Como Park’s History

January 27, 2010  
Filed under Life at Como, News

Have you ever noticed how this school has been around for what seems like forever? As far as the student body is aware this building has just inexplicably existed since dinosaurs roamed the highways and model-Ts traveled through the great continent of Pangaea.

Como Park opened as a high school in 1978 taking in students from Washington and Murray high schools which were being closed that same year (and turned into junior highs). The first year at Como only had sophomores through seniors. But the next year it allowed freshmen and was a full fledged high school, almost…

During the first 5 years or so after Como opened it was under constant construction to meet the demands of becoming a high school. 1978 was particularly bad, it was almost impossible to walk through the hallways with all the construction materials littering the ground. The school even used portables as extra classrooms outside the school. At times there were as many as four of them in use. But after a lot of construction there is now the building that we have today.

Como was a very different place in appearance and atmosphere in the early days. There was a very different feeling and everyone did not quite get along. When Como first opened the biggest problem that it faced was racial tension. African American and Asian students particularly had a hard time due to the general attitude of the other students and some staff. This was the time period when Hmong immigrants first started to arrive in Minnesota. So this may have been a shock to many people who had not been exposed to this kind of culture before. And this confusion and ignorance towards other cultures bred tension in the Twin Cities and particularly at Como.

It took some time for the mood of the school to change but everyone was working their hardest to help students get along. At times it was quite bad and hostility broke out often, fights were a much more common occurrence. One teacher Mr. Marvin Rausse, who taught at Como from its opening, was quite instrumental in helping many different students with their problems. He was the only black teacher on staff for a very long time and had many stories to tell of his experiences at Como.

The Christmas of 1978 there was a school assembly for the holiday. And for the event there had to be a Santa Claus to say hi to the kids, naturally it was Mr. Rausse. When he walked into the room it became immediately silent. Mr. Rausse waited for a moment then realized he had to break the ice. He said his line “ho ho ho”, still silence. Then after it was painfully apparent that nobody was reacting he said “What have you never seen a black Santa before?”

The school had many problems but there were a lot of people tried their very best to overcome them. The administration and some teachers tried to put on heritage days, talent shows, and cultural dinners to bring the students together. These activates were an attempt for students to show their cultural identities as well learn about many others that most of the students may have not been accustomed to.

The classes Como offered were also much different from today. Como had many more Industrial classes; there was metal shop, auto body, as well as things like taxidermy. This school also offered a transfer program that allows students from other schools to come to Como to learn auto body. This is comparable to the program we have set up with Saint Paul College now a day for students to take certain classes that Como doesn’t offer. The auto body class was also amazing for its great relationship with the community. They would work on cars from the Como neighborhood that had problems and all the people had to pay is for the parts, assuming they didn’t mind waiting awhile.

As time went on these classes got cut to be replaced by AP or other college prep classes in the mid 80’s. This alienated a lot of kids who really enjoyed the industrial kind of classes but at the same time the addition of the AP classes also drew in a lot of new students. Now it is evident that the school has almost completely fazed out the trade classes and is almost exclusively oriented towards college prep.

Como has gone through a huge amount of change since 1978. Some good, some bad but hopefully there was progress made over all these years. And maybe just maybe this place will continue to exist far into the future after we are all gone and dinosaurs rule the earth once again.

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