Shawnee Mission East High School

Shawnee Mission East High School
Address
7500 Mission Road Prairie Village, Kansas, 66208 United States
Coordinates	38.9922057°N 94.6316328°W / 38.9922057; -94.6316328
Information
School type	Public, High School
Established	1958
School district	USD 512
Superintendent	Gene Johnson
CEEB Code	172473
Principal	Karl Krawitz
Athletic Director	Sam Brown
Grades	9–12
Gender	coed
Campus type	Suburban
Color(s)	Columbia Blue      Black      White
Athletics	Class 6A District 2
Athletics conference	Sunflower League
Mascot	Lancers
Newspaper	The Harbinger
Website	School Website

Shawnee Mission East High School is a public secondary school in Prairie Village, Kansas, USA for grades 9–12. It is one of five schools operated by Unified School District 512.

Shawnee Mission East High School was established in 1958 in order to help educate an increasing number of students due to the emerging population of Prairie Village. In January 1994, Shawnee Mission East, along with Shawnee Mission Northwest began offering the International Baccalaureate program.

Shawnee Mission 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 "Lancers". Extracurricular activities are also offered in the form of performing arts, school publications, and clubs.

History

Shawnee Mission East High School was established in 1958 in order to help educate an increasing number of students due to the emerging population of Prairie Village. In January 1994, Shawnee Mission East, along with Shawnee Mission Northwest began offering the International Baccalaureate program.

Academics

Shawnee Mission East has been an IB World School since January 1994.

Student publications

School newspaper and yearbook

The Shawnee Mission East school newspaper, The Harbinger, has won numerous city-wide, state-wide and national awards. The school's news website, which began in January 2006, is called The Harbinger Online, www.smeharbinger.net. The Harbinger Online has won two NSPA Pacemakers, the highest honor in scholastic journalism, and two CSPA Gold Crowns, another prestigious national award. The Harbinger has won two Pacemakers, four Pacemaker nominations and three Gold Crowns. These awards are given to the top 20-30 high school newspapers each year by two separate groups. During the 2006 NSPA fall conference in Nashville, The Harbinger was named Best in Show of all newspapers with 17+ pages. Two Harbinger journalists, Libby Nelson in 2005 and Amanda Allison in 2007, have won the JEA's High School Journalist of the Year award. In 2009 Tim Shedor placed second nationally for the award. Dow Tate is the journalism program's adviser and has won state-wide and national awards as well.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007, during the NSPA spring conference in Denver, Colorado, the school yearbook won the prestigious Pacemaker Award.^{[citation needed]} Also, in 2008, during the NSPA spring conference in Anaheim, the yearbook won the same award. The Harbinger Online has won the NSPA's Best of Show award in its respective category at the NSPA's past three national conferences. The Harbinger has won "Best in Show" at the conference for the past two years.^{[citation needed]}

The Eastonian is an underground newspaper known for its longevity and long lists of editors who all use the pseudonym John Galt, the character in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. The paper traditionally features political and social commentary and also includes a page of quotations that are taken out of context from the conversations of unsuspecting students and teachers. The Eastonian is readily confiscated by faculty and staff, but the tradition continues and many teachers have been known to be avid readers. Punishment for participation in the publication of the Eastonian is usually a five day out-of-school suspension. In the late 70's an underground comic was published called "The Tuesday Afternoon Reader" which featured cartoons and commentary on school policies and student life.^{[citation needed]}

Extracurricular activities

School clubs

Shawnee Mission East is home to a variety of clubs, ranging from Model U.N. to the Food Appreciation Society. The most notable club at Shawnee Mission East is the SHARE club, which is the largest student run volunteer club in the United States. It has many different projects ranging from sock collection, to helping tutor kids at elementary schools.

Athletics

The Lancers compete in the Sunflower League and are classified as a 6A school, the largest classification in Kansas according to the KSHSAA. Throughout its history, Shawnee Mission East has won many state championships in various sports. Many graduates have gone on to participate in Division I, Division II, and Division III athletics. Also, they have one of 8 rugby teams in the Kansas City Metro area.

State championships

State Championships
Season	Sport	Number of Championships	Year
Fall	Cross Country, Boys	2	1966, 1967
	Cross Country, Girls	6	1982, 1983, 1989, 1993, 1997, 1999
Winter	Swimming and Diving, Boys	11	1974, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1985, 1990, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010,2012
	Swimming and Diving, Girls	11	1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1988, 2010
	Basketball, Girls	1	1983
Spring	Golf, Boys	6	1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 2001, 2008
	Golf, Girls	3	1979, 1980, 1987
	Tennis, Boys	29	1959, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1974, 1975,1978, 1980, 1991, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009 (won both singles & doubles titles in some years)
	Tennis, Girls	14	1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1991, 1992, 1995, 2003, 2008, 2011
	Baseball	2	1984, 1995
	Rugby	4	1999, 2001, 2002, 2004
	Soccer, Girls	3	1997, 1999, 2000
Total		63

Debate and forensics

The debate and forensics teams are the sixth largest in the nation in regard to National Forensics League degrees. Debate teams have been Kansas state champions more than once. The Shawnee Mission East debate squad has qualified more teams in Kansas history than any other Kansas school to the Tournament of Champions in Lexington, KY. The 2007-08 season was one of record proportions for Shawnee Mission East. Seniors Michael Perbeck and Danny Mapes became the most successful team in Kansas history earning bids to the Tournament of Champions. The same season Brad Crist and Ross Ringer placed 8th at nationals, further than any East team since 1983, when Thomas Frank and David Godley placed 5th. Patrick Kennedy and Danielle Lipsman placed second in the State Tournament that year. Brian Rubaie (2006) was the all-time points leader in the National Forensics League from 2006-2008.

Performing arts

The theater department, led by Tom DeFeo and Brian Cappello, has won numerous Blue Star awards for their musicals, including the 2002-2003 award for Best Overall Production for their production of Little Shop of Horrors.^{[citation needed]}

The Orchestra, under direction of Jonathan Lane, was invited to play at the 2006 American String Teachers Association at the Kansas City Downtown Marriott Hotel. They were the only local school orchestra invited to play at the event. Students of the orchestra consistently comprise a disproportionately large portion of all-state and regional honor orchestras.^{[citation needed]}

The Blue Knights Jazz Ensemble, directed by Kim Harrison, was selected to play at the Essentially Ellington Competition in 2001 and 2006. Every year only 15 jazz bands are selected nationwide to play at Lincoln Center in New York City. The competition and festival is run by Wynton Marsalis. They maintain a very high level of musicianship, playing standards by noted composers like Duke Ellington and Count Basie as well as some student compositions. They have received division one ratings and 1st places at almost every festival attended in the last decade.^{[citation needed]}

The choral department at Shawnee Mission East consists of five ensembles, including the Shawnee Mission East Choraliers. Between the SME Choraliers and the SME Chamber Singers, the choirs have paid for many trips including: a world premiere performance in NYC's Carnegie Hall in the Winter of 2007, performing a solo concert at the Southwest ACDA convention in St. Louis, Missouri in the Spring of 2006, an extensive tour of Ireland in the Spring of 2006, named Grand Champion Choir of the 2003 Winter Park Ski Music Festival, A European tour of England, Belgium and Germany in the spring of 2004, and an extensive tour of Italy in the spring of 2001, a tour of Nashville, Tennessee in the spring of 2009, and an extensive tour of Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague.^{[citation needed]}

Traditions

The last school day before the Homecoming Dance, students are released early from school to celebrate in the Lancer Day Parade. Different clubs and classes organize floats for this special event. The parade starts at the intersection of 75th Street and Mission Road and proceeds down Mission to Prairie Village Shopping Center. Traditionally, the mayor of Prairie Village gives a speech praising SME and changing the name of his/her city for one day from Prairie Village to "Lancer" Village.^{[citation needed]}

The Shawnee Mission East drumline is also famous around the school as being a "crowd-booster" during home football games. The drumline, who performs at halftime, puts on a great show every week for the students. The Drumline is headed by two senior captains each year, and is directed by Mr. Ray DeMarchi.^{[citation needed]}

Notable alumni

• Sandahl Bergman, actress, co-star Conan the Barbarian
• W. Bruce Cameron, author
• John D. Carmack, video game programmer, id Software co-founder, lead programmer of the classic video game Doom.
• Eric Darnell, filmmaker and creator of Madagascar (2005 film) and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
• Donald Fehr, Major League Baseball players union representative
• Thomas Frank, founder of The Baffler, Harper's columnist and author of What's the Matter with Kansas?
• Nancy Opel, Tony Award-nominated singer/actress.
• Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review, senior editor
• Jim Roth, member of Oklahoma Corporation Commission, first openly gay statewide official in Oklahoma
• Grant Wahl, writer for Sports Illustrated

Notable faculty

• Dow Tate, 1997 Dow Jones Newswire Fund National Journalism Teacher of the Year and Texas' Max Haddick Teacher of the Year

See also

• Shawnee Mission North High School
• Shawnee Mission Northwest High School
• Shawnee Mission South High School
• Shawnee Mission West High School

External links

• Official school website
• The Harbinger Online, school newspaper
• Kansas State Department Of Education, KSDE
• Kansas State High School Activities Association, KSHSAA

Maps

• 2011 Shawnee Mission School District - High School Boundary Map
• 2005 Kansas School District Boundary Map, KSDE
• 2010 Johnson County Map, KDOT