Breck School is an independent college-preparatory preK–12 school in Golden Valley,

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, a suburb of

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. It was founded in 1886 and is affiliated with the Episcopal Church. The school includes a ''Lower School'' consisting of grades preschool through four, a ''Middle School'' consisting of grades five through eight, and an ''Upper School'' consisting of grades nine through twelve. Breck School is accredited by the

National Association of Independent Schools The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) is a U.S.-based membership organization for private, nonprofit, K-12 schools. Founded in 1962, NAIS represents independent schools and associations in the United States, including day, boar ...

History

Breck was established in 1886 in Wilder,

and named after Episcopal missionary the Rev.

James Lloyd Breck James Lloyd Breck (June 27, 1818 – April 2, 1876) was a priest, educator, and missionary of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Breck is commemorated on April 2 on the Episcopal calendar of saints. Early life and education ...

. The school moved to 2095 Commonwealth Ave in

Saint Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

under the direction of the Rev. Charles Haupt, in 1916. In 1920 it moved to 2102 Carter Ave., just a few blocks away in

Saint Anthony Park Saint Anthony Park is a neighborhood in northwest Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is adjacent to the University of Minnesota's St. Paul Campus (in Falcon Heights), bordering Southeast Minneapolis on the west, the Minnesota State Fairgrounds on the e ...

. Then, in the fall of 1922 it moved a few more blocks west to Como and Hendon (now a part of the

Luther Seminary Luther Seminary is a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is the largest seminary of the ELCA. It also accepts and educates students of 41 other denominations and traditions. It is accredited ...

). In 1938, the school became an exclusively boys' school, and military curriculum was added. This military aspect was eliminated in 1959. Girls were reintroduced in 1952 in grades one to three, and eventually throughout the school in 1967. A fire destroyed the original Chapel of the Holy Spirit at the school's River Road location in

in 1979. In 1981, the school moved to its present location in Golden Valley at the campus of that city's former middle and high school, which were closed after a school district merger. Breck celebrated its centennial in 1986. That same year, John C. Littleford was succeeded by interim headmaster Kathryn C. Harper. Sam Salas served as headmaster from 1987 until retiring in June 2007. Edward Kim succeeded Salas as Head of School in July 2007. In January 2017, Natalia Rico Hernández was named 16th Head of School, beginning her tenure in July 2017.

Language programs

Breck School has an established language program. Breck's language programs, including Spanish, French, and Mandarin, extend from preschool to 12th grade.Lower School Curriculum Guide
The Mandarin Chinese program was created by Margaret Wong.

Community involvement

2008 U.S. Senate debate

On Saturday, October 11, 2008, Breck hosted the second debate between U.S. Senate candidates Republican

Norm Coleman Norman Bertram Coleman Jr. (born August 17, 1949) is an American politician, attorney, and lobbyist. From 2003 to 2009, he served as a United States Senator for Minnesota. From 1994 to 2002, he was mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota. First elected ...

, Democrat

Al Franken Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American comedian, politician, media personality, and author who served as a United States senator from Minnesota from 2009 to 2018. He gained fame as a writer and performer on the television comed ...

, and Independence Party candidate

Dean Barkley Dean Malcolm Barkley (born August 31, 1950) is an American attorney and politician who briefly served as a United States Senator from Minnesota from 2002 to 2003 as a member of the Independence Party of Minnesota. The founder and chair of the ...

. The debate was aired locally on

KARE-11 KARE (channel 11) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, serving the Twin Cities area as an NBC affiliate. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on Olson Memorial Highway ( MN 55) in Golden Va ...

TV and nationally on

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

. Several hundred local community members watched the debate live inside the Breck Cargill Theater and more than 200,000 Minnesotans watched the debate on television.

Athletics

Breck School is part of the Independent Metro Athletic Conference 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 ...

and has won 28 state championship titles in 10 sports. Several players from the

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

and

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 ...

programs have gone on to play for Division One programs. The boys hockey team won the state championship in 2000, 2004, 2009 and 2010. The girls' hockey program was established in 1994; it won the Minnesota state consolation tournament in 2007, and second place in the state tournament in 2008 and 2010, and won the state championship in 2012, 2018, 2019, 2020.

Awards

Notable alumni

* Frank Mars 1901, creator of the

Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...

and other candy bars * Walter Lewis Bush, Jr. 1947, former owner of the

Minnesota North Stars The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, and the team's colors for ...

, member of the

United States Hockey Hall of Fame The United States Hockey Hall of Fame was established in 1973 with the goal of preserving the history of ice hockey in the United States while recognizing the extraordinary contributions of select players, coaches, administrators, officials and ...

, and recipient of the

Olympic Order The Olympic Order, established in 1975, is the highest award of the Olympic Movement. It is awarded for particularly distinguished contributions to the Olympic Movement, i.e. recognition of efforts worthy of merit in the cause of sport. Traditi ...

* Richard Proudfit 1949, founder of the non-profit,

Feed My Starving Children Feed My Starving Children is a Christian non-profit organization that coordinates the packaging and distribution of food to people in developing nations A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base an ...

Stanley Hubbard Stanley Stub Hubbard (born 1933) is an American billionaire heir and businessman. He is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Hubbard Broadcasting, founded by his father. Much of his fortune was earned through the operations of fami ...

1951, Chairman and President,

Hubbard Broadcasting Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. is an American television and radio broadcasting corporation based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was founded by Stanley E. Hubbard. The corporation has broadcast outlets scattered across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, ...

Bradford Parkinson Bradford Parkinson (February 16, 1935) is an American engineer and inventor, retired United States Air Force Colonel and Emeritus Professor at Stanford University. He is best known as the lead architect, advocate and developer, with early contribu ...

1952, inventor of

Global Positioning System The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

(GPS) technology * Paul Johnson 1953, gold medal Olympian and member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame * Lee R. Anderson, Sr. 1957, owner and chairman of Minnesota-based APi Group, Inc. * R. T. Rybak 1974, Mayor of

for three terms from 2002 to 2014 *

Alice Goodman Alice Goodman, Lady Hill is an American poet and librettist. She is also an Anglican priest, working in England. Biography Goodman was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and attended and graduated from Breck School. She was educated at Harvard Univ ...

1976, poet *

Spencer Reece Spencer Reece is a poet and presbyter who lives in Madrid, Spain. He graduated from Wesleyan University (1985). Reece received his M.A. from the University of York (UK), his M.T.S. from the Harvard Divinity School, and a M.Div. from the Berk ...

1981, author and poet *

Wayne Wilderson Wayne Wilderson (born January 30, 1966) is an American actor who has had guest spots on many successful television programs. Early life and education He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He graduated from Breck School in 1984 and received ...

1984, television actor *

Erik Stolhanske Broken Lizard is an American comedy troupe that comprises Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske. They collaborate on the screen-writing, acting and productions of their films, with Chandrasekhar and H ...

1987, actor/comedian *

Alec Soth Alec Soth (born 1969) is an American photographer, based in Minneapolis. Soth makes "large-scale American projects" featuring the midwestern United States. ''New York Times'' art critic Hilarie M. Sheets wrote that he has made a "photographic care ...

1988, photographer *

Craig Taborn Craig Marvin Taborn (; born February 20, 1970) is an American pianist, organist, keyboardist and composer. He works solo and in bands, mostly playing various forms of jazz. He started playing piano and Moog synthesizer as an adolescent and was ...

1988, pianist, keyboardist and composer Espeland, Pamela (February 1, 2008) "Keyboardist Craig Taborn surfaces with Underground
''MinnPost''.
/ref> *

Craig Finn Craig Finn (born August 22, 1971) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known as the frontman of the American indie rock band The Hold Steady, with whom he has recorded eight studio albums. Prior to forming The Hold Steady, Fi ...

1989, frontman of the band

The Hold Steady The Hold Steady is an American rock band originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, now based in Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2003. The band consists of Craig Finn (vocals, guitar), Tad Kubler (guitar), Galen Polivka (bass), Bobby Drake (drums), ...

Marisa Coughlan Marisa Christine Coughlan ( ; born March 17, 1974) is an American actress and writer. Her first prominent role was a lead in Kevin Williamson's '' Teaching Mrs. Tingle'' (1999), followed by a role as Officer Ursula Hanson in the comedy '' Super T ...

1992, actor *

Charlie Korsmo Charles Randolph Korsmo (born July 20, 1978) is an American lawyer and actor. He is best known for portraying the Kid from the film adaption of ''Dick Tracy'' and Jack Banning in ''Hook''. Personal life and acting work Korsmo was born in Fargo, ...

1996, former child actor turned lawyer *

Dominique Byrd Dominique Montiel Byrd (born February 7, 1984) is a former American football tight end. He was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in the third round of the 2006 NFL Draft. He played college football at Southern California. He was also a member of th ...

2002, former NFL tight end *

John Curry John Anthony Curry, (9 September 1949 – 15 April 1994) was a British Figure skating, figure skater. He was the 1976 1976 European Figure Skating Championships, European, Figure skating at the 1976 Winter Olympics, Olympic and World Figure Sk ...

2002, former

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

goaltender * Peter Mueller, center for

HC Kometa Brno HC Kometa Brno ("Comet" in English) is a professional ice hockey team based in Brno, Czech Republic. They play in the Czech Extraliga. Kometa is the most successful ice hockey club in the Czech Republic with 13 Czechoslovak (and Czech) league ch ...

Blake Wheeler Blake James Wheeler (born August 31, 1986) is an American professional ice hockey player for the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted by the Phoenix Coyotes in the first round, fifth overall, in the 2004 NHL Entry Dra ...

, captain and right wing for the

Winnipeg Jets The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and is owned by True North Sports & Entertainment, pl ...

* Kate Schipper 2013, forward for the

Minnesota Whitecaps The Minnesota Whitecaps are a professional ice hockey team in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF; formerly known as the National Women's Hockey League). They play in Richfield, Minnesota, part of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, at ...

David Roddy David Michael Roddy (born March 27, 2001) is an American professional basketball player for the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Colorado State Rams. In high school, Roddy playe ...

2019,

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

player for the

Memphis Grizzlies The Memphis Grizzlies (referred to locally as the Grizz) are an American professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The Grizzlies compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference ...

References

External links

Breck School website

Breck School Alumni Association

Breck School Athletics

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20160303171410/http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/schoolpage.asp?school=62 Breck School's page at the Minnesota State High School League{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1886 Private elementary schools in Minnesota Private high schools in Minnesota Private middle schools in Minnesota Episcopal schools in the United States Episcopal Church in Minnesota Schools in Hennepin County, Minnesota Preparatory schools in Minnesota 1886 establishments in Minnesota