In 1885, Joplin High School began operation. The original site was expanded in 1892 to accommodate more students, and in 1897, students moved to a new site due to continued growth. In 1911, the students built a biplane and on October 11, 1911 Harold Robinson piloted the plane and it crashed, killing a bystander, James Kinney. A successful 1915 referendum allocated $350,000 for a new school, which opened in January 1918.
2011 tornado The
2011 Joplin tornado that killed 161 people in Joplin extensively damaged the high school and Franklin Tech. The high school's graduation ceremonies had taken place that afternoon about three miles away on the
Missouri Southern State University campus shortly before the tornado struck. In the weeks after the tornado, it was determined that the campus would need to be completely rebuilt. Planning for a temporary school began four days after the May 22 tornado. School officials announced in June 2011 that juniors and seniors in the 201112 class would attend classes in a section of
Northpark Mall in the renovated former
Shopko location, while freshmen and sophomores held classes at the former Memorial High School building. Classes began as scheduled on August 17, 2011. On May 20, 2012, President Barack Obama addressed the JHS graduating class's commencement ceremony, held almost one year to the day of the deadly tornado.
Temporary campus and facilities From August 2011 to May 2014 the school was split between a renovated former
Shopko store at
Northpark Mall and a former high school. The design of this temporary facility was awarded the
Council of Educational Facilities Planners International's 2012 James D. MacConnell Award for excellence in school design. On May 22, 2012, the groundbreaking ceremony was held marking the start of construction of the new permanent replacement school. Construction costs for the new 488,000 plus-square-foot facility designed by Corner Greer Associates of Joplin and the
Overland Park, Kansas firm DLR Group, which includes a state of the art vocational technical center, are expected to be $120 million. After three years in temporary campuses as a result of the
2011 tornado, Joplin High School opened at 2104 Indiana Ave. on September 2, 2014. ==Communities zoned to the high school==