Mount Pleasant Community High School

Mount Pleasant Community High School is a public high school (grades 9–12) located in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. MPCHS is one of two high schools in the Mount Pleasant Community School District. Annual enrollments are generally between 600 and 700 students for all four grade levels. The school offers regular and enriched academic education which includes advanced placement classes, special education classes, vocational education, and specialized instruction for at-risk students as well as those with limited English-speaking capabilities.

The high school is part of the 3A Southeast Conference and participates in 18 varsity athletics, including track and field, cross country, basketball, football, wrestling, volleyball, soccer, tennis, golf, and bowling (added in 2010). MPCHS holds eight state championships, three in boys basketball (1917,1918, 2012) one in boys outdoor track & field (2000), girls cross country (2002) and three in girls track & field (2004, 2005, 2006).[2] The Football team was also voted state champions (for all classes) in 1963 (before there was a playoff system) as they were undefeated and unscored on.

The school's music program allows students to participate in choir, show choir, concert band, marching band, and jazz band. The Mount Pleasant Panther Marching Band, directed by Jim DePriest, since 1986 has accumulated an impressive streak of consecutive Division I ratings at the annual State Marching Band Festival. The band has traveled to major competitions in Indianapolis, IN, St. Louis, MO, Blue Springs, MO, West Des Moines, and other places to compete with Bands of America caliber bands. The band also hosts their own marching band invitational, usually held on the third Saturday evening in September. From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, the Panther Marching Band would regularly travel to places like St. Louis and Indianapolis to compete against dozens of other high school marching bands in the Bands of America regionals. In 2002, the band won the award for best music at the regional in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The Mount Pleasant Community High School currently has two jazz bands. The Mount Pleasant Jazz 1, directed by Jim DePriest, has participated in state contest many times, while the Mount Pleasant Jazz 2, under Laura Westfall, has included many students that were later in Jazz 1. Jazz 1 won fifth place at the 2016 Iowa Jazz Championships and sixth place in 2017.

The Mount Pleasant InMotion show choir is an award-winning ensemble that has won numerous awards over the years and is recognized in the state of Iowa as one of the best show choirs. This ensemble is directed by Marlene DePriest. This show choir has been to Benton High School's "Touch of Class" Invitational, Fort Madison's "Stars in the Spotlight" invitational, Pella's "Dutch Masters" competition, and West Delaware's "Red Carpet Gala" invitational as well as other competitions. The school hosts their own show choir invitational, Music in Motion, annually on the first Saturday in February.

Mount Pleasant High School's chamber choir is an accomplished ensemble of sophomores-seniors. They have been to state contest many times and many students in this choir have auditioned for the All-State choir.

The Mount Pleasant High School directs a musical every two years. They consist of Broadway shows and are commonly Rodgers and Hammerstein productions.

Many graduates of MPCHS go on to 2-year community colleges or 4-year public or private institutions in the area.

Some notable individuals that graduated from Mount Pleasant Community High School include Henry Krieger-Coble, an alumnus of the University of Iowa Hawkeye football program and current tight end for the Los Angeles Rams, and Stephen Grismore, current jazz instructor, lecturer, and performing artist at the University of Iowa. Other notable alumni include Cali Wilson, Class of 2009, singer from NBC's The Voice television show and James Van Allen, physicist that discovered the Van Allen Radiation Belts that have been named after him.