Shawnee Mission School District - Shawnee Mission West High School

Shawnee Mission West High School

Shawnee Mission West's mascot is the Viking and the official school colors are black and gold. West opened its doors in 1962; since then, it has been remodeled several times. Additions have also been made to the school, the most famous of which is "the bridge," an actual bridge between halves of the school that later had classrooms added beneath it. The current principal of Shawnee Mission West is Dr. Charles McLean. As of 2006, its population is 2,042.It's located in Overland Park at 85th Street and Antioch Road. The former principal, Dr. Karl Krawitz was the NEA III District Educator of the Year for 2004-2005. SM West is home to both an award-winning school newspaper, the EPIC, and yearbook, SAGA. The Epic was ranked the 5th best Newsmagazine in the country by the Scholastic Press Association in 2010. SM West has twice (1986 and 2007) placed second at the National Forensic League tournament for policy debate. SM West has a student body population that is 10% African American, which is the highest African American population of any Shawnee Mission high school. Statistically, SM West is the most ethnically diverse high school in the district. SM West draws its student population from both Overland Park, Lenexa, and from small parts of Shawnee.

Read more about this topic:  Shawnee Mission School District

Famous quotes containing the words mission, west, high and/or school:

    Not in vain is Ireland pouring itself all over the earth. Divine Providence has a mission for her children to fulfill; though a mission unrecognized by political economists. There is ever a moral balance preserved in the universe, like the vibrations of the pendulum. The Irish, with their glowing hearts and reverent credulity, are needed in this cold age of intellect and skepticism.
    Lydia M. Child (1802–1880)

    In their sympathies, children feel nearer animals than adults. They frolic with animals, caress them, share with them feelings neither has words for. Have they ever stroked any adult with the love they bestow on a cat? Hugged any grownup with the ecstasy they feel when clasping a puppy?
    —Jessamyn West (1907–1984)

    Life! Life! Don’t let us go to life for our fulfilment or our experience. It is a thing narrowed by circumstances, incoherent in its utterance, and without that fine correspondence of form and spirit which is the only thing that can satisfy the artistic and critical temperament. It makes us pay too high a price for its wares, and we purchase the meanest of its secrets at a cost that is monstrous and infinite.
    Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

    But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal.... No, I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.
    Zora Neale Hurston (1907–1960)