Paris, Illinois — For years, students here lived in a community of 9,000 that was stuck with an aging high school over 100 years old, that had no athletic fields, and classrooms that resembled more the 1940s than the current century. But that’s no longer the case.
Today in Paris, the community boasts an amazing $40 million high school sitting on 68 acres, with fields for football, baseball, tennis courts, and a Fine Arts Center, that is used by the school and the community at large.
This new high school, which opened in 2015, is part of an economic reformation taking place in Paris, which has also drawn to the community major employers, expanded its healthcare facilities. And now, has a high school that is among the best in the state.
How this came about, the examples of cooperation between two school districts, the city, and the community at large, showcases not just a new high school, but what can be accomplished when even a small community focuses together on what is possible when they work toward a common goal.
