- Shawnee Mission East High School is a fully-accredited public high school located in Prairie Village, Kansas serving students in grades 9-12. Shawnee Mission East is located at Mission Road and 75th Street. Shawnee Mission East, along with Shawnee Mission Northwest, features the International Baccalaureate program, one of the few in the region. As of 2009, the enrollment at East was 1,885. The mascot is a Lancer and the colors are Columbia blue, black, and white. The school is located in the suburb of Prairie Village, and it serves the communities of Westwood, Westwood Hills, Mission Hills, Mission Woods, Fairway, Leawood, Kansas.
- History
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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.
- Student Publications
- School Newspaper and Yearbook
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The Shawnee Mission East school newspaper, The Harbinger, has won numerous city-wide, state-wide and national awards. The online version of the publication, which began in January 2006, is called The Harbinger Online. The newspaper is currently advised by Dow Tate. During the 2004-2005 school year, Libby Nelson, editor of The Harbinger, was named National High School Journalist of the Year by the Journalism Education Association. During the 2006-2007 school year, The Harbinger editor Amanda Allison was bestowed the same honor. The Harbinger has won two Pacemakers, four Pacemaker nominations and three Gold Crowns since Dow Tate's arrival in 2003. 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.
- In 2007, during the NSPA spring conference in Denver, Colorado, the school yearbook won the prestigious Pacemaker award. Also, in 2008, during the NSPA spring conference in Anaheim, the yearbook won the same award. The Harbinger has won "Best in Show" at the conference for the past two years. For the last four out of five years, the Kansas High School Journalist of the Year has been an East student (2005: Libby Nelson, 2006: Allison Quick, 2007: Amanda Allison, 2009: Stephen Nichols).
- 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.
- Extracurricular Activities
- Athletics
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The extracurricular activities offered at Shawnee Mission East are many and varied due to the school's large size. 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.
- State Championships
- Debate and Forensics
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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 three bids to the Tournament of Champions at the quarterfinals of the Greenhill, Glenbrook's, and semifinals of the Dowling Catholic Tournaments. The same season Brad Crist and Ross Ringer placed 8th at nationals, further than any East team in school history. Patrick Kennedy and Danielle Lipsman placed second in the State Tournament that year. Brian Rubaie (2006) is the all-time points leader in the National Forensics League.
- Notable coaches who have made an impact in the community and for the students, are:
- Glenn Percy, all-time wins in football, coached from 1971-78 & 1992-1999
- Todd Dain, currently at Olathe Northwest, first Lancer head coach in history to win back-to-back district & regional championships
- Shawn Hair, all-time winningest basketball coach in team history 1997-08 (13 seasons)
- Boys & Girls tennis, Dr. Phil Berg, Carolyn Howard, Larry Tice & Sue Chipman, all whom have won several league and state championships for the Lancers
- Jim Ricker, Shawnee Mission East Lady Lancer soccer champions in 1999 and 2000 going 36-2-3 in 41 games. The Ladies first championship came in 1997 routing Wichita Northwest 7-0. The 1999 team defeated Olathe East 3-0, and the 2000 champions defeated Blue Valley Northwest 5-0.
- Dave Rehfeld, former Lancer boys & girls basketball coach, won a state championship in the 1980s
- Paulette Manville, Former head Debate coach. Qualified 3 teams to the Tournament of Champions, two in the same year. won 4 state titles. The year that East qualified two teams(Scott Stension and Brian Nye, Eric Suni and Andrew Ardinger) to the TOC, they closed out the state finals taking 1st and 2nd at state. She is considered the precursor for Shawnee Mission East's national success.
- Shawnee Mission East serves as the inspiration for the title school in Rick Gould's satirical book, The Leaping Tuna of Kirshenbaum East.
- Performing Arts
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The theater department, led by Brian Cappello and Tom Defeo, 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 won many honors and awards 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.
- Traditions
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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.
- 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. And many times during a day, they would assemble and play throughout the school. The Drumline is headed by two senior captains each year, and is directed by Mr. Ray DeMarchi. On the day of the Kansas City Royals' home opener, most of the seniors skip class and attend the game.
- Notable alumni
- Sandahl Bergman, actress, co-star Conan the Barbarian
- W. Bruce Cameron, author
- Nancy Opel, Tony Award-nominated singer/actress.
- John D. Carmack, video game programmer, id Software co-founder, lead programmer of the classic video game Doom.
- 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?
- Ramesh Ponnuru, National Reviewer, senior editor
- Jim Roth, member of Oklahoma Corporation Commission, first openly gay statewide official in Oklahoma
- Justin Hibbard, former award-winning TV news anchor; actor, co-stars on CBS' "Eleventh Hour"; voice over artist on NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, The CW, My Network TV, Warner Brothers, Disney
- Eric Darnell Filmmaker/Creator of Madagascar and Escape 2 Africa.
- Notable Faculty
- Dow Tate, 1997 Dow Jones Newswire Fund National Journalism Teacher of the Year and Texas' Max Haddick Teacher of the Year
- Source: Wikipedia; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.
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