Yesterday Janna Goerdt wrote a story for the Duluth News Tribune about the renaming of the Babbitt-Embarrass school to reflect the St. Louis County school district internal consolidation between B-E and Tower-Soudan. The school will be called the Northeast Range School and its mascot will be the “Night-hawks.”
Naturally, the locals are not sure about all this, and that’s understandable. This sort of change is not easy and certainly not immediately beneficial for the towns losing their high school. There is some symbolism here. Babbitt was something of a boom town when the taconite era came to the Range in the 1960s and ’70s. Like many American schools of the time, the expanded building was named for John F. Kennedy after the iconic president’s assassination. Babbitt-Embarrass today boasts a wonderful, big school without a lot of students. Now it will be the Northeast Range School.
It is very hard for a town to lose its high school. So much of community identity is tied up in it. I understand this type of consolidation is necessary to a certain extent, but I wonder what students lose having longer bus rides to a larger school. There’s something to be said for the individual attention that small, local schools can provide.
I knew when Chisholm and Hibbing joined up for hockey the end was near. 40 years ago a Hibbing vs Chisholm in any sport was a dog fight on the field and a fist fight in the stands….. Good old days before law suits.
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