The Barstow School is a secular, coeducational, independent preparatory school in southern Kansas City, Missouri, USA. It was co-founded in 1884 by Mary Louise Barstow and Ada Brann.
The school has 41 athletic teams in 12 sports beginning in the sixth grade.
The Barstow School is the oldest independent school west of the Mississippi.
Tuition for the 2010-2011 school year ranged from $11,605 for five full-day preschool to $16,000 and higher for grades 9 through 12.
The Barstow School is also the home to the Hybrid Learning Consortium, a globalized learning community offering a diverse variety of online courses to students around the world. The HLC currently has 19 member schools, both domestic and international. The HLC enables institutions to create a scalable model for diverse course offerings wider than a single institution can support.
History
Mary Louise Barstow and Ada Brann, both graduates of Wellesley College, came to Kansas City in 1884, responding to the need to establish a local school comparable to the outstanding independent schools on the East Coast. With the support of several notable families in the rapidly growing city, they founded the Barstow School at 12th Street and Broadway on Quality Hill in Downtown Kansas City.
As both the school and the city grew and prospered, the school moved several times: first to near Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral on Quality Hill, then to 15th Street and Westport Avenue, then to 4950 Cherry Street in the Brookside neighborhood, and finally in 1962 to 115th Street and State Line Road, a location then on the far outskirts of the city but today well within Kansas City's suburban sprawl. Although originally coeducational, in 1924 Barstow became an all-girls school except at the preschool level. The school resumed coeducation when it moved to its current location.
In 1960, boys were admitted to the first grade, and Barstow became coeducational one grade and one year at a time, until its first coed graduating class in 1972. Although its class sizes often were under ten, Barstow had two famous alumnae during its early days: movie star Jean Harlow and First Lady Bess Truman.
In 2003, Barstow built a new lower school.
Accreditation and memberships
Barstow is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools, the Independent Schools Association of the Central States, the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, the Educational Records Bureau, the National and Missouri Associations for College Admission Counseling, the College Board and the Cum Laude Society.
Athletics
The athletic teams are known as the Barstow Knights, and the school colors are green, black and white. Starting with the 2010-2011 school year, the head coach for the Knights basketball team is Billy Thomas, a well known former KU player.
In the fall, teams are girls' tennis, boys' soccer, girls' volleyball, girls' golf, and girls' and boys' cross-country and boys' swimming. The girls' golf team participated in the State Golf Tournament October 18â€"19, 2010, and the girls' tennis team will be represented at the State Tennis Tournament the end of October [of what year?].
Winter sports at Barstow are girls' basketball, boys' basketball, girls' swimming, cheerleading, and the "Knight Starz" (sic) dance team. The Knights cheerleading squad has won the class 2 State Cheerleading Competition twice, in 2005 and 2007. The Knight Starz dance team took home a 3rd place finish at the 2009 state dance competition.
In the spring, teams are boys' tennis, boys' baseball, girls' soccer, boys' golf, girls' softball, and boys' and girls' track and field. The boys' baseball team placed second in state in the 2007-2008 season.
In spring 2010, Barstow's Academic Team won the Missouri Class 2 State Championship. All four team members earned All-District Honors and three members earned All-State honors.
Also in spring 2010, the varsity girls' soccer team advanced to the Class 1 State Tournament for the first time in school history.
In the Spring of 2016, the Barstow golf team extended its five year run as District Champions.
Sports Offered
For boys, Barstow offers:
For girls, Barstow offers:
Notable alumni
- Josh Earnest, White House Press Secretary for the Obama Administration, 2014
- Eldar Djangirov, jazz pianist
- Jean Harlow, film actress and top sex symbol of the 1930s, known as the Platinum Blonde
- Jamie Metzl, politician and national security expert
- Margot Peet, artist
- Bess Truman, the wife of Harry S Truman and First Lady of the United States from 1945 to 1953.
- Marc Solomon, gay rights activist, national director of Freedom to Marry, and author
- Shea Rush, 2017 NCAA Division 1, National Champion with the University of North Carolina TarHeels
References
External links
- The Barstow School
- Profile from the school's website
- Barstow School at the National Center for Education Statistics
- Blog post from John Chubb, President of NAIS, after his December '14 visit to the school at the National Association of Independent Schools