History
Sumner's origins can be traced to a death in a racially charged environment. On April 4, 1904, Roy Martin, a white student at Kansas City, Kansas High School was shot and killed at Kerr Park. An African American named Louis Gregory was accused and arrested. The night of his arrest, a lynch mob gathered, and a group of African American citizens prevented the mob from breaking into the jail to take Gregory from custody. Gregory was subsequently convicted of first degree murder.
The morning after the shooting, all African American students were blocked from entering the high schools by white students and white citizens. Many whites agitated for segregated schools. For some time, white students attended classes at Kansas City Kansas High School in the morning, while black students attended in the afternoon. In this desperate situation, some African American and white citizens eventually decided to petition the Kansas legislature to change the law prohibiting segregated high schools, requesting an allowance for a segregated high school in Kansas City, Kansas. On February 22, 1905 the Kansas Legislature passed such a bill, which was reluctantly signed by the governor.
In 1905 Sumner high school opened, the first de jure segregated high school in the state of Kansas. Students moved from the old Kansas City High School and the old Central High School in Kansas City.
The original school was named Manual Training High School and built at the corner of 9th and Washington Boulevard. After objections to that name from the black community, the name of Sumner was chosen instead to honor Charles Sumner (1811–1884), a member of the United States Senate from 1851 to 1874. Charles Sumner had been very strong abolitionist and a leader of the Radical Republicans who had fought for the rights of the black people during Reconstruction.
In 1932, a small plot on northwest corner of 8th and Oakland was purchased which now houses the current Sumner Academy. The current complex of buildings began in 1937.
In 1978 Sumner High School was officially closed as Sumner High School. Students were reassigned as part of court-ordered desegregation mandating busing for African-American students to new schools, yet giving white students the option of whether or not to attend the new school. It was reopened as 'Sumner Academy of Arts and Sciences', a magnet school for highly-motivated and academically-talented students.
In 2003, Sumner won a prestigious national award - Sumner Academy received the U.S. Dept of Education's NCLB - Blue Ribbon Schools Award for its scores on the Kansas state assessments, making it just one of four schools in Kansas to earn the distinction. In 2004, Sumner received a "Great IDEAS" grant (funded/sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Fund) for the 2004-05 school year, which encourages teachers in SLC (Small Learning Communities) to work together to develop innovative programs and projects to improve student learning. In the summer of 2005 (July 20–24), Sumner High School, later Sumner Academy of Arts & Science, celebrated its 100th Anniversary since students first walked through the doors at 9th and Washington Boulevard.
==Academics== Sumner Academy maintains high behavioral and academic standards for its students. Students must receive a letter of acceptance before enrolling at Sumner Academy and once enrolled are required to maintain GPA of 2.5 or higher to continue to attend.
One factor responsible for Sumner Academy’s rigorous academic standing is its participation in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program which is based on a 5.0 scale. Sumner began offering students the opportunity to participate in the IB program in 1987. The academy offers 20 different IB classes and over one-third of the faculty have received extensive IB training. Although only juniors and seniors are eligible to take IB classes, the effect of the IB program permeates the Sumner Academy curriculum at all grade levels. Ninth and tenth graders often take pre-IB courses with the anticipation of enrolling in future IB work. Students have the opportunity to take International Baccalaureate coursework and exams. The IB participation rate at Sumner Academy of Arts & Science is 97 percent. The student body makeup is 41 percent male and 59 percent female, and the total minority enrollment is 79 percent. Sumner Academy of Arts & Science is 1 of 6 high schools in the Kansas City.
In the May 16, 2005 issue of Newsweek Magazine, Sumner Academy was named 75th in the "100 Best High Schools in America." This was the second time Sumner Academy was placed on the list. In 2004, Sumner Academy was listed in 99th place. As of 2008, Sumner Academy was named the 183rd best high school in America by Newsweek Magazine. As of December 2009 Sumner Academy was ranked the 69th best high school in the nation, reported by U.S. News & World Report, making Sumner the only high school in the state of Kansas to make the top 100 list.
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