Saint Paul Academy and Summit School
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Saint Paul Academy and Summit School (commonly known as SPA) is a private school in Saint Paul, Minnesota consisting of grades K-12.
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History
St. Paul Academy & Summit School was established through a merger in 1969 of Saint Paul Academy, a school for boys, and Summit School, a school for girls. Saint Paul Academy was founded in 1900 and Summit School in 1917. The school celebrated its centennial in 2000.
Beginning in the 2004-2005 school year, SPA began to use Harkness tables in many of its classes (especially English, history, and foreign language classes).
Campuses
The schools consists of two campuses: the Goodrich Campus and the Randolph Campus.
- The Goodrich Campus, the site of the old Summit School for girls, is the current home of the lower school (grades K-5, ~290 students) and conatins SPA's theater: The Sarah Converse Auditorium. It is located on 1150 Goodrich Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota.
- The Randolph Campus, the site of the old Saint Paul Academy boy's school, is the current home of the newly built middle school (grades 6-8, ~240 students) as well as the upper school (grades 9-12, ~380 students) and contains SPA's Drake hockey arena. It is located on 1712 Randolph Avenue in St. Paul, Minesota.
Famous Alumni
- F. Scott Fitzgerald attended the school from 1908-1911 until he was expelled for poor work. He was more interested in football than in academics.
- Ann Bancroft graduated from SPA. She is noted for her expeditions to Antarctica.
- William Pederson graduated from SPA. He is the lead architect on the Shanghai World Financial Center When completed in 2007, will be the world's tallest building.
Both Ann Bancroft and William Pederson have been named "Distinguished Alumni" by the school.
Trivia
- SPA's students are notorious for their lack of skill when parking cars in the winter. The snow covers the guidelines, and the resulting arrangements of automobiles is never the same and always frustrating for those trying to escape its convoluted aisles.
- Traditonally, the outgoing senior class plays a large-scale prank on the entire school. The class of 2004 obtained a full-size school bus and parked it in the school's courtyard, a seemingly impossible feat. The bus was painted and subsequently removed. The class of 2005 covered the school parking lot with fifteen tons of sand. A volleyball net and a grill provided a beach-party-like feel to the year's traditional "Senior Skip Day."
External links
- Kohn Pederson Fox, William Pederson's architectural firm (http://www.kpf.com/)
- St. Paul Academy and Summit School's website (http://www.spa.edu/)