From Masten Park High School to City Honors:- Table of Contents
Preface | 1973-74 | 1975-76 | 1976 | 1975-80 | 1980-95 | 1995-98 | Staff
A Brief History of City Honors High School
From 1975 to 1998
1975-76: The First Year at Bennett
About eighty students were recruited from the entire city; in the first year of the program at Bennett. They were taught by nine staff members: founders Leon Schor and Walt Nicholson in English; founder Sam Alessi taught AP Math, Computers (in cooperation with Hutch-Tech) and doubled as Curriculum Coordinator. The other six teachers are pictured below:
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The year at Bennett was a stormy one for the fledgling program, with conflicts arising primarily due to the privileges the Honors students enjoyed when they left the building to attend science labs at Canisius College. Further, there were charges of “elitism,” a label that has persisted throughout the history of the school. One way that problems were dealt with (and communication maximized) was through "town meetings" when the nine staff members and all students met as a group, usually at Canisius College. Town meetings were a feature of the program for several more years until numbers became unwieldy. The first, informal overnight high school camping trip took place during the spring. About seventeen students asked teachers Walt Nicholson and Dick Miodonski to chaperone them at Alleghany State Park. They slept in tents. |