Covington Holmes Junior/Senior High School in Covington, Kentucky, is the oldest public high school in Kentucky, founded as Covington Central High in 1853. It is a vital part of the Covington Independent Public Schools.
The original school started with 22 students. In 1919 the school moved to the mansion Holmesdale, built by Daniel Henry Holmes, who owned retail stores in Covington and New Orleans. Holmesdale was a 32-room mansion built on about 17 acres (69,000 m2). It was sold in 1919 by the Holmes family to the Covington Board of Education for $50,000. The site is now part of the Holmes High School campus. Holmesdale was used for a school cafeteria for a time, but was torn down in 1936 to make way for an administration building.
Holmes is a seven-year school, educating students from grades 6 through 12. The Covington Independent School System has succeeded in combining what was once Two Rivers Middle School, which educated 6th and 7th grade students, with Holmes High School. The new name of the middle school is Holmes Middle School. The two schools act as separate entities on the same campus.
The school offers a wide range of programs, including the International Baccalaureate program, the Advanced Placement program, and, until recently, technical and vocational courses. Its distinguished graduates include the mathematician Carl Faith, nuclear scientist Dick Lewis, Staples CEO Ron Sargent and Major League Baseball umpire Randy Marsh.
In 2009, the Holmes Bulldogs basketball team (boys) won its first state title.
Famous quotes containing the words holmes, junior, senior, high and/or school:
““No, no; the real name,” said Holmes sweetly. “It is always awkward doing business with an alias.””
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
“Never burn bridges. Today’s junior prick, tomorrow’s senior partner.”
—Kevin Wade, U.S. screenwriter, and Mike Nichols. Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver)
“I suffer whenever I see that common sight of a parent or senior imposing his opinion and way of thinking and being on a young soul to which they are totally unfit. Cannot we let people be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way? You are trying to make that man another you. One’s enough.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Our domestic problems are for the most part economic. We have our enormous debt to pay, and we are paying it. We have the high cost of government to diminish, and we are diminishing it. We have a heavy burden of taxation to reduce, and we are reducing it. But while remarkable progress has been made in these directions, the work is yet far from accomplished.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“True it is that she who escapeth safe and unpolluted from out the school of freedom, giveth more confidence of herself than she who cometh sound out of the school of severity and restraint.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)