THE PRAIRIE SCHOOL

'The Prairie School' is a private secular college preparatory school in Wind Point, Wisconsin (Racine County) which educates students from age 3 to 12th grade.
Prairie School was founded in 1965 by Imogene Johnson (the wife of Samuel Curtis Johnson [1]) and Willie Hilpert. As of 2007, the current headmaster and president of the school is Wm. Mark H. Murphy, who has served since 1993. For the 2007-2008 school year the school has 847 people in it each day roughly 750 students and the other 90 some faculty, staff and administrators.

Contents

The School

Athletics

Basketball

Tennis

Soccer

Now defunct teams and activities

Performing Arts

Arts

External links

The School

The school first opened with 82 students in 1965 and is enjoying its largest growth period to date, now for the second year in a row the enrollment will be over 700. The enrollment for the 1968 year was 310 and in 1990 was only in the early 400s as the school seemed to struggle with growth under Headmasters Anthony B. Fruhauf (1978-1984) and James Van Hoven (1984-1993). Under the two only the Performing Arts Center and the Student Research Center (SRC) were added on. Wm. Mark Murphy took over as the schools President and Headmaster starting as of the 1993-1994 year and is still serving at that same post today. Under Murphy the school has seen its best growth in terms of enrollment, he also was key component in the building of the Samuel C. Johnson Upper School which opened its doors for the 1995-1996 school year. A decade later the new 14 million dollar state of the art facility the Johnson Athletic Center opened its doors to the students for the first time.

Athletics

The Herbert Fisk Johnson Field House, which was built in 1970 served as the middle and high schools only gymnasium until at the end of the 2002-2003 school year headmaster and president Wm. Mark Murphy announced that the school was adding two new buildings onto the H.F. Johnson Field House which were set to be completed for the 2005-2006 school year. The facility cost over fourteen million dollars.(construction photos). Organized athletics started in 1968 as the school joined the WISAA. The schools first sports were Basketball, Track and Field, Cross Country, Tennis, Field Hockey(girls), and Soccer.

Basketball

The only boys basketball state title to date came in 1982 as they topped Waupun Christian 56-49 in the Mecca (U.S. Cellular Arena). The women's basketball team enjoyed an excellent 1974 season going 9-0 in the WISAA Indian Trails Conference and winning the conference title. The women's basketball team quickly became one of the worse basketball programs in the state, current Coach Melody Owsley once told students how when she arrived in 1990 the only thing the parents cheered for were double digit point totals, today the Lady Hawks are three years removed from a state title and continue to post winning or .500 records and advance in the playoffs. The Boys haven't won or even been back to state since 1982, however they did find players that were able to carry them as far as the state semi-finals as they did in 1988 behind freshman Michael Floyd. The team began to struggle with mediocrity and was unable to find success that lasted more than one season until Mitch Banks arrived and lead the team to a 15-8 record and the state playoffs until Parkway Christian derailed them Coach Corey Wilson left for an assistant job at Carthage College so long time faculty member and school alum Tim Ellis was the successor to Wilson, the following season the Hawks would get far in the state playoffs only to beat by Greg Stiemsma and Randolph High School. After the 2003-2004 season Banks graduated and and the boys basketball team whos two best players graduated went back to the cellar as they have yet to post a winning or even .500 record. The Hawks searching for a leader and star player stumbled badly to a 2-19 record costing Ellis his head coaching position after only two seasons at the helm of the young Hawks. South Milwaukee assistant Lance Marifke decided to take the challenge of leading the Hawks his first season in 2005-2006 the team seamed to make no improvement whatsoever winning only two games for the second consecutive season. In this past 2006-2007 year the Hawks finished 6-15 losing in round one of the regional to their cross town arch rival Racine Lutheran.

Tennis

The Hawks tennis team has a long standing tennis rivalry with University School of Milwaukee which had won the MCC conference five years running until 2007. The girls three-peated as state tennis champs from 1973-1975, and won another state title again in 2000.

Soccer

Prairie in the last five years has enjoyed great amounts of success on the Soccer field taking home back to back state titles in 2004 & 2005 even when they don't win state they are always one of the top teams in the Midwest Classic Conference and go deep into the state playoffs. The boys only previous state soccer title came in 1976 behind the coaching of Ralph Henkes and Tom Proost.

Now defunct teams and activities

Although its field hockey team was disbanded several years ago to be replaced by volleyball the Lady Hawks Field Hockey team was a perennial powerhouse in the Indian Trails (1970-1983) and Midwest Classic Conference (1983-present) starting in 1980 with winning the conference. Prairie quickly became rivals with Brookfield Academy who's women's field hockey team was also reaching it pinnacle of success. from 1981 to 1983 the Hawks still one of the best in their conference were unable to capture the now Midwest Classic Conference title. However things would take a turn for the better in 1984 & 1985 Prairie was able to win back to back conference tournaments, and taking state in 1985. The school had a non competitive cheerleading team until it was disbanded in the early 1990s due to lack of interest. Wrestling was also discontinued following the 2003-2004 school year citing high insurance costs.

Performing Arts

Prairie is also renowned for its outstanding performing arts department. Since the arrival of Rebecca Greasby in 2005 the upper school now presents three mainstage shows per year. The breakdown is two plays in fall and a musical for the winter term. Students are given the opportunity to try their hand at all aspects of directing, production and acting in the student directed one-acts, which are performed in the spring term. In addition to the upper school producitons, the middle school presents two musicals each year. In 2006 the upper school players entered the fall term one-act "Hello Out There" in the Wisconsin High School Theater Festival. They advanced through the subdistrict qualifying round and district round to advance on to state finals. At state, the show won two individual acting awards, ensemble acting award, directing award and a critics choice award. All of the spring one acts along with both plays and the three musicals are performed in the Jack H. Mitchell Theater, a part of the schools Performing Arts Center, which was the only addition to the school throughout the entire 1980s. In addition to the upper school producitons, the middle school presents two musicals each year.

Arts

Prairie offers an excellent art program headed by Kevin Pearson and Cathy McCombs, and is one of the only schools in the nation to have a glass blowing studio. Dave Drewek, the school's Art Department head from 1965-2002, was instrumental in bringing glass blowing to the school. The original art department was built in 1969 and named the Irene Purcell Johnson Art Center but it burned down late at night on January 17, 1975. The board of directors got together after the fire and decided to "Build as Before...And More"; the "and more" was a second floor and the glass studio was built after the 1975 fire, but it kept same name which it had previous to the blaze.

External links

★ The Prairie School website

★ The Prairie School history

★ The Prairie School profile published by privateschoolreview.com

★ [2]