Huntington Middle School was one of the first high school buildings for blacks in the City of Newport News during the segregation of whites and blacks. Its early beginnings was in a small room in the John Marshall Elementary School. It had an enrollment of fifty-two African American students with one teacher. The school was named after Collis P Huntington who was for being a great innovator in planning and building the transcontinental railroad throughout the United States. He was born into a poor family so Huntington worked as an itinerant peddler and became a wealthy merchant in Oneonta, New York before moving to Sacramento, CalifCalifornia in pursuit to find gold in 1849. While there, he became a partner with Mark Hopkins in a successful wholesale retail firm that specialized in miners’ supplies. In the late 1850s, he became involved in plans to link California with the east coast of the United States by railroad. He joined Hopkins, Leland Stanford, and Charles in their joint combination of the Central Pacific Railroad in 1861. It was soon designated as the western part of the projected transcontinental railroad conducted by the Big Four. Centuries later, that spirit of being creative and innovative still thrives to be the heartbeat of this school. Today, it is located in the downtown of eastern Newport News where it sits in the heart of surrounding neighborhoods. Its serves as what America would consider “at risk’ students. They come from a part of the city stroked by poverty, single-parent households, and homes where education is not made a priority just like the young Huntington.
Students are encouraged to excel to beat the stereotype America has stamped them with. As of fall 2015, Huntington Middle School serves nearly 1,000 middle school students in grades of 6-8 with a staff of over a hundred teachers, administrators, and support people. Huntington also serves as a magnet school. All Magnet schools have a focused theme and aligned curricula in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, also known as STEM, Fine and Performing Arts, International Baccalaureate (IB), International Studies, MicroSociety, Career Huntington Middle School serves nearly 1,000 middle school students in grades of 6-8 with a staff of over a hundred teachers, administrators, and support people. Huntington also serves as a magnet school. All Magnet schools have a focused theme and aligned curricula in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, also known as STEM, Fine and Performing Arts, International Baccalaureate (IB), International Studies, MicroSociety, Career and Technical Education (CTE), World Languages, and many others. Magnet schools are typically more “hands on minds on” and use an approach to learning that is inquiry or performance and project based. They use state, district, or Common Core standards in all subject areas, however, they are taught within the overall theme of the school. Students all over the United States seem to excel academically at schools such as these becauase they are doing what they love and being able to learn at the same time. Huntington in particular serves as a school with a great Arts & Communications magnet program. Students with artistic interests in visual arts, photography, music, creative writing, and broadcasting/ communications can discover those interests while participating in this program. All rising sixth, seventh and eighth-graders are eligible to apply to this program. This school overall is making a way for inner city kids to become influential people in society.
http://huntington.nn.k12.va.us/about.html
http://huntington.nn.k12.va.us/magnet.html
http://www.biography.com/people/collis-p-huntington-9347471#synopsis
http://www.magnet.edu/about/what-are-magnet-schools
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Collis-P-Huntington
http://sbo.nn.k12.va.us/magnet/documents/magnet_huntington.pdf
