Searcy (LP) Searcy High School was founded in 1870. Many changes have taken place on the campus since the founding. Including the burning down of the school in 1965, and then the re-building of what students now know as Searcy High School. Within the last 20 years, the entire west side of the building has been constructed, the baseball diamond and its amenities, the west student parking lot, the tennis courts, the performing arts center, the tv studio, the field house, and the repaving of the east student parking lot have occurred. While the external changes to the development of what has became a greater and larger Searcy High School have expanded the extracurricular side of learning and participation, the real treasure is what is found within the classrooms.
Like most schools in America, SHS has both a choir and a band. Both the band and the choir do exceptionally well in all state and all region competitions, and while the school is extremely proud of them and their accomplishments, one of the biggest advances is the addition of the Searcy Orchestra in 2007. This is the only orchestra in the entire Arkansas River Valley region. Senior Haley Feagin has made a riveting impact with her performances with her viola these last seven years, under the direction of Megan Guthrie. She explains how they have to travel to Memphis just for contests, but that doesn’t stop them from giving their all and competing beautifully.
Many teachers here at SHS will agree that one of the many advances made has been in technology. Technology has always had an active role within our society, but the massive leap it is has made within SHS is astounding. Mrs. Tommi Johnston, a FACS teacher here for fifteen years, took a walk down memory lane in her explanation of life from the past. She reminisced on “days when I had to mentally prepare myself for being blinded by the overhead projector.” In fact, Mrs. Johnston didn’t have to reminisce too far into the past, due to the ending of those dreaded bright overhead projectors a little more than five years ago. The school faced the loss with the adding in of Smart Boards. Many teachers faced the transition gracefully, and even more importantly, gratefully. Smart Boards have allowed teachers to better deliver knowledge to students through the use of better technology.
For the majority of Searcy High School’s history, Striving for Educational Excellence, has been a motto that administrators, teachers and students have clung to. The importance of the motto has only increased as the school has focused on the changing needs of its’ students. SHS will undoubtedly change to benefit it’s students.
