Harrisburg High School

In my personal opinion I believe that Harrisburg is extremely judgemental. I was a student there from seventh grade to graduation and most definitely was never excepted. I would never recommend this school to anyone. It might have been a better school if I would have went there since i was in kindergarten like most of my classmates that i graduated with. Throughout the years that I was involved in this school i was always judged and never accepted. To be quite blunt, 90% of the students, faculty, and community in general are very selfish and would never put someone else before them. If you are considering this school, Don't.
—Submitted by a student

Harrisburg is indeed one of the tightest knit communities I have ever seen. We have lived in this school district for 7 years and my children have gone to Harrisburg schools since pre-k. And we are still not welcomed! We are involved in all type of programs. We however made the mistake of not being Basketball supporters we are academic supporters and supporters of all the children not just the chosen few. If you try to institute change and not just go with the flow your children will be punished by the chosen. Priority in this school (Basketball)
—Submitted by Horified parent, a parent

Harrisburg is a school that continues to focus on quality teachers. I know for a fact that the starting salary is higher that any other school in central Missouri. Harrisburg is getting the best young teachers and has an excellent academic staff. Harrisburg also has a an excellent athletic program. The school continues to have winners in the conference speech & debate, rural electric essay contest and a few years ago had the number one T.E.A.M. (tests for engineering and math) score in the nation for schools of their size. The major problem is you don't read about the academic successes in the newspaper or heard about them on the radio or TV. It's the sports program that gets the press, but that's not the school's fault. Someone mentioned that they would not 'from here'. Allow me to say that there are many, many new faces in the community and all are welcomed in if they want to become a part of the community. Small communities want new comers to be part of the community and not part of the problem. Get involved with the various civic organizations, churches, 4H., etc. BE A JOINER NOT A LONER!
—Submitted by a parent

Just because this school has state winning sports, does not mean they don't care about the student in academic's. Harrisburg is one of the top schools in the state in their end of the year tests. They also have a lot of students that win state wide essay contests. so this school is a great school for being small.
—Submitted by a student

Harrisburg's main focus is indeed on atheletics. Furthermore, unless you are 'from here', you might as well take your chances with a bigger school. You will not fit into their 'athletic circle' and will not be participating. As for academics, I agree with previous reviews in that the students are not prepared for college. There are some good educators in this system but are mainly at the elementary level. In jr. high and high school we have educators in english, history and science who, from our experience, could care less if the kids succeed. As for the music department--just come and listen to our band and compare to bands of similar size, then decide for yourself.
—Submitted by a parent

this school cares only about atheltics and could care less about an education its only worried about being number 1 in basketball every season and the teachers discriminate against the students and fail the ones they dont like.... this school is a bucnh of bologna.
—Submitted by a former student

This school's focus is on athletics only. Athletes are excused from classes for athletic events, but when there is an academic event, the intellectuals are not. The school has limited academic resources and options for students. To get a fair preparation for college, students need to take correspondence courses. The school is over 150 years old and only within the past year did it have a student who went on to achieve a Ph.D. If you want your child to utilize his or her school time for academics, go with another school. If you're looking for a school that over-emphasizes it under-par athletics, this is the school for you.
—Submitted by a parent