The Blake School is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

, coeducational,

college-preparatory A college-preparatory school (often shortened to prep school, preparatory school, college prep school or college prep academy) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily design ...

day school located in Hopkins,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. The school is located on two campuses in the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in stat ...

area: the upper school (9–12) in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

with the middle and lower school, along with administrative offices, on the Hopkins campus. Blake, originally an all-boys school, was established by a group of local businessmen in 1907 to prepare students for top colleges in the

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—eac ...

. In the 1970s, it merged with its sister school, the Northrop Collegiate School (founded in 1900) and the Highcroft Country Day School (founded in 1958) to become a coeducational institution. Serving grades kindergarten through 12th, Blake has previously received the

National Blue Ribbon School The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...

award. In addition, the school is known for its nationally recognized debate program.

History

During the early 20th century, two schools were founded in

to prepare

student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most The Commonwealth, commonwealth countries, a "student" attends ...

s for elite

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

s in the Northeast: the Blake School for boys and Northrop Collegiate School for girls. A third school, Highcroft Country Day School serving students of both sexes, was incorporated during the migration to Minneapolis suburbs. In 1974, the three schools merged to become the Blake Schools, with its first coeducational class graduating in 1975.

The Blake School

In 1907, William M. Blake established the Blake School, a private, preparatory school for boys, in Minneapolis. Three years later, Charles C. Bovey, a local businessman, wanted to reform Blake, and put it on the same plane as Eastern preparatory schools. With help from William Blake, new Board of Trustees Chairman Charles Bovey asked sixteen other local business leaders to contribute $2,500 each towards the school's first capital drive. In 1911, these original guarantors hired Charles B. Newton, a

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

alumnus, to replace William Blake as

headmaster A headmaster/headmistress, head teacher, head, school administrator, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. Role While s ...

. Newton envisioned a school "not only for the wealthy, but for the worthy." The school incorporated on May 5, 1911, with all but two guarantors serving on the board of trustees. In 1912, their pooled resources enabled the construction of a new building in suburban Hopkins, with the site, now known as Blake Campus, being the current home of the middle school and one of the two lower school campuses.

The Northrop Collegiate School

In 1900, Zulema A. Ruble, a

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

alumna, and Carrie Bartlett established Graham Hall, a private school for girls, in Minneapolis. In 1914, a group of Minneapolis leaders purchased Graham Hall and incorporated it as Northrop Collegiate School. In 1917, the school relocated within Minneapolis, with the site, now known as Northrop Campus, being the current home of the upper school campus. 1918NorthropFieldHockey

The Highcroft Country Day School

In 1958, Sage Cowles, wife of John Cowles, Jr., along with two friends, established Highcroft Country Day School, a private, coeducational,

nonsectarian Nonsectarian institutions are secular institutions or other organizations not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious group. Academic sphere Many North American universities identify themselves as being nonsectarian, such as B ...

K-9 school in Wayzata. Highcroft was designed to provide students in the far western suburbs (at the time) of the

with an education near home. In 1960, the school building was constructed on land purchased and donated to the school, part of which was the former Highcroft estate in Wayzata, the site, known as the Highcroft Campus, was home to one of Blake's two lower school buildings until 2023. Now all lower school students attend the Blake campus in Hopkins, Minnesota.

Preservation and present

In addition to retaining many of the original sites and all original buildings of Blake predecessor institutions, the school also carries on other traditions, such as: * from the Blake School for the boys – strong speech and debate programs * from Northrop Collegiate School – strong drama program, mascot of bears, along with the school color of blue * from Highcroft Country Day School – growing athletic program for both boys and girls, along with school color of green. Since 2006, all students, faculty, staff, and community volunteers come together annually at the Hopkins campus to celebrate "Convocation Day" and participate in the service-based "Legacy Day". These celebrations highlight new and past traditions, including musical performances from the Middle and Upper School's choir as well as a speech from the current head of school. On Legacy Day, students participate in service-based activities such as packing food, building birdhouses, and making tie blankets for local animal shelters. The current head of school is Dr. Anne Stavney.

Academics

The school serves approximately 1,400 students in prekindergarten through twelfth grade, with an average classroom size of 15–16 students, and average graduating class size of 130. The school's student-adult ratio is 11:1. It takes 22 credits to graduate from The Blake School, with a minimum course load of five courses each semester. The Blake School also offers numerous global citizenship programs.

Accreditation

Blake is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS), and is a member of 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, board ...

(NAIS),

The College Board The College Board, styled as CollegeBoard, is an American not-for-profit organization that was formed in December 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. While the College Board is not an asso ...

, National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC), and the

Cum Laude Society The Cum Laude Society is an international organization that honors academic achievement at secondary institutions, similar to the Phi Beta Kappa, which honors academic achievements at the university level. History The Cum Laude Society was fo ...

Recognition

Blake has received numerous accolades in recent years, including: *

U.S. Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a United States Cabinet, cabinet-level department of the federal government of the United States, United States government, originating in 1980. The department began operating on May 4, 1980, havin ...

–

Blue Ribbon School The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...

, 1989–90, 1992–93, 1993–94 *

– "Exemplary

AP English Literature and Composition Advanced Placement (AP) English Literature and Composition (also known as Senior AP English, AP Lit, APENG, or AP English IV) is a course and examination offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program in the United State ...

Programs", 2007 p. 32 * ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' – "How the Schools Stack Up" (ranking of 41 for high schools with the best record of graduates attending eight top universities), 2007 * Character Education Partnership – National School of Character, 2009 * ''Mpls St.Paul Magazine'' – in school diversity and inclusion efforts, 2010 * ''MN Monthly Magazine'' – for leadership training of its students, 2012
Built to Lead
In 2011, Blake won the Minnesota Middle School Science Bowl, and was a competing school in the

U.S. Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear we ...

's National Science Bowl,, pp. 17 and 23 winning the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car Race portion. In 2015, it won the Department of Energy's Minnesota High School Science Bowl and proceeded to compete at the national level in Washington D.C. Blake is also home to one of the most active and successful high school

debate Debate is a process that involves formal discourse, discussion, and oral addresses on a particular topic or collection of topics, often with a moderator and an audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for opposing viewpoints. Historica ...

programs in the entire country, having won several prestigious national championships, including the

National Speech and Debate Association The National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA) is the largest interscholastic Individual events (speech), speech and Competitive debate in the United States, debate organization serving middle school and high school students in the United State ...

National Tournament, the National Debate Coaches Association National Tournament, and the Tournament of Champions. They are also the first school to qualify debaters to the Tournament of Champions in every event. Every December, Blake hosts the John Edie Debate Tournament, one of the largest regular-season speech and debate tournaments in the country.

Athletics

Blake competes in the Independent Metro Athletic Conference (IMAC) and formerly in the Tri-Metro Conference, which is part of the Minnesota State High School League. The school athletic teams are named the Blake Bears. The school offers twenty-eight sports, and fields over fifty athletic teams. The school also recognizes club sports, including Ultimate Frisbee, and Sailing. They are also recognized for having their hockey team in a cameo for the 1996 Disney movie '' D3: The Mighty Ducks'' when the movie was shot on set at Blake's Hopkins campus hockey arena; they came from behind down 9–0 to tie the Ducks 9-9, with 9 third period goals.

History

Blake won the Minnesota State High School League Challenge Cup, which awards schools based on their success in section and state fine arts and athletics tournaments, in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, – more than any other school in state history – and was runner-up in 2006, 2008 and 2010, and placed third in 2011. In addition, many Blake alumni go on to play sports at the collegiate level, and some have even been drafted by professional sports franchises in the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

, NFL, and

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

Notable alumni

* Charles Baxter (1965) – author of National Book Award nominated ''The Feast of Love'' (2000) * Alex Bernstein (American football) (1998) - NFL player, entrepreneur, co-founder of North Venture Partners and North Social * Dani Cameranesi (2013) – Forward for U.S. women's hockey team at

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...

* Jack Dalrymple (1966) – former Governor of

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

* Tom Davis (1970) –

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

-winning comedy writer and performer *

Mark Dayton Mark Brandt Dayton (born January 26, 1947) is an American politician who served as the List of governors of Minnesota, 40th governor of Minnesota from 2011 to 2019. He served as a United States Senate, United States Senator representing Minneso ...

(1965) –

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

from

, 40th

Governor of Minnesota The governor of Minnesota is the head of government of the U.S. state of Minnesota, leading the state's executive branch. Forty people have been governor of Minnesota, though historically there were also three governors of Minnesota Territory ...

, heir to

Dayton's Dayton's was an American department store chain founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1902 by George Draper Dayton. It operated several local high-end department stores throughout Minnesota and the Upper Midwest for almost 100 years. Although i ...

and

Target Corporation Target Corporation is an American retail corporation that operates a chain of discount department stores and hypermarkets, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh-largest retailer in the United States, and a component of th ...

, first husband of Alida Rockefeller Messinger * David L. Downie (1979) - Scholar of global environmental politics * David T. Ellwood (1971) – Dean of

John F. Kennedy School of Government The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

Al Franken Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American politician, comedian, and actor who served from 2009 to 2018 as a United States senator from Minnesota. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he worked as an ...

(1969) –

from

, satirist, comedian, author, screenwriter, ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

'' television performer, political commentator, radio host *

Dave Goldberg David Bruce Goldberg (October 2, 1967 – May 1, 2015) was an American management consultant and businessman. He was the founder of LAUNCH Media and the CEO of SurveyMonkey. He was married to Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook. Early life and ...

(1985) – businessman, CEO of

Survey Monkey SurveyMonkey Inc. (formerly Momentive Global Inc. from 2021 to 2023) is an experience management company that offers cloud-based software in brand insights, market insights, product experience, employee experience, customer experience, online sur ...

* Poppy Harlow (2001), p. 37 –

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

reporter * Thomas B. Heffelfinger (1966), p. 30 – former U.S. Attorney of Minnesota *

George Roy Hill George Roy Hill (December 20, 1921 – December 27, 2002) was an American actor and film director. His films include ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' (1969) and ''The Sting'' (1973), both starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford; both fil ...

(1939) –

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

-winning director of

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' is a 1969 American Western (genre), Western buddy film directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman. Based loosely on fact, the film tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, k ...

* A. J. Jackson (2002) - lead singer of

Saint Motel Saint Motel (stylized in all caps) is an American indie pop band from Los Angeles, whose music has been described as everything from dream pop to progressive indie. The band is composed of singer, songwriter, and producer, A. J. Jackson (lead ...

* Steve Kelley (1971) – Minnesota State Senator, 2000 U.S. Senate candidate, attorney *

Eleanor de Laittre Eleanor de Laittre (April 3, 1911 – January 9, 1998) was an American visual artist and an early proponent of Abstract expressionism, abstract, Cubism, cubist-inspired, and largely non-objective art. During a period when representational art ...

– artist * Katrina Lake – CEO of Stitch Fix * John Hugh MacMillan – businessman *

Whitney MacMillan Whitney MacMillan (September 25, 1929 – March 11, 2020) was an American billionaire heir and businessman.Brian SolomonThe Secretive Cargill Billionaires And Their Family Tree ''Forbes'', 9/22/2011Brenda McDonaldBusinessman Whitney MacMillan to ...

(1947) – CEO of

Cargill Cargill, Incorporated is an American multinational food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865 by William Wallace Cargill, it is the largest privately held c ...

* Marcia McNutt (1970) – president

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

* Kelly Morrison (1987) - Physician and state representative in the Minnesota House of Representatives * Kent Patterson (2007) -

player * Marcus Peacock (1978) – former Deputy Administrator U.S. Environmental Protection Agency * Arthur Phillips (1986) - novelist, screenwriter * Dean Phillips (1987) -

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

from Minnesota's 3rd Congressional District (2019–present), American businessman *

Robert M. Pirsig Robert Maynard Pirsig (; September 6, 1928 – April 24, 2017) was an American writer and philosopher. He is the author of the philosophical books ''Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inq ...

(1943) - philosopher, author of '' Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values'' (1974) * Chan Poling - musician (

The Suburbs ''The Suburbs'' is the third studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released on August 3, 2010. Coinciding with its announcement, the band released a limited edition 12-inch single containing the title track and "Month of May".

, The New Standards) * Jim Warden (1972) - Goaltender for U.S. men's hockey team at

1976 Winter Olympics The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games (, ) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1976 (), were a winter multi-sport event celebrated in Innsbruck, Austria, from February 4 to 15, 1976. The games were awarded to Inn ...

* J.T. Wyman (2004) –

player

References

External links

Official School Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blake School (Minneapolis, Minnesota) The Educational institutions established in 1900 Education in Minneapolis High schools in Minneapolis Buildings and structures in Minneapolis Preparatory schools in Minnesota Private elementary schools in Minnesota Private middle schools in Minnesota Private high schools in Minnesota Schools in Hennepin County, Minnesota 1900 establishments in Minnesota