Mill Valley High School

Mill Valley High School is a high school located in Shawnee, Kansas, and is part of the De Soto School District (USD 232). The school began classes in 2000–01. As of the 2013-2014 school year, its attendance is roughly 1,302.^[1] The school is much smaller than nearby Shawnee Mission Northwest High School and Olathe Northwest High School, because of the school board's original intent to keep class sizes small. However, because of ongoing increases in attendance, the school district proposed two bond issues and finally passed one on Nov. 4, 2008. Construction on Mill Valley began in February 2009. The construction was finished in the summer of 2010. The second expansion of the school building follows a prior extension of the "A" hallway including the construction of a dedicated art wing.

Mill Valley students consistently score well above the state requirements in math and reading. In 2011–12 according to the Kansas State Department of Education Building Report Card, students scored 96.8 percent as proficient or above in reading and 95.4 percent as proficient or above in math. Mill Valley is a member of the Kansas State High School Activities Association and offers a variety of sports programs. Athletic teams compete in the 5A division and are known as the "Jaguars". Extracurricular activities are also offered in the form of performing arts, school publications, and clubs.

Extracurricular activities

Arts

Choral Music

Mill Valley's choral program offers a two mixed chorusus, two girls groups, and a mixed ensemble. The Jag Chorale, Mill Valley's advanced mixed chorus, has sung with the Kansas City Chorale, and has received straight one ratings in Male, Female, and Mixed group performance at contest in 2013 and 2014.

Band

While no orchestral program is offered, Mill Valley has two standard bands,The Blue and Silver bands, as well as a Jazz Band. Both Blue and Silver bands have received high marks at contests in Kansas and Missouri.

Theatre

The Mill Valley Theatre Department puts on two productions a year (usually these consist of one fall musical and one spring play), and the department also offers many stage related classes such as Drama I, Drama II, and Stagecraft.

Academics

Quiz Bowl

The Quiz Bowl Team has competed at the state level numerous times, including 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009, and also participated in the U.S. Department of Energy National Science Bowl in Washington, D.C. in 2007 and 2009.

Robotics

The Jaguar Robotics Team, founded during the 2005–06 school year, held the Midwest FIRST Robotics Competition Winner title in 2006 and won the St. Louis Xerox Creativity Award in 2009. In the 10 years it has been a team it has competed using mostly with robots constructed from PVC piping for a lack of funding and shop. The team has gone to the World Championship level to compete twice on the Newton and Curie fields of the FIRST Nationals held in St. Louis at the end of April each year. In its latest year of competing in the 2013-2014 school year the team came in 6th amongst 39 teams in Searcy, Arkansas and 8th amongst 59 teams in Kansas City, Missouri with competitions held at a regional level. ^[2]

Science Olympiad

The Science Olympiad team, also founded during the 2005–06 school year, competed at the state level in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Athletics

The Jaguars are classified as a 5A school, the second-largest classification in Kansas according to the Kansas State High School Activities Association. Throughout its history, Mill Valley has not won a single state championship, although the 2006 varsity boys' soccer team placed 3rd in the 5A State Championship. Additionally, the softball team placed runner-up in the 4A State Championship in 2001 and the 5A State Championship in 2013 and the girls' soccer team placed runner-up in the 5A State Championship in 2012. The girl's basketball team finished runner-up in 2013 and the boys basketball team placed 3rd.

The other sports that Mill Valley Has to offer are the following: Baseball, Boys Basketball, Boys Bowling, Boys Golf, Boys Soccer, Boys Tennis, Cheerleading, Cross Country, Football, Girls Basketball, Girls Bowling, Girls Golf, Girls Soccer, Girls Tennis, Silver Stars Dance Team, Softball, Track & Field, Volleyball, Boys Swimming, Girls Swimming, and Wrestling.

Publications

Both of Mill Valley's publications, the 2006 JAG yearbook and the JagWire newspaper, won second place at the National High School Journalism convention, for best of show.^[3]

At the 2009 National High School Journalism Convention in Washington, D.C., the 2009 JAG ("Words") received the "Best of Show" award, and the JagWire received tenth place in said category for News magazine. The 2009 JAG is also a recipient of the National Pacemaker Award, widely considered to be the "Pulitzer Prize of student journalism."

In fall of 2011, the JagWire launched the website MV News and publishes web exclusive content daily. The website placed tenth in "Best of Show" for small schools in 2011.

Mill Valley journalism was named the State Champion in the Kansas Scholastic Press Association State Contest in both 2013 and 2014.^[4]

References

1. ↑ http://online.ksde.org/rcard/building.aspx?org_no=D0232&bldg_no=0833
2. ↑ http://www.thebluealliance.com/team/1810
3. ↑ http://www.studentpress.org/nspa/winners/f06bs.html
4. ↑ http://www.mvnews.org/about-2/awards/

External links

• Mill Valley High School website
• De Soto USD232 2008 Bond Issue
• MV News, school newspaper