The original location of Dover High School in 1851 was on Chestnut Street and served students north of the
Cocheco River until 1869, when the Dover school system was consolidated. Dover High School's second iteration was designed by Alvah T. Ramsdell in 1905 and constructed adjacent to the Dover Public Library on Locust Street. In 1928, it was expanded to accommodate more students. This addition was largely to support mechanical and manual arts programs. From 1967 to 2000, this building served as Dover Junior High School after the completion of Dover High School's third campus. The building still serves the Dover community as the McConnell Center. In July 2016, construction began on a $87 million project to build a new high school and career technical campus adjacent to the existing complex, which was built over 50 years prior. The building features: • 80 classrooms • 19 Career Technical Center programs • auditorium • 850 seats in the auditorium • ¼-mile length of one lap around one floor of the school In March 2019, teachers at DHS but many others in the
Dover School District wore red and refused to be in the school until their contracted time. 90% of Dover teachers work beyond their contracted time. Teachers also raised the issue of student spending. In 2017–2018, Dover's spending per-pupil was $12,234, lower than the state average of $15,865, the second lowest in New Hampshire. The walkout was part of the
2018–19 education workers' strikes in the United States, though the teachers' union was able to agree to a contract before a strike could occur.
Racism controversy In December 2018, a cell phone video surfaced on social media of two students singing a song to the tune of
Jingle Bells with the lyrics changed to refer to the
Ku Klux Klan. Among other changes, the refrain
"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way" was replaced with ''"KKK, KKK, Let's kill all the blacks"'', in a reference to
Lynching. The video went
viral, and was covered on national news, including
The Boston Globe and
The New York Times. The students were assigned by their US History teacher to rewrite a
Christmas carol to be about
Reconstruction. The students did not know they were being recorded. In a letter, Superintendent William Harbron described the event as "an incident of extreme racial insensitivity" and announced that the teacher was put on paid leave. Administrators announced a program called DREAM to advocate for diversity and community. The teacher was allowed to return to the classroom the following year after receiving training, which sparked protests from the
NAACP, citing the fact that the teacher had never publicly apologized for the incident. == Academics ==