In 1882, some of the first high school classes offered at Parsons were held at McKinley School. The first Parsons High School building was built in 1893 and cost $30,000. It was on southwest corner of Twenty-sixth and Main Streets. The building served the city in its original capacity for just over 30 years. When the new high school / junior college was built on Main Street in the late 1920s, the old high school become West Junior High School. By the 1950s, voters agreed that a new secondary school should begin construction. In the late 50s, the current Parsons High School building was completed. In 2009, a major renovation project was undertaken for Parsons High School and was completely finished before the start of the fall semester. It gave Parsons High School the modern look that can be observed today.
Academics
Parsons Senior High School has a 93% graduation rate. In addition to this, 77% of graduates continue to post-secondary education. PHS offers outstanding general education classes as well as exceptional CTE programs such as Automotive Technology, Graphic Design, Health Science, Welding and more.
Extracurricular activities
Debate and Forensics
Parsons High School is well-noted for its excellence in debate and forensics, having won several individual and team state championships in both debate and forensics. Parsons was the first school to win the 4-speaker and 2-speaker state debate championships in the same year, doing so in 1993, the first year that the 2-speaker championships existed. In 1990, PHS became the only school ever to place two students in the top four National Forensic League point leaders in the same year. For several years, PHS also led the nation in most NFL All-Americans produced, and had more students amongst the all-time NFL point leaders than any other school from Kansas. Between 1985 and 2019 Parsons has been represented at the National Speech and Debate Tournament 31 out of those 34 years, and was recognized as a 30-year milestone school at the 2018 tournament. In 2012, Steven Wood, the former debate and forensics coach at Parsons High School was inducted into the National Forensic League Hall of Fame, which is the highest honor for a high school speech and debate coach.
Athletics
The Vikings compete in the Southeast Kansas League and are classified as a 4A school. Throughout its history, Parsons has won several state championships in various sports.
Tennis
Parsons Senior High School is well-noted for its excellence in a variety of sports, especially in boys' and girls' tennis. The boys' team has won four state championships in tennis, while the girls' teams has won five.
State Championships
Parsons Senior High School offers the following sports:
