtown Minneapolis in Hennepin County and the 16th-largest city in the State of Minnesota, United States. As of the 2020 census, it has a population of 64,198. The city is adjacent to the north bank of th ...

; an area known as "South Lake Minnetonka," or simply "Minnetonka." Additionally, students come from all over the western suburbs due to open enrollment.

Demographics

Minnetonka High School has the second largest enrollment of any high school in Minnesota, behind neighboring Lake Conference rival

Wayzata High School Wayzata High School is a comprehensive public high school in Plymouth, Minnesota, United States, a suburb of Minneapolis. The high school, operated by Wayzata Public Schools, had about 3669 students in grades 9 to 12 as of 2021-22, making it Mi ...

. , it has a student population of 3,444 that is 0.5% Native American 4.8% Hispanic, 3.7% black, 6.5% Asian, and 80.2% white. Minnetonka School District's catchment area has a population of 53,000 and is characterized as a

bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

. It is predominantly white with a strong

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

n influence, and is considered one of the most affluent areas in the state. Since the 2000s, Minnetonka has actively tried to recruit a more diverse student body through advertising and participation in The Choice Is Yours program to serve inner regions of the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Academics

Minnetonka High School has been shown to fare well in standardized test results and many metrics of school rank and quality. It is one of the few schools in the state to concurrently run

classes and the

IB Diploma Programme The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) is a two-year educational programme primarily aimed at 16-to-19-year-olds in 140 countries around the world. The programme provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry into ...

. The school also offers Honors and G (general) classes which, unlike AP and IB, do not have curricula mediated by an external governing entity, and are meant to be less demanding. It is identified as a "National School of Excellence" by the U.S. Department of Education, and has been given a "Five Star" rating by the Minnesota Department of Education. According to

No Child Left Behind The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was a U.S. Act of Congress that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; it included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students. It supported standards-based education ...

Minnetonka High School made

Adequate Yearly Progress Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is a measurement defined by the United States federal No Child Left Behind Act that allows the U.S. Department of Education to determine how every public school and school district in the country is performing ac ...

Specialty programs

VANTAGE

VANTAGE Professional Studies is a program offered by Minnetonka High School offering a businesslike environment for students. Minnetonka High School's VANTAGE is a magnet program which is ranked sixth in the country for developing students with strong business and entrepreneurial leadership skills. Students go off campus for part of their school day and have class in an office building. Students are expected to act and dress professionally. Students are provided with projects with local and fortune 500 companies. They are also provided with mentors who work in a field related to their class. Currently (2022–23) there are nine course "strands" that are being offered: * Global Business * Business Analytics * Design and Marketing * Digital Journalism * Health Sciences * Public Policy * Global Sustainability * User Experience (UX) Design * Vantage Education

Tonka Online

Minnetonka High School also offers some of its courses through Tonka Online. It is available to all students in the state of Minnesota. Currently (2016–17), There are 28 courses offered. The classes are delivered through

Schoology Schoology is a learning management system for schools and businesses that enables its users to create, manage, and share assignments and resources. Also known as a web content management system or virtual learning environment, the cloud-based plat ...

, Minnetonka's

CMS CMS may refer to: Computing * Call management system * CMS-2 (programming language), used by the United States Navy * Code Morphing Software, a technology used by Transmeta * Collection management system for a museum collection * Color manag ...

. Fees are charged for students who are taking them as extra courses or over the summer.

Minnetonka Research

Minnetonka Research offers students the opportunity to learn through scientific research. The school built a "cutting-edge", negative-pressure, wet lab to allow students to research topics that are important to them. Alike VANTAGE, Minnetonka Research provides its students with mentors who are industry leaders in their field of study. In addition to this, many of the students in Minnetonka research compete in the Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair, and many of go on to compete in the

International Science and Engineering Fair The Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) is an annual science fair in the United States. It is owned and administered by the Society for Science, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. Each May, more tha ...

(ISEF).

MOMENTUM

MOMENTUM, a state-of-the-art Technology Education program, is Minnetonka High School’s newest specialty program. It allows students to explore careers with hands on training in Construction Systems, Manufacturing, Design, and Transportation. The program began during the 2020-21 school year, providing a trade school experience without leaving the campus. MOMENTUM also partners with local businesses, to teach about their fields.

Writing Center

Minnetonka also offers a writing center to allow all students a place to receive assistance on their work. It is located in the commons. The writing center is staffed by two English teachers and 30 trained student writing coaches. The program is funded by the Minnetonka Public Schools Foundation's Endowment.

Athletics

Minnetonka High School is part of the

Lake Conference The Lake Conference a high school athletic conference with seven member high schools in the western and southwestern suburbs of the Twin Cities, Minnesota. It is affiliated with the Minnesota State High School League. History The Lake Conferenc ...

in the

Minnesota State High School League The Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) is a voluntary, non-profit association for the support and governance of interscholastic activities at high schools in Minnesota, United States. The association supports interscholastic athletics an ...

. The school mascot is a Skipper.

Notable alumni

Nancy Parsons Nancy Anne Parsons (January 17, 1942 – January 5, 2001) was an American actress. Early years Parsons grew up in Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota and was a member of the Class of 1960 at Minnetonka High School. Career Parsons resumed acting ...

(1960), actress *

Keith Nord Keith Sterling Nord (March 3, 1957 – September 19, 2018) was an American football defensive back in the National Football League (NFL). He played for the Minnesota Vikings from 1979 to 1985. He played college football College football (fre ...

(1975), former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

Lee Blessing Lee Knowlton Blessing (born October 4, 1949) is an American playwright best known for his 1988 work, '' A Walk in the Woods''. A lifelong Midwesterner, Blessing continued to work in regional theaters in and around his hometown of Minneapolis thro ...

(1967), Pulitzer and Tony nominated playwright * Steve Comer (1972), former MLB Pitcher *

Eric Bischoff Eric Aaron Bischoff (born May 27, 1955) is an American television producer, professional wrestling booker, and performer. He is best known for serving as Executive Producer and later Senior Vice President of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and ...

(1973), American entrepreneur, television producer, professional wrestling booker, podcast host, and on-screen personality *

Thomas O. Staggs Thomas Owen Staggs (born 1961) is an American business executive and investor. He formerly worked at Disney for nearly 27 years, beginning in 1990, serving as chief operating officer (COO) and chief financial officer (CFO) of The Walt Disney Co ...

(1978), former Chief Operating Officer, The Walt Disney Company *

David Wheaton David Wheaton (born June 2, 1969) is an American author, radio host, columnist, and former professional tennis player. Personal Born in Minneapolis as the youngest of four children. In his tennis carrier, he dated tennis star Mary Joe Fernández ...

(1988), former professional tennis player *

Peter A. Selfridge Peter A. Selfridge (born 1971) is a U.S. public servant who served as the United States Chief of Protocol from 2014 to 2017. In this role he served as the link between the White House and foreign ambassadors and visiting dignitaries. In addition, ...

(1989), U.S. public servant who served as the United States Chief of Protocol from 2014 to 2017 *

Arick Wierson Arick Wierson (born November 23, 1971) is an American columnist who writes on politics and business for CNN. He is also a regular contributor to several other major US publications including ''Vice'', ''The New York Observer'', '' Worth'', ''T ...

(1990), Emmy-award-winning Hollywood Film and Television Producer *

Jim Brower James Robert Brower (born December 29, 1972) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played for eight Major League Baseball (MLB) teams: the Cleveland Indians (-), Cincinnati Reds (-), Montreal Expos (2002), San Francisco Giants ( ...

(1991), former MLB Pitcher *

Dmitry Chaplin Dmitry Chaplin ( ''Dmitry Alexandrovich Chaplin'') is a Russian dancer, choreographer, and actor, best known for being a Top 10 finalist on the second season of the dance competition series ''So You Think You Can Dance''. While competing on the ...

(2000), Russian dancer and Emmy nominated choreographer * Will Leer (2003), American mid-distance runner * Jake Gardiner (2008), American professional ice hockey defenseman *

Beau Allen Beau Christian Allen (born November 14, 1991) is a former American football nose tackle. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the seventh round of the 2014 NFL Draft. He played college football at Wisconsin. High school career Beau at ...

(2010), NFL nose tackle for the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

Haley Kalil Haley Baylee Kalil (née O'Brien; born August 6, 1992) is an American model. In 2018, Kalil was featured in the ''Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue'' as a contestant in the first ever ''Sports Illustrated'' Swim Search. As one of the two winners ...

(2010), Sport Illustrated swimsuit model * Ryan McCartan (2011), American actor and singer * John Mark Nelson (2012), American songwriter and producer *

Vinni Lettieri Vinni Lettieri (born February 6, 1995) is an American professional ice hockey center for the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League (NHL). Playing career After playing two seasons with the Lincoln Stars in the USHL, Lettieri committed to ...

, professional ice hockey player for the

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

organization *

Justin Holl Justin Gunnar Holl (born January 30, 1992) is an American professional ice hockey defenseman for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was originally drafted in the second round, 54th overall, by the Chicago Blackhawks in ...

, professional ice hockey player * K'Andre Miller, ice hockey player * Terry Katzman, producer, sound engineer, archivist, and record-store owner

Feeder schools

Elementary School A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

** Clear Springs Elementary ** Deephaven Elementary School ** Excelsior Elementary School ** Groveland Elementary ** Minnewashta Elementary School ** Scenic Heights Elementary *

Middle School A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...

** Minnetonka Middle School East ** Minnetonka Middle School West

References

External links

*
Official Minnetonka Football WebsiteMinnetonka High School iPads
{{authority control Public high schools in Minnesota Schools in Hennepin County, Minnesota Chanhassen, Minnesota Minnetonka, Minnesota International Baccalaureate schools in Minnesota Educational institutions established in 1952 1952 establishments in Minnesota