Shawnee Mission Shout Outs

When Shawnee Mission School District students and staff are ALL IN, there are unlimited possibilities to what they can accomplish.

In the first quarter of this school year, numerous recognitions were presented to the people who make us ONE Shawnee Mission.

Here are a few recent highlights:

Horizon Award The Shawnee Mission School District honored two SMSD educators for their outstanding work early in their careers. Ryleigh Diskin, a first-grade teacher at Ray Marsh Elementary School and Chris Heady, a Shawnee Mission Northwest journalism teacher, are district nominees for the Horizon Award, which recognizes exemplary first-year teachers who perform in a way that distinguishes them as outstanding. The program allows all districts in Kansas to nominate one elementary and one secondary (middle or high school) classroom teacher. Eventually, 32 educators will be notified that they are Kansas Horizon Award winners for the state of Kansas.

Forbes Ranking The Shawnee Mission School District has once again been recognized among America’s Best Employers By State by Forbes Magazine. The rankings were developed based on employee surveys where participants were asked how likely they were to recommend their employer. The list includes 1,294 organizations. Shawnee Mission is ranked in the top 15 in the State of Kansas.

Scholarship Shawnee Mission This fall, through Scholarship Shawnee Mission, a program offered by the Shawnee Mission Education Foundation, students received more than $5.7 billion in scholarship offers from colleges and universities from across the country. Click here to read more about it.

Seal of Biliteracy This year, 150 students from the Class of 2024 earned 157 Seals of Biliteracy in 11 different languages. This is a record number of students in the SMSD earning this distinction. The Seal of Biliteracy is a credential for high school students who have attained intermediate and advanced proficiencies in English and one or more additional language(s).

Apply Kansas Honors Shawnee Mission North, Shawnee Mission Northwest, Shawnee Mission South, and Shawnee Mission West were named All Star High School award winners. This recognition was presented to only 148 high schools in Kansas through the Apply Kansas: College Application campaign. This recognizes schools that provide support to students in completing admissions applications, seeking financial aid, and celebrating all postsecondary paths. 

National Merit Semifinalists The National Merit Program named 11 Shawnee Mission seniors as semifinalists in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program. These students took the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. These students have an opportunity to advance in competition for National Merit Scholarship Awards, worth nearly $28 million.

Art Show Honoree Shawnee Mission has so many multi talented team members, and the district celebrated that creativity in its gallery space this fall. Spaces in the Center for Academic Achievement featured artwork created by Shawnee Mission School District staff team members. Steve McCord, head custodian at Merriam Park Elementary School, was selected as the winner of this year’s Faculty Art Show for his work of art, “Lillian.” The Shawnee Mission Education Foundation provided a $250 prize for the honoree and a $250 grant for the school's art department, which will further support student creativity.

Sporting KC Samaritan Adam Shirley, a forensic science teacher at Shawnee Mission Northwest, was honored as a BlueKC Sporting Samaritan in September. This honor is presented to honor students and teachers who make the Kansas City community a better place to live, work, and play. “The passion Adam shows toward forensic science has been on full display his entire career,” Christina Lively, Blue KC Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, stated in a press release. “Seeing him start the program from the ground up, and successfully evolve it into a full-time opportunity is a testament to his hard work, determination and commitment to what he truly believes in. Adam found an interest and used his skills and abilities to create a program for large quantities of students to learn the inner workings of forensic science. Congratulations Adam!”

SkillsUSA Honors Shawnee Mission School District SkillsUSA honorees had a lot to celebrate over the summer. SkillsUSA is a national workforce development organization that holds competitions for students which are judged by industry professionals. Faith Xiong, a 2024 Shawnee Mission West graduate, earned a Silver medal in Culinary. Peyton Frazier, a 2024 Shawnee Mission Northwest graduate, won Silver in the Cabinetry competition. The cabinet Peyton created was built within eight hours and was entered in competition with honorees from 43 other states.

History Teacher of the Year Kimberly Gilman, a teacher at Hocker Grove Middle School, is the 2024 Kansas History Teacher of the Year. The honor is presented by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and recognizes exceptional elementary through high school teachers for their outstanding contributions to American history education, according to a press release. Gilman receives a $1,000 honorarium, an archive of American history books, and educational materials curated by the Gilder Lehrman Institute. She also will be honored at a ceremony where she will be recognized as one of 53 finalists for the 2024 National History Teacher of the Year award.