Type Public Secondary Principal Dr. April Adams Enrollment 1,785 Phone +1 816-736-5340 Number of students 1,785 Colors White, Blue, Silver | Established 1890 Grades 9-12 Campus Suburban Mascot Blue jay Founded 1890 | |
Similar Liberty North High School, Liberty Public Schools, Oak Park High School, Park Hill South High School, Park Hill High School Profiles | ||
Liberty High School (LHS) is a four-year high school located in Liberty, Missouri. Its current enrollment is over 1,800 which rapidly increased with the addition of the freshman class for the first time during the 2013-2014 school year. LHS is one of two high schools in the Liberty Public School District, alongside Liberty North High School (Liberty, Missouri) which opened in 2010. Liberty High School has two feeder middle schools, South Valley Middle School and Discovery Middle School (formally South Valley Junior High).
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History
Liberty High School was first established in 1890 as Clay County, Missouri's first four-year high school. Its original campus, located at the corner of Mill and Gallatin is now the site of Franklin Elementary. In 1923, the school, overcrowded in its first facility with 300 students, relocated to the former site of the Liberty Ladies College, at Kansas and Fairview streets. As Liberty grew into a major suburb of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the district built a new facility near Interstate 35, about one mile (1.6 km) west of the downtown area, and converted the previous facility to Liberty Junior High.
With word of its strong academic reputation attracting families to new subdivisions in Liberty and Kansas City, Liberty High School tripled in size during the 1990s, adding wings for science, fine arts, visual arts, and an expanded media center.
In 2010, Liberty Public Schools founded its second high school, Liberty North High School separating the graduating classes of 2012 and 2013 to travel across town to 104th Street, along A Highway, a few miles north of LHS. Although a major change for the district, it was a necessary one for overcrowding and class size issues.
During the 2013-2014 school year, LHS and LNHS began incorporating freshmen classes to the high school buildings to relieve overcrowding issues at the district's middle level buildings.
Athletics/Activities
The Liberty High School mascot is the Bluejay. School colors are blue, silver, and white.
Several programs at Liberty have received state and national accolades. State championships include men's track (1923, 1924, 1999, 2001), men's cross country (2003, 2004), women's cross country (2006), baseball (2002), men's basketball (1998, 2001), women's basketball (2007), academic competition (1993, 2003, 2005), one-act play (1996, 2009, 2014), women's soccer (2010, 2011), cheerleading (2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016) and women's softball (2004). Liberty has served 3 times as the president school for the Missouri Association of Student Councils, doing so in 1957, 2003 and 2014. Its broadcasting program, recipient of the National Pacemaker Award for exceptional student journalism in 2004 and a top ten finalist in 2009, operates cable channel 18 on Time Warner Cable under the non-assigned call letters KLPS. In 2009 the Symphonic Orchestra from Liberty High School placed 2nd, out of 13 schools, in the High School Division at the American String Teacher's Association National Orchestra Festival in Atlanta, Georgia and in 2011 the Honors Orchestra (a combination of Liberty and Liberty North) placed 2nd in the ASTA National Orchestra Festival in Kansas City, Missouri. As of February 2017, Liberty High School is ranked 4th in the nation in debate and forensics according to the National Forensics League with national recognition multiple years after. LHS is also recognized as top 20 in the nation for its Model United Nations program.