Schoenbar Middle School

Schoenbar Middle School is the primary public middle school for the Southeast Alaskan community of Ketchikan and the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District. The school includes 7th and 8th graders, and in 2009 its enrollment was listed as 295 students.^[1] Schoenbar Middle School's mascot is the Knights, connecting with Ketchikan High School's mascot, the Kings.

History

Naming

Schoenbar Middle School (or SMS) is located in Bear Valley, northeast and inland from Downtown Ketchikan. The school was first opened in 1965, its name selected because of its location on Schoenbar Road. The road, in turn, took its name from the tramway and trail leading to Ketchikan's Laskawanna gold mine, renamed the Schoenbar Mine in 1900 after its acquisition by John Schoenbar, a figure of gold rush history whose origins and activities in early Ketchikan are relatively shadowed.^[2]

Renovation

The school is near both of Ketchikan's charter elementary schools, the Tongass School of Arts and Sciences (TSAS) and Ketchikan Charter School (KCS), both of which are housed in the building of former Valley Park Elementary School, which closed after the 2002-2003 school year. During the next school year, Schoenbar was closed for renovation following concerns over asbestos in the school. 8th graders were moved to Ketchikan High School while 7th graders stayed in their elementary schools, sharing some classes at the high school. Renovation was initially expected to last only through the 2003-2004 school year, with students returning in September 2004.^[3] Many problems ensued during construction, however, resulting in the continuation of 7th and 8th graders not having a school for over four years. The new building was finally opened for students in 2007.

Activities

Sports

Schoenbar Middle School sports include cross country running, girls and boys basketball, girls and boys soccer, wrestling, softball and a drill team.^[4] Schoenbar's typical athletic competitors are Dzantik'i Heeni Middle School and Floyd Dryden Middle School, both located in Juneau.

Camping and Survival Trips

Annual activities unique to Schoenbar Middle School are the camping trip, required for all 7th graders, and the survival trip required for all 8th graders, both of which take place every spring. Groups of students are divided by gender and desired level of difficulty and sent to various campsites and wilderness areas on Revillagigedo and surrounding islands. Throughout each school year in preparation for these trips, students are given practice and instruction in various survival skills, from fire-building to the harvesting of limpets and sea cucumbers for food.

Computer hacking

Pupils gained administrative control over more than three hundred of the school's computers in 2013. The method used was to create a program mimicking a prompt for a software update, and then to ask teachers to enter the administrator password in order to complete the apparent update. The pupils were then able to access and control other computers using the passwords they had gained. Eighteen pupils were believed to have been involved.^[5]

References

Coordinates: 55°20′41″N 131°38′15″W / 55.34472°N 131.63750°W / 55.34472; -131.63750