Jackson Preparatory School (Mississippi)

Jackson Preparatory School (Jackson Prep), is an independent, coeducational, college preparatory day school enrolling 820 students in grades six through twelve. Located in Flowood, Mississippi, a suburb of Jackson, and specializing in secondary education since 1970, Jackson Preparatory School holds the state recordFact|date=August 2008 with 461 National Merit Semifinalists, including 16 from the class of 2006. Prep currently offers the only Classical Heritage Program in the state. Prep offers courses in East Asian Studies and is one of four schools to be selected for a Cum Laude Society chapter. Students consistently win regional and national awards in language, literature, art, mathematics, science, music, and drama. The school is located on a 74 acre campus east of Jackson and is the largest independent secondary school in the state of Mississippi.Fact|date=August 2008 Endowment: >$1,000,000.Fact|date=August 2008 Total enrollment: 820.

Faculty

The Jackson Preparatory School faculty/staff comprises 85 people, including 43 (50%) who have earned post-graduate degrees. Six faculty members hold Ph.D. degrees. The student/faculty ratio is 11:1.

cholarships and awards

In recent years, Prep students have earned many scholarships and awards including the Presidential Scholars Program Award, Principal’s Leadership Scholarship, Robert Byrd Scholarship, Intel Talent Search Scholarship, Discover Card Scholarship, National Merit Corporation Scholarship, Coca-Cola Scholarship, and numerous academic and leadership awards from individual colleges and universities. The Class of 2005 received scholarship offers totaling $7.6 million; 85 percent of the class accepted merit-based scholarships or grants, representing a value of $2.3 million.Fact|date=August 2008

Jackson Preparatory School is also one of four schools in Mississippi to have a chapter of the Cum Laude Society.

tudent life

The school has a student government association, debate team, student publications, service clubs, academic honorary societies, band, choir, drill team, cheerleading, visual arts classes and exhibits, drama and musical theater productions, and special-interest clubs.

Literary Magazine

Jackson Preparatory School's High School literary magazine is named Earthwinds. Earthwinds is ranked as one of the best student literary magazines in the nation,Fact|date=August 2008 earning a fourth consecutive Gold Medal in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s Critique of Student Literary Magazines as of the 2007-2008 school year. Earthwinds has also earned an All-Southern Rating, the highest commendation awarded by the Southern Interscholastic Press Association, judged by the journalism and communications faculty at the University of South Carolina this year.Fact|date=August 2008

Music Department

The Jackson Preparatory School choirs, known in the Senior High as the Prep Singers and the Junior High as the Jr. Prep Singers, are recognized yearly as competitive and musically talented.Fact|date=August 2008Who|date=August 2008 Each year the Prep Singers and the Jr. Prep Singers take part in a state-wide competition at The University of Mississippi.Fact|date=August 2008 In the 2006-2007 school year, the Prep Singers competed in the Disney Magic Music Days Choral Competition. The choir won a Bronze Medal Overall TrophyFact|date=August 2008 and invitations to advance to further competitions in cities such as New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and San Antonio.Fact|date=August 2008

Some Prep students have gone to colleges such as Boston Conservatory, Oklahoma City University, and the University of Cincinnati to further their theatre careers.Fact|date=August 2008

Football

Jackson Preparatory School's football team has been one of the State's elite programs since the school's founding in 1970. The football team is known as the Patriots. The team has enjoyed all but one winning season in its history. Prep is a member of the Mississippi Private School Association (MPSA), and currently competes in that league's AAA-I division. The team has won 11 MPSA football titles since 1970 (1972, 1983, 1984, 1988, 1990 and 1991 in Class AAA, 1998 and 2000 in Class AAAA and 2002, 2006 and 2007 AAA-I). The Patriots became the first MPSA team ever to defeat a team from the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) [http://www.misshsaa.com/] , when the Patriots defeated Newton County High School by a score of 24-0. Newton County finished the season with an 11-2 record, their only other loss coming from 2006 MHSAA Class 3A Champion/2007 Class 3A Runner-up Franklin County High School in the Quarterfinal Round of the 2007 MHSAA Class 3A Playoffs. Prep's victory over Newton County put to rest speculation that the smaller schools of the MPSA could not compete with their larger MHSAA counterparts. One week after beating Newton County, the Patriots cruised to a 50-0 victory over MHSAA Class 4A member Pearl High School, who finished 2007 with a 3-7 record. Prep's 2-0 mark against MHSAA teams in 2007 gave the MPSA a 3-1 record all-time against the MHSAA. The MPSA's only loss came in 2000, when Prep was defeated by George County High School, then an MHSAA Class 4A team, by a score of 27-14. The MPSA's third win in the series came when Madison-Ridgeland Academy defeated MHSAA Class 2A member St. Andrew's Episcopal School by a 6-3 margin, also during the 2007 Season.

Among the most notable players to come through Prep's program are former Mississippi State All-SEC and All-America Linebacker Paul V. Lacoste, former Tennessee Vols standout Will Overstreet, current Jacksonville Jaguars Offensive Lineman Todd Wade and his younger brother, Justin, formerly a standout Linebacker for the Ole Miss Rebels.

Cross Country

A race is held on campus every season known as the "Jackson Prep Invitational."

Facilities

Jackson Preparatory School is housed on a 74 acre campus. The Junior High and Senior High buildings each include academic classrooms and science labs. Each has a computer center with high-speed internet connections. Division administrators and counselors are located in both buildings, and the Senior High building houses a student publications center. At the heart of the campus is the convert|42000|sqft|m2|sing=on McRae Fine Arts and Media Center, which houses three art studios, a ceramics studio, band hall, choral music room, and art gallery. The McRae Center is also home to the Jesse Howell Library, with holdings that include nearly 20,000 volumes, 60 periodical subscriptions, 24 desktop and 48 laptop computers, databases, and other services. The most recent infrastructure on campus, the Guyton Science Center, houses six state-of-the-art science classrooms with laboratories and the Lyceum, a two-hundred-seat lecture/meeting facility.

The Fortenberry Auditorium and Gymnasium, along with the J.O. Manning Patriot Center, provide athletic venues, a performing arts complex, dressing rooms, weight rooms, coaches’ offices, and laundry facilities. Prep's outdoor athletic complex includes a lighted baseball field, a lighted football stadium with 400-meter track, a soccer field, a girls' fast-pitch softball field, eight wheelchair-accessible tennis courts, a cross-country course, and multiple practice fields.

Jackson Preparatory School is the only school in the MPSA to have a cross-country course on its campus.Fact|date=August 2008

ee also

*List of private schools in Mississippi

References

* [http://www.jacksonprep.net/ Jackson Preparatory Homepage]