Parsons Senior High School 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 ...

secondary 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 '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

Parsons Parsons may refer to: Places In the United States: * Parsons, Kansas, a city * Parsons, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Parsons, Tennessee, a city * Parsons, West Virginia, a town * Camp Parsons, a Boy Scout camp in the state of Washingt ...

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

, United States. It is operated by Parsons USD 503 school district, and serves students of grades 9 to 12. It is the sole high school in the school district. The school colors are blue and gold and the school mascot is "Victor the Viking". It is a member of the

Kansas State High School Activities Association The Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) is the organization which oversees interscholastic competition in the U.S. state of Kansas at the high school, high-school level. It oversees both athletic and non-athletic competition, ...

and offers a variety of sports programs. Activities teams compete in the 4A division, except football which competes in the 3A division. Extracurricular activities are also offered in the form of performing arts, school publications, and clubs.

History

In 1882, some of the first high school classes offered at Parsons were held at McKinley School. The first Parsons High School building was built in 1893 and cost $30,000. It was located on the southwest corner of Twenty-sixth and Main Streets. The building served the city in its original capacity for just over 30 years. When the new high school / junior college was built on Main Street in the late 1920s, the old high school become West Junior High School. By the 1950s, voters agreed that a new secondary school should begin construction. In the late 50s, the current Parsons High School building was completed. In 2009, a major renovation project was undertaken for Parsons High School and was completely finished before the start of the fall semester. It gave Parsons High School the modern look that can be observed today.

Academics

Parsons Senior High School has a 93% graduation rate. In addition to this, 77% of graduates continue to post-secondary education. PHS offers outstanding general education classes as well as exceptional CTE programs such as Automotive Technology, Graphic Design, Health Science, Welding and more.

Extracurricular activities

Debate and Forensics

Parsons High School is well-noted for its excellence in debate and forensics, having won several individual and team state championships in both

debate Debate is a process that involves formal discourse on a particular topic, often including a moderator and audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for often opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, a ...

and forensics. Parsons was the first school to win the 4-speaker and 2-speaker state debate championships in the same year, doing so in 1993, the first year that the 2-speaker championships existed. In 1990, PHS became the only school ever to place two students (

Ajit Pai Ajit Varadaraj Pai (; born January 10, 1973) is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2017 to 2021. He has been a partner at the private-equity firm Searchlight Capital since April 20 ...

and Michael Monninger) in the top four

National Forensic League The National Speech and Debate Association is an American student debating society. It was established in 1925 as the National Forensic League; the name was changed in 2014. It is one of four major national organizations that direct high school ...

(NFL) point leaders in the same year. For several years, PHS also led the nation in most NFL All-Americans produced, and had more students amongst the all-time NFL point leaders than any other school from Kansas. Between 1985 and 2019 Parsons has been represented at the

National Speech and Debate Tournament Extemporaneous Speaking (Extemp, or EXT) is a speech delivery style/speaking style, and a term that identifies a specific forensic competition. The competition is a speech event based on research and original analysis, done with a limited-prepar ...

31 out of those 34 years, and was recognized as a 30-year milestone school at the 2018 tournament. In 2012, Steven Wood, the former debate and forensics coach at Parsons High School was inducted into the

Hall of Fame, which is the highest honor for a high school speech and debate coach. While Mark Harris was the coach from 1985 to 1997 the program was particularly successful, winning state championships in 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1995.

Athletics

The Vikings compete in the Southeast Kansas League and are classified as a 4A school. Throughout its history, Parsons has won several state championships in various sports.

Tennis

Parsons Senior High School is well-noted for its excellence in a variety of sports, especially in boys' and girls'

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

. The boys' team has won four state championships in tennis, while the girls' teams has won five.

State Championships

Parsons Senior High School offers the following sports:

Fall

* Football * Volleyball * Boys Cross-Country * Girls Cross-Country * Girls Golf * Girls Tennis * Cheerleading * Dance Squad * Marching Band

Winter

* Boys Basketball * Girls Basketball * Boys Swimming/Diving * Wrestling * Winter Percussion

Spring

* Baseball * Boys Golf * Boys Tennis * Girls Soccer * Girls Swimming/Diving * Softball * Boys Track and Field * Girls Track and Field

Notable alumni

* Gilbert Baker, civil rights activist and creator of the

pride flag A pride flag is any flag that represents a segment or part of the LGBT community. ''Pride'' in this case refers to the notion of gay pride. The terms ''LGBT flag'' and ''queer flag'' are often used interchangeably. The rainbow flag is the most ...

* William Coleman, founder of the

Coleman Company The Coleman Company, Inc. is an American brand of outdoor recreation products, especially camping gear, now owned by Newell Brands. The company's new headquarters are in Chicago, and it has facilities in Wichita, Kansas, and in Texas. There are ...

, and mayor of

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...

* Pintip Dunn, author of young adult fiction * Derrel Gofourth, NFL offensive lineman for the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

and

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

* George Harvey, professional football player *

Shaun Hill Shaun Christopher Hill (born January 9, 1980) is a former American football quarterback who played 15 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2002. He played college fo ...

, NFL quarterback for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Rams play ...

, and

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

, former

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...

chairman * Nell Reed, American fashion designer and businesswoman.

References

External links

School Website

USD 503 School District Boundary Map
KDOT {{Authority control Public high schools in Kansas Schools in Labette County, Kansas 1893 establishments in Kansas