The Parish Episcopal School is a co-educational preparatory day school located on two campuses in Dallas, Texas, USA. The school enrolls students in grades Pre-K-12 and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest.
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History
The Parish Episcopal School was founded as the Parish Day School in 1972 enrolling students between Pre-kindergarten through the 6th grade. It was founded by Mary Loving Blair, who served as the first head of school until 1980, when she was replaced by Gloria Snyder. It was under the administration of Gloria Snyder that the school would be expanded up to grade 12 and renamed to "The Parish Episcopal School" in 2002 (source). It was during this expansion that the school also purchased their second campus on the intersection of Midway Road and Alpha Road in Farmers Branch, Texas, which would house students from grades 3 to 12 (source). The current head of school is Dave Monaco, who replaced Snyder in 2009 (source).
Parish graduated its first high school class of approximately 46 students in May 2007; it graduated a second class of 75 students May 2008. From 2003 to 2008, the Upper School grew from 50 students to 380, and from 5 teachers to more than 45. The Upper School curriculum includes basic college preparation classes in math, English, history, the sciences, world languages (Spanish, Arabic, French, and Latin), fine arts and computer science. Honors and AP courses are also provided for students who wish to learn at a more accelerated pace. Students are expected to take a course of study which meets the entry requirements of major colleges and universities.
Campus life
The Parish Midway campus is centered around a 337,000-square-foot (31,300 m2) academic building designed by the renowned architecture team of I.M. Pei and Henry N. Cobb. A former ExxonMobil office complex, the building and its 50 acres (200,000 m2) have transformed from research center to independent elementary and secondary school. The building's atrium has become the cafeteria. Many of the classrooms overlook Farmers Branch Creek that flows along the north side of the campus. The two-story library has been retrofitted to better fit the needs of a student population. The new Upper School includes science labs, a teaching darkroom, Smart Boards in almost all classrooms, world languages labs, and a counseling center. Each faculty member enjoys an individual office. Surrounding this central building are new athletic facilities complete with a gymnasium, playing fields, and a stadium. The original Hillcrest Campus is located approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) east of Midway Road on the grounds of The Church of the Transfiguration. The Hillcrest campus houses the school's pre-k through grade 2 program.
Traditions
Senior privileges are never the same between graduating classes, and are always proposed and negotiated by the senior class student government before every school year. Almost all classes requested off-campus lunch and the dubious privilege for boys to wear a tie of their choice instead of the plaid school tie and a pastel color dress shirt on Thursdays.
School Colors
The school colors are red, white, and blue.
Religious life
There are daily chapel services and a weekly formal Eucharist service every Thursday. This service is complete with dress uniform, choral offerings from the Upper Elementary, Middle School and High School choirs and student servers who help to provide the communion. The chapel services at the Hillcrest campus take place in the Church of Transfiguration. Beginning in eighth grade there is a world religions study which is required. Lower grades take part in age-appropriate religion classes.
Visual and Performing arts
From pre-kindergarten through high school, Parish students are encouraged to express themselves through a variety of visual and performing arts. In a competition sponsored by The Dallas Morning News, Parish students won six awards for major productions in 2009-10. Class of '10 Meredith Moore (now at Barnard College) had her review of Mame printed in The Dallas Morning News. Parish offers its lower school students a chance to explore music, colors, art materials and techniques, shapes, patterns, and textures. As students move into the upper elementary and middle school grades, they are introduced to art and music from different cultures, as well as theory concepts. Students also receive continued choral training and are encouraged to audition for school productions. Middle and Upper School students learn photography, ceramics, studio art, sculpture, and theatre. Some productions include The Curious Savage, Thoroughly Modern Millie and The Taming of the Shrew.
Athletics
Parish has over 450 students participate in 21 different sports and over 500 events every year. Those sports include football, basketball, baseball, cheerleading, field hockey, lacrosse, soccer and track & field. Since 2006, there have been 300+ student-athletes have won All-District or All-State honors, 104 student-athletes with Academic All-State honors, 47 district and regional championships and 62 collegiate-student athletes.
Speech/Debate
The Parish debate program began competing in 2009 and by 2010 was competing in National Forensics League events. In 2013, Cyrus Ghaznavi set a record for winning by the largest margin at the 4th Annual Capital City Extemporaneous Speaking Round Robin. At the 2013 TFA State competition, Ghaznavi and Sahil Vanjani took first place in Public Forum debate. Ghazhavi also took first in Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking. Parish took 7th place in the overall sweepstakes.
Achievements
Parish's fourth graduating class had two National Merit Scholars and its 96-member graduating class went to colleges across the country ranging from the University of Virginia to Pepperdine University. Seven of the 2007 seniors received recognition through the National Merit Scholarship competition. Student performance has been rewarded with successful achievement on 81% of AP exams. In athletics, teams won championships in golf, tennis and swimming/diving through TAPPS state competitions. Numerous district and regional championships have also been won. Middle school students received recognition in an article in the Dallas Morning News for their performance of the play, The Diviners. Student organizations at the school include Student Government, Honor Council, the Community Service Leadership Board, yearbook, the student newspaper (The Pen), the student literary and arts magazine (The Midway), Multicultural Club, Parish Singers, and National Honor Society.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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