Bushnell-Prairie City High School (BPCHS) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

four-year

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

located at 845 North Walnut Street in

Bushnell, Illinois Bushnell is a city in McDonough County, Illinois, United States. The population was 2,970 at the 2020 census. Geography Bushnell is located at (40.551667, -90.507921). According to the 2010 census, Bushnell has a total area of , of which (or ...

, a small

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

McDonough County, Illinois McDonough County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 32,612. Its county seat is Macomb. The Macomb, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of McDonough County. History McDo ...

, in the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

. BPCHS is part of Bushnell-Prairie City Community Unit School District 170, which serves the communities of Bushnell and Prairie City, and also includes Bushnell-Prairie City Junior High School and Bushnell-Prairie City Elementary School. The campus is located 14 miles northeast of Macomb, IL, and serves a mixed small city,

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

, and

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

residential community. The school lies within the Macomb micropolitan statistical area.

Academics

In 2009 Bushnell-Prairie City High School did not make

Adequate Yearly Progress Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is a measurement defined by the United States federal No Child Left Behind Act that allows the U.S. Department of Education to determine how every public school and school district in the country is performing ac ...

, with 45% of students meeting standards, on the

Prairie State Achievement Examination The Prairie State Achievement Examination (PSAE) was a two-day standardized test taken by all high school Juniors in the U.S. state of Illinois. On the first day, students take the ACT, and on the second day, a WorkKeys examination and Illinois ...

, a state test that is part of the

No Child Left Behind Act The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was a U.S. Act of Congress that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; it included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students. It supported standards-based education ...

. The school's average high school graduation rate between 1999 and 2009 was 84%. BPCHS offers courses in the following academic areas: * Agriculture * Business *

Carl Sandburg College Carl Sandburg College is a public community college with its main campus in Galesburg, Illinois. The college serves west-central Illinois region and has a branch campus in Carthage and an off-campus site in downtown Galesburg. The college was es ...

Dual Credit * District Service * Drivers Education * Health * English * Family and Consumer Science * Industrial Technology * Math * Music * Physical Education * Science * Social Studies * Spanish * Western Area Career System

Athletics and activities

Bushnell-Prairie City High School competes in the

Prairieland Conference The Prairieland Conference is a high school conference in western central Illinois. The conference participates in athletics and activities in the Illinois High School Association. The conference comprises small public high schools with enrollme ...

and is a member school in the

Illinois High School Association The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) is an association that regulates competition of interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level for the state of Illinois. It is a charter member of the National Fed ...

. Their name and mascot are the Spartans. The school has no state championships on record in team athletics and activities.

Athletics

Sports offered at BPCHS include:

Boys

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

* Cross country *

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

Track & Field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

Girls

* Basketball * Cross country *

Softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

* Track & Field *

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

Activities

Clubs and other activities offered at BPCHS include: *

Band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran *Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

* B-PC Printing Company *

Cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

Chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in which all verse ...

* District service * Flag squad *

Future Farmers of America National FFA Organization is an American 501(c)(3) youth organization, specifically a career and technical student organization, based on middle and high school classes that promote and support agricultural education. It was founded in 1925 at Vi ...

(FFA) * Industrial arts * Interact * Scholastic bowl *

Student council A student council (also known as a student union, associated student body or student parliament) is an administrative organization of students in different educational institutes ranging from elementary schools to universities and research or ...

* Tech Prep *

Tutor TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in co ...

ing * Varsity clubs *

Yearbook A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a type of a book published annually. One use is to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school. The term also refers to a book of statistics or facts published annually. A yearbook often ...

* Spanish Club

History

Bushnell-Prairie City High School was formed in 1952 from the consolidation of Bushnell's and Prairie City's high schools. The history of Bushnell-Prairie City High School is also the history of these original component schools.

Bushnell High School

It is not known when the school system in Bushnell was started. A consolidation effort between the towns of Bushnell and Prairie City took place in the early 1950s. The effort was realized in 1952. A new school was developed and is now called Bushnell-Prairie City High School. BPCHS built a new building on the grounds where the original building once stood. Bushnell High School's mascot was the Braves, and the school's colors were blue and purple.

Prairie City High School

The first school building in Prairie City was established in 1855, just one year after the town was platted. The town's growth was remarkable, reaching a population of 1,500 by 1860. By 1875 that number had settled to about 800. A learning "Academy" was established in 1857 for the Prairie City kids by a local church and was supported by the town's people. This idea soon went by the wayside and the school building was used for public school purposes. A high school curriculum was established in Prairie City by the late 19th century. Prairie City High School served the community for about six decades. It was at some point in the early 1950s that the communities of Bushnell and Prairie City decided to pool their educational resources. This effort was realized in 1952. It was then that Prairie City High School closed and the Bushnell-Prairie City School District was opened. Even though the High School classes were relocated to Bushnell as a result of the Bushnell-Prairie City (B-PC) consolidation, the school remained as the Prairie City Elementary School grades 1 through 8 until 1962. Grades 7 & 8 then relocated to the B-PC Jr. High School (the former Bushnell High School bldg. in Bushnell). Grades 1 through 6 remained until the early 1970s. The original Prairie City High School building has been torn down. Prairie City High School's mascot was the Cobras, and its colors were blue and white.

Future consolidation talks

Beginning in late 2008 the Bushnell-Prairie City School District began discussing reorganization or consolidation with neighboring school districts. In the summer of 2009 a feasibility study was commissioned to investigate the possibilities of consolidation with neighboring Avon and Abingdon school districts. The results of the study were released in January 2010. The recommendations of the study included: consolidation of all three districts into one unit district, placement of the combined high school in the current Bushnell-Prairie City High/Middle School buildings, placement of the combined middle school in the current Abingdon High/Middle School, and keeping the current elementary buildings in place. Midwestern School Consultants, Dr. William Phillips, Dr. Scott Day, Dr. Leonard Bogle; Reorganization Feasibility Study for Avon/Abingdon/Bushnell-Prairie City Study; January, 2010

References

External links

Bushnell-Prairie City High School

Bushnell-Prairie City Community Unit School District
{{authority control Public high schools in Illinois Schools in McDonough County, Illinois