In 1856, a small group of citizens decided that it was of vital importance to establish a school district in Saint Paul. They did this as they believed "good schools would provide good settlers". Nine years previously,
Harriet Bishop moved to the then small but growing city of Saint Paul. She was part of a program led by educational reformer
Catharine Beecher that was designed to help educate frontier children. As part of the program, she volunteered to teach the children of Saint Paul. Harriet Bishop is credited with starting the first public school in the Saint Paul Public Schools district. In 1870, two students by the names of Fannie Hayes and A. P. Warren became the first two students to graduate from Saint Paul High School. Nine years later in 1879, Saint Paul High School was renamed to Central High School. Grover Cleveland High School was established in 1897; it was renamed Johnson Senior High School in 1911. By 1906, the Saint Paul Public Schools district had around 27,940 students attending it. Eight years later in 1914, the Saint Paul city government took control of all educational matters. However, after 36 years of government control and extensive protesting from citizens, the Saint Paul Public Schools Board of Education was reinstated in 1950. In 1954, the
US Supreme Court ruled that public education between minorities and the majority could not be equal if it remained "separated". A decade later in 1964, the Saint Paul Public Schools district addressed the issue of racial injustice and started developing solutions so that students would have equal access to education. On February 28, 2004, over 6,000 students, parents, and school staff rallied at the Capitol for the government to support more education funding. ==Demographics==