Ottumwa High School is a

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 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 ...

located in

Ottumwa, Iowa Ottumwa ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Wapello County, Iowa, United States. The population was 25,529 at the time of the 2020 U.S. Census. Located in the state's southeastern section, the city is split into northern and southern halves b ...

, United States. It is part of the

Ottumwa Community School District Ottumwa Community School District is a public school district serving the U.S. city of Ottumwa, Iowa, as well as the surrounding rural area in Wapello County. History In the 1950s, the smaller Dahlonega School District was absorbed into t ...

, and is the district's only high school. It was established in 1923. The school sports

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

is a bulldog.

History

For several years, students in Ottumwa attended private classes inside area homes. Later, some students studied inside a local

Methodist Episcopal The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

. In 1865, the first public school in Ottumwa—Adams School—was completed at "College Square", an area bounded by College, Fourth, Second, and Union Streets. The school, which utilized four classrooms on its top floor for the high school, cost $28,818.57Meagher, G.; Munsell, H. ''Ottumwa, Yesterday and Today''. p. 49 and 51. to build, and it sat on the same site as the present-day high school. It was declared unsafe in 1883. The school board voted to tear down the condemned building and build a new one at the same site. With more citizens coming to Ottumwa, an additional high school was constructed about a mile west of the Adams School site in 1899. This building later served as a

junior high 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 ...

until it was closed in 1982.

Schaefer Stadium

The Ottumwa High School football/track stadium, known as Schaefer Stadium, was established in the early 1920s in memory of a past student of OHS. Walter B. Schaefer graduated from the Ottumwa High School in 1903 with athletic records and many college football opportunities. He went to the University of Chicago to play football under the famous coaching of Amos Alonzo Stagg, but Schaefer left college early to fight in the war. Schaefer was killed while serving in 1918. He was considered one of the greatest athletes in Iowa and especially in football, which is why the Ottumwa Stadium is now known as Schaefer Stadium. In 2018, Schaefer Stadium was updated. New bleachers for the home side and a new visitor exit were added.

Current building

To address the growing student population, the Ottumwa Community School District began construction on the current high school building at the same location as the Adams School in 1921. The "new" high school was designed by architects

Croft & Boerner Croft & Boerner was an architectural and engineering firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It was a partnership of Francis Boerner (1889–1936) and Ernest Croft (1889–1959). Several of their works are listed on the U.S. National ...

of Minneapolis. It was completed in 1923. As part of the construction, the Adams School was lifted from its foundation and moved east—it would serve as a building for vocational classes at the new high school. Ottumwa High School as it stands today opened on August 29, 1923 to grades 9, 10, 11, and 12. It reportedly cost just over one million dollars to complete. In the 1970s, an additional building was completed—the "Vo-Tech" building—for

vocational A vocation () is an occupation to which a person is especially drawn or for which they are suited, trained or qualified. People can be given information about a new occupation through student orientation. Though now often used in non-religious co ...

and

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

classes. The facility was connected to the main building via a

skywalk A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of enclos ...

accessible from the second floor hallway. This decade also saw the addition of a second

gym A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...

nasium, often nicknamed the "Rubber Gym" because of its rubber floor, which was built behind the first gymnasium and replaced the Adams School, which was demolished.

Building expansions

In the 1990s, a city

property tax A property tax or millage rate is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or net wealth, taxes on the change of ownership of property through inheri ...

was levied to help fund a multi-million dollar renovation project. The original aim of the project was to renovate the school hallways and some classrooms, add additional basement classrooms, relocate the cafeteria and library to a new area adjacent to the original building and connecting to the Vo-Tech building, renovate and modernize the school's gymnasium facilities (

locker A locker is a small, usually narrow storage compartment. They are commonly found in dedicated cabinets, very often in large numbers, in various public places such as locker rooms, workplaces, elementary schools, middle and high schools, trans ...

and

exercise Exercise is a body activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness. It is performed for various reasons, to aid growth and improve strength, develop muscles and the cardiovascular system, hone athletic ...

rooms), and remodel the school's

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

. The project went over budget, and the gymnasium and auditorium phases were scratched. The cafeteria and library projects were successfully completed, along with the basement, classroom, and hallway renovations, by the end of the century. The skywalk formerly connecting the Vo-Tech and main buildings was replaced by the new building.

Vision Iowa Grant renovation

In spring 2001, the school received a

grant Grant or Grants may refer to: Places *Grant County (disambiguation) Australia * Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia United Kingdom *Castle Grant United States * Grant, Alabama *Grant, Inyo County, C ...

for nearly $1 million from Vision Iowa to remodel the auditorium which is where they now hold all of their pep rallies, guest speakers, and drama productions.''Ottumwa Courier'' (2001)
Ottumwa to receive nearly $1 million for OHS improvements
During this renovation some plaster designs were removed from the original 1921-1923 ceiling and placed glass for viewing near the exits. The auditorium was closed from 2002 to 2003 for renovations. Its grand re-opening took place on November 23, 2003.''Ottumwa Courier'' (November 24, 2002)
Hundreds pack new auditorium
At the same time, additional renovations to the gymnasium facilities were completed with aid of a federal grant obtained with the help of

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Tom Harkin Thomas Richard Harkin (born November 19, 1939) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as a United States senator from Iowa from 1985 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously was the U.S. representative for Iowa' ...

Campus

The main

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

of Ottumwa High School consists of a four-story building in

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

Ottumwa. The hill on which the building sits was once the site of Chief Wapello's tribal village. Legend suggests he originally called the area "Ottumwa" from this spot in 1838. The four floors of the main building can be roughly divided by subject areas: the rooms on the bottom floor contain mostly social studies and

foreign language A foreign language is a language that is not an official language of, nor typically spoken in, a given country, and that native speakers from that country must usually acquire through conscious learning - be this through language lessons at schoo ...

classrooms; the second floor contains several

office An office is a space where an Organization, organization's employees perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize objects and Goals, plans, action theory, goals of the organizati ...

family and consumer science Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences, is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and food preparation, as well as texti ...

classrooms, and

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

classrooms; the third floor is mostly mathematics and

language arts Language arts (also known as English language arts or ELA) is the study and improvement of the arts of language. Traditionally, the primary divisions in language arts are literature and language, where language in this case refers to both lingu ...

classrooms; and the fourth floor houses

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

and language arts classrooms. The school's auditorium and gymnasium are usually accessed from the second floor, though the auditorium and gyms have entrances on the third floor as well. The Vo-Tech building houses vocational classrooms, a

JROTC The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC -- commonly pronounced "JAY-rotsee") is a federal program sponsored by the United States Armed Forces in high schools and also in some middle schools across the United States and at US military ...

room, and a fiber optics network room on its first floor. Performing arts classrooms are located on its second floor. The two buildings are connected by a central

cafeteria A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school ...

or commons; this building also houses a second-floor

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

with approximately 9,000 volumes. Ottumwa High School does not hold any sporting contests on its campus; instead, the school uses other buildings, public facilities, or the stadium within Ottumwa. The school does maintain a

parking lot A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...

for students, and three for faculty.

Faculty awards

Mr. Hanson, the current principal of OHS, was named the 2015 Iowa Secondary Principal of the Year on May 11, 2015 at a school-wide assembly at Ottumwa High School. In 2001, anatomy/physiology teacher Gail Wortmann was named Iowa Teacher of the Year. She was also awarded the Milken Family Foundation Teacher of the Year award in that year. From 2000 to 2002, science teacher Peggy Steffen served as an Einstein Fellow for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Extracurricular activities

Students at Ottumwa High School can participate in many extracurricular activities. In addition to 14 varsity athletic teams (

archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

cross-country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open coun ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, trapshoot, dance, and

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

), OHS offers numerous clubs and other activities such as the

program and

Drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

, as well

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran *Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

s, and

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

. An

Art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

Club,

Debate Debate is a process that involves formal discourse on a particular topic, often including a moderator and audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for often opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, a ...

Team,

Speech Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses Phonetics, phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if ...

Team, International Club,

Best Buddies Best Buddies International is an American nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. It consists of volunteers that create opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The program's main purpose is to allow volunteers t ...

, Fellowship of the Rainbow, and

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

Club are joined by local chapters of DECA, Family Career and Community Leaders, Future Educators of America, Human Rights Youth,

SADD Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), formerly Students Against Driving Drunk, is an organization whose aim is to prevent accidents from students taking potentially destructive decisions. Mission "SADD empowers and mobilizes students a ...

, and the

National Honor Society The National Honor Society (NHS) is a nationwide organization for high school students in the United States and outlying territories, which consists of many chapters in high schools. Selection is based on four criteria: scholarship (academic achi ...

(known at OHS as the "Torch Club") to extend opportunities for students.

Athletics

* Baseball - 2-time Class 4A State Champions (1996, 1997) * Boys' basketball - 5-time State Champions (1912, 1915, 1928, 1942, 1949) * Girls' bowling - 3-time Class 2A State Champions (2007, 2009, 2012) * Boys' cross country - 4-time State Champions (1931, 1932, 1933, 1940) * Football - 1963 State Champions * Boys' golf - 11-time State Champions (1943, 1944, 1952, 1953, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1997, 2009) * Coed golf - 2-time Class 2A State Champions (2007, 2008) * Girls' golf - 5-time State Champions (1984, 1985, 1987, 1997, 2007) * Softball - 2-time State Champions (1976, 1995) * Wrestling - 1923 State Champions

Curriculum

Ottumwa High School is a four-year comprehensive high school serving 1,300 students in grades 9-12. It is accredited by

North Central Association The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), also known as the North Central Association, was a membership organization, consisting of colleges, universities, and schools in 19 U.S. states engaged in educational accreditation. It w ...

and the

State of Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

Department of Public Instruction. The school year is divided into two semesters of 90 days in length. Class size averages 25 students with seven 50-minute periods.

School day

Ottumwa High School utilizes a seven-period school day, with classes beginning at 8:10 am and ending at 3:15 p.m. School is also dismissed at 1:00 p.m. every Friday for teacher professional development. All students are required to take several core academic classes, including three years of

, two years of

, three years of social studies, two years of

, and two years of

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

to graduate and receive a

diploma A diploma is a document awarded by an educational institution (such as a college or university) testifying the recipient has graduated by successfully completing their courses of studies. Historically, it has also referred to a charter or offici ...

SparkTank

SparkTank is a project-based program that began in 2018. It allows students at the Ottumwa High School to gain work experiences by connecting with local businesses to provide a real work environment and a real work experience. The courses that SparkTank offers are engineering and design, building manufacturing, Ignite, communication and technology, building and construction, and school to work classes. Although this course is set up in a different manner than a classroom, students still use teamwork and collaboration to meet project deadlines. Students are working for local businesses, expectations are higher to meet the business’ standard. SparkTank also helps students with their communication skills, technical skills, employability skills, and cooperation skills. SparkTank's ultimate goal is to give students the life lessons they need to find and career goal and find a job after graduation. SparkTank is located at 325 East Main Street, Ottumwa. SparkTank partners with the Governor’s Stem Advisory Council, Iowa ALN, and Future Ready Iowa.

Notable alumni

Ottumwa High School's alumni association was founded in 2012. It provides an alumni choir, pep band, and sporting events. The association plans to work with the student council, give out scholarships, and help fund school reunions. There are currently 16 Ottumwa alumni working at the Ottumwa High School, roughly 9.6% percent of the whole faculty, in 10 departments. *

Tom Arnold Tom Arnold may refer to: * Tom Arnold (actor) (born 1959), American actor * Tom Arnold (economist) (born 1948), Irish CEO of Concern Worldwide * Tom Arnold (footballer) (1878–?), English footballer * Tom Arnold (literary scholar) (1823–1900), ...

– 1977 – actor/philanthropist *

Chris Ash Chris Ash (born December 24, 1973) is an American football coach who is the defensive backs coach for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). A coaching veteran of 24 years, Ash previously served as the head coach at Rutge ...

– 1992 – football coach * Stephen Blumberg - bibliomane, also known as the Book Bandit and was recognized as the most successful book thief in the history of the United States * Elnora M. Gilfoyle — occupational therapist; Dean of the College of Applied Human Sciences and Provost/Academic Vice President at

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

Donald Keyhoe Donald Edward Keyhoe (June 20, 1897 – November 29, 1988) was an American United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps naval aviator, Donald E(dward) Keyhoe. (April 30, 1998) Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2002. Reproduced in Biography Resource ...

– 1915 – Marine Corps major and aviator, UFO researcher and author *

Herschel C. Loveless Herschel Cellel Loveless (May 5, 1911May 4, 1989) was the 34th Governor of Iowa, from 1957 to 1961. He was also mayor of Ottumwa, Iowa. He was born in 1911 in Hedrick, Iowa and died in 1989 in Winchester, Virginia. When elected governor in 195 ...

– 1927 –

Governor of Iowa A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

(1957–1961) * E. J. Mather – football and basketball player and coach *

Jack E. McCoy Jack E. McCoy (May 28, 1929 – December 29, 2014) was a politician and labor activist. Born in Ottumwa, Iowa, he worked at the Ottumwa meatpacking plant and served as an officer in the local United Packing House Workers Local 1. He served ...

– 1946 – Member of the Iowa House of Representatives *

Carol Morris Carol Ann Laverne Morris (born April 8, 1936) is an American actress, model and beauty queen who was the second Miss USA to win the Miss Universe title in the pageant's fifth edition in 1956. She was crowned by Hillevi Rombin, Miss Universe 1955, ...

– 1954 –

Miss Universe Miss Universe is an annual international beauty pageant that is run by a United States and Thailand based Miss Universe Organization.Natalie Tadena (July 2, 2015"Donald Trump's Miss USA Pageant Lands on Reelz Cable Channel". ''The Wall Stre ...

winner in 1956 * Stevan Robinson – 1989 – musician *

Tanner Varner Tanner Varner (born July 13, 1984) is an American football linebacker who is currently retired. He first enrolled at Ellsworth Community College before transferring to the University of Northern Iowa. Varner has been a member of the Arkansas Twi ...

— gridiron football player

Notes

References

* Taylor, J. ''Ottumwa: One Hundred Years a City''. Chicago: Max Corp. 1948. p. 52. * Meagher, G., Munsell, H. ''Ottumwa, Yesterday and Today''. Ottumwa, Iowa: Ottumwa Stamp Works. 1923. p. 48–52. * Sterling, R. ''Wapello County History''. Montezuma, Iowa: Sutherland Printing Company Inc. 1986. p. 154–159 * Baker, C. ''In retrospect''. Virginia Beach: The Donning Company. 1992. p. 164–167.

External links

Ottumwa High School

School Blog
{{Central Iowa Metro League , state=autocollapse Educational institutions established in 1923 Public high schools in Iowa Buildings and structures in Ottumwa, Iowa Schools in Wapello County, Iowa Iowa High School Athletic Association 1923 establishments in Iowa