Oak Park High School is a

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 ...

in the

North Kansas City School District North Kansas City School District 74 or NKC Schools is a school district headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. it has over 20,000 students, and has about of area. The Harlem School District 72 and Glenwood School District 73 merged into t ...

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, United States. The student body is composed of ninth through twelfth grade students, with a 2017 enrollment of 1,549. The school's

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

is "Norman the Northman", a

lumberjack Lumberjacks are mostly North American workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to loggers in the era (before 1945 in the Unite ...

character. The school is adjacent to Oak Grove Park in

Gladstone, Missouri Gladstone is a city in Clay County, Missouri, United States and a suburb of Kansas City. The City of Gladstone is located only 10 minutes from downtown Kansas City, and 10 minutes from Kansas City International Airport. As of the 2020 census, th ...

. The school's current principal is Mrs. Molly Smith. Its boundary includes the majority of Gladstone (sections north of NW Englewood Road). The boundary also includes Oaks, Oakview, Oakwood, and Oakwood Park.

History

When Oak Park High School opened in 1965, it was the only

North Kansas City North Kansas City is a city in Clay County, Missouri, United States. It is also enclaved in Kansas City. Even though the name is similar to its larger counterpart, Kansas City, it is an independent municipality part of the Kansas City metropo ...

high school with air conditioning. It also featured a theater in the round, bookstore and four outdoor courtyards. Dr. Dan Kahler was the school's original principal. The first Oak Park students graduated in 1966. Formerly, students attended North Kansas City High School located in

. Before being transferred to Oak Park, these students chose the school's colors, mascot, and wrote its alma mater. Past Oak Park High School principals: *Dr. Dan Kahler (1965-1986) *Robert West (1986-1994) *Benny Cain (1994-2000) *John Krueger (2000-2006) *Fred Skretta (2006-2011) *Joe Hesmann (2011-2013) *Mark Maus (2013-2016) *Dr. Christopher Sartain (2016–Present) In 2015 the student body elected a

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

girl as its Homecoming queen. In response to this, the

Westboro Baptist Church The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is a small American, unaffiliated Primitive Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, founded in 1955 by pastor Fred Phelps. Labeled a hate group, WBC is known for engaging in homophobic and anti-American pickets, ...

protested the school.

Awards

Oak Park was named a 2018 National Model High School by the International Center for Leadership in Education. They are one of only eight high schools in the nation to receive this distinction. Specifically, they were chosen for their high expectations for all students. Oak Park received a score of 99.6% in 2015-2016 from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on their annual performance review.

Mascot

Oak Park students chose Northmen as their mascot as the northern most high school in Kansas City at the time of the school's opening. The school's mascot was named "Norman the Northman", a lumberjack, embracing a tree theme fitting Oak Park and neighboring Oak Grove Park. The original newspaper was called "The Northman's Log" and the yearbook named the "Cambia", a reference to

vascular cambium The vascular cambium is the main growth tissue in the stems and roots of many plants, specifically in dicots such as buttercups and oak trees, gymnosperms such as pine trees, as well as in certain other vascular plants. It produces secondary xyle ...

which makeup the rings of a tree that can be counted to tell its age.

Athletics

Oak Park has seven state championships in wrestling, six in baseball, and three in cheerleading. The varsity football team plays its home games at the North Kansas City District Activities Complex on the Staley High School campus. Prior to that, they played at North Kansas City High School's football stadium. But in the fall of 2021, the varsity team will have its own stadium due to the passing of a $155 million bond in June 2020. The concession stand will also serve nearby Oak Grove Park in

. Competitive teams include: Men's and women's teams *Soccer (men in fall/women in spring) *Swimming and diving (men in fall/women in winter) *Tennis (men in fall/women in spring) *Golf (women in fall/men in spring) *Track and field (spring) *Cross country (fall) *Basketball (winter) *Wrestling (winter) *Cheerleading (year round) Men's only *Baseball (spring) *Football (fall) Women's only *Softball (fall) *Pom/dance squad (year-round) *Volleyball (fall)

Notable alumni

* Ryan Silvey - Missouri legislator *

Jessica Harp Jessica Leigh Harp (born February 3, 1982) is an American songwriter and former country artist from Kansas City, Missouri. Between 2005 and 2007, Harp and Michelle Branch recorded and performed as The Wreckers, a duo that topped the country cha ...

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer * Rick Parker - retired

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

player *

Chris Stigall Chris Stigall is an American conservative talk radio personality, cable news contributor, online columnist and host of The Chris Stigall podcast. He currently hosts the morning show on Salem Media’s AM 990 the Answer in Philadelphia and was t ...

- Radio DJ * Kevin Ellis - retired

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

player * Jason Johnson - retired

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

player *

Ochai Agbaji Ochai Young Agbaji (born April 20, 2000) is an American professional basketball player for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA). As a senior at the University of Kansas, Agbaji was named a consensus first-team All-American ...

- Basketball player for the

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

. Former player at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

NCAA champion The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

, First Team All-American, 2022 Final Four Most Oustanding Player, 2022 Big 12 Player of the Year

References

External links

Oak Park High School official web site

Oak Park High School Image Archive
{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1965 1965 establishments in Missouri High schools in Kansas City, Missouri High schools in Clay County, Missouri Public high schools in Missouri