Olathe East High School

Olathe East High School
Address
14545 West 127th Street Olathe, Kansas, 66062 United States
Coordinates	38.8962659°N 94.7535025°W / 38.8962659; -94.7535025
Information
School type	Public, High School
Established	1992
School district	Olathe Unified School District USD 233
CEEB Code	172221
Principal	Bill Weber
Grades	9 to 12
Enrollment	over 2,300
Campus	Suburban
Color(s)	Orange      Navy Blue      White
Mascot	Hawks
Rival	Olathe South High School
Website	School Website

Olathe East High School is a fully accredited public high school located in Olathe, Kansas, USA, serving students in grades 9-12. Olathe East is the largest of four public high schools in Olathe. Olathe East is a member of the Kansas State High School Activities Association and offers a variety of sports programs. Athletic teams compete in the 6A division and are known as the "Hawks". Extracurricular activities are also offered in the form of performing arts, school publications, and clubs. The school colors are orange and navy blue, and the school's mascot is the Hawk. Olathe East was recognized as a National School of Excellence in 1998 by the U.S. Department of Education.

History

The school opened in the fall of 1992 in order to help educate the rapidly increasing population of Olathe.^{[citation needed]}

Academics

Olathe East has continuously had the highest composite standardized test scores in the district. In the 2006-2007 school year, East had a composite ACT score of 23.8, beating the national average of 21.2. On the SAT, the average score was a 604 on the Critical Reading section and a 614 on the Math section. These scores were also much higher than the national average of 503 on the Critical Reading and 518 on the Mathematics section. Olathe East also offers a variety of high level AP and Honors courses including AP English, AP American History, AP Government, AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Statistics, College Physics, and Honors Calculus.

School Layout

Olathe East is located in Olathe, Kansas. The school's features were designed to be both attractive and functional. There are 99 classrooms, numerous computer labs including an international language lab, a satellite communication lab, and a writing center. Other features include an 890 seat auditorium and a 280 seat theatre; media center; publications/journalism center; video production lab; three gymnasiums; a weight room; and a Lifetime Fitness training room. The School's 80-acre (320,000 m²), tree encircled hilltop site also features a pond which allows for on-site research and field activities for its biology, student naturalist and physical education classes.

Library Media Center

The Olathe East Library Media Center offers a variety of print and electronic materials to meet curricular needs of students and staff. Librarians provide ongoing library media instruction aligned with state standards and planned collaboratively with teaching staff. Instruction is delivered in the library and online, via the library's home page [1]. Library staff members provide technology support throughout the school. A rich selection of online subscription database products, including eBooks, are available to students, faculty and community members.

Extracurricular activities

The Hawks compete in the Sunflower League and are classified as a 6A school, the largest classification in Kansas according to the Kansas State High School Activities Association. Throughout its history, Olathe East has won 32 state championships in various sports. Many graduates have gone on to participate in Division I, Division II, and Division III athletics.

Athletics

Football

Football has been a recent success at Olathe East, the varsity team going to the KSHSAA 6A state playoffs every year since 2002. In that period of 9 years, the Olathe East varsity football team has won more games than any other Kansas City Metro area school.^{[citation needed]} The Hawks have made it to the state title game once, in 2005, where they lost to Hutchinson.^{[citation needed]} The Hawks have been coached by Jeff Meyers, who is also the mayor of the city of Shawnee, Kansas, since when the school opened in 1992.^{[citation needed]}

Soccer

One of the most popular athletic programs offered at Olathe East is soccer. Throughout the school's history, the boys' team has won two state championships, occurring in 1996 and 2005, and the girls' team has won three state championships, occurring in 2001, 2004, and 2008.

Boys' Swimming & Diving

The Olathe East boys' swimming & diving team won the state championship in 2009 after placing second to Shawnee Mission East High School in 2007 and 2008. In 2008, there was a one point difference between Shawnee Mission East and Olathe East.

Softball

The Hawks have consistently been one of the best softball teams in Kansas, winning state championships in 1998, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. In 2007, the Hawks set a new KSHSAA record for most consecutive state championships won in softball.

Track and Field

The Olathe East track and field team has one six state championships since 2007, including 2 for boys in 2007 and 2010, and four consecutive state championships for girls from 2008-2011.

State Championships

State Championships
Season	Sport	Number of Championships	Year
Fall	Gymnastics, Girls	4	2002, 2003, 2007, 2008
	Soccer, Boys	2	1996, 2005
	Soccer, Girls	3	2001, 2004, 2008
	Cross Country, Girls	3	2006, 2009, 2010
Winter	Swimming and Diving, Boys	1	2009
	Swimming and Diving, Girls	2	2002, 2003
	Basketball, Boys	1	1998
	Bowling, Boys	1	2011
	Bowling, Girls	1	2011
Spring	Golf, Boys	2	2000, 2002
	Baseball	2	1997, 2002
	Softball	6	1998, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
	Track & Field, Boys	2	2007, 2010
	Track & Field, Girls	4	2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
Total		34

Performing arts

The Olathe East Orchestra has performed at the KMEA music festival several times and performed at Carnegie Hall in January 2007, and has received three straight "I" ratings for the second consecutive year. The Olathe East Band has also received many accomplishments such as receiving all "I" ratings at the area music festival in March 2007. The band performed at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City in spring 2009. In fall of 2010, the band had its first undefeated season in the school's history. The band took first place in the 6A division at KU's Heart Of American Marching Festival, and first in their division at Missouri Western's marching competition. The OE Choir has sent several students to Northeast KMEA All-District Music Festival along with all the other performing groups at East. Olathe East's drama department has also been very successful, winning various awards and has performed at both the International Thespian Conference and Kansas State Thespian Conference, having taken their fall play Almost, Maine there in January, 2010.^{[citation needed]}

Technology

The school now has wi-fi access located all throughout the campus. All classrooms at OE are equipped with multipurpose projectors which allows teachers to project movies and images from their computer. Classrooms are equipped with Smartboard technology. Many teachers take advantage of software called Blackboard which allows students to access assignments from any computer including computers outside of the school network. The Science and Mathematics departments each have classroom sets of laptops. In addition, Olathe East has several computer labs for added integration of technology into the high school curriculum.^{[citation needed]}

Notable alumni

• Stevie Case, one of the first well-known female gamers.
• Peter Nyarol Dut (Class of 2003), One of the Lost Boys of Sudan Featured in Megan Mylan film Lost Boys of Sudan.
• Danielle McCray, WNBA player for the Connecticut Sun, former player for the Kansas Jayhawks women's basketball team.
• Colton Murray, MLB player for the Philadelphia Phillies class A team, the Williamsport Crosscutters, former player for the Kansas Jayhawks baseball team.
• Scott Vermillion (Class of 1995), former Kansas City Wizards soccer player.

See also

• Olathe Unified School District
• Other Olathe High Schools:
  • Olathe North High School
  • Olathe Northwest High School
  • Olathe South High School

External links

Official sites

• Olathe East Homepage
• Olathe East Theatre
• Olathe East Band
• Olathe East Orchestra
• Olathe East Football
• Olathe East Soccer
• Olathe District Schools Homepage
• Olathe East Library Media Center Homepage