This year marks the 30th anniversary of the high school being moved from what is now Derby Middle School onto Rock Road near Madison. It was a big but necessary decision that had to be made. 

“We were definitely cramped in the old building, and there were a lot of things about the old building that weren’t ADA compliant,” teacher and 1995 Derby High School graduate Kathleen O’Brien said. 

“We still had portables over there, so we had some classes where you still had to go outside so it was nice to be all in one building where we had enough space for everything. The classrooms were a lot bigger too.”

Although it was a larger space there were still some conflicting problems to the newly built school because of the timing of it all.

“We moved second semester so we had a longer Christmas break, and we moved in basically in January of second semester,” O’Brien said. 

“The building wasn’t done yet, and I was in band and so the marching band room was basically just concrete, and it was so loud when we would play so it was awful. They were still putting drywall up, when you turned the water fountains on the water would be cloudy because the pipes were still being flushed out, so It was kind of crazy but most of it was done.”

Since then, the high school has made a lot of progress because of the 2018 bond that was approved for Derby Public Schools. 

This bond included common area and hallway improvements, an indoor activity center, and a parking lot with connected drives. 

“It looks a lot better, because when I first moved into this building we joked it had the same color as the Taco Bell because it was magenta, navy blue, and teal. It didn’t feel like Derby,” O’Brien said with laughter. 

To O’Brien the school now feels like home more than ever in all her years of attending and teaching. 

“The remodel was nice because we were able to bring in a lot more green and white and make it feel a little more panther-esque. I love the front entry with all the schools representing on it, and the stuff they’ve done in the gym looks really cool,” she said.

There is something special about the new DHS that makes past students want to come back and teach.

“My husband and I, we were engaged at the time, so it was second semester and neither one of us had a job and we were looking kind of here and in the Kansas City area,” said teacher Sara Wilson, a 1999 alumna. 

“We were both here for a while and our families had lived in Derby forever. My father-in-law also taught in DMS, so it was just like we were home here, and if we were gonna be in this area Derby is where we wanted us and our kids to be.”

Derby High School is a community that is like family — figuratively and literally. 

“My dad also taught in the science department here at the time. It was a lot of fun, and at the time my mother-in-law was also teaching Spanish here. I think dad and I were here together for about four years,” Wilson said. 

Wilson also has two daughters that attend DHS, one being a freshman and the other a senior. 

“It’s like we’ve been looking forward to this year for so long because with the age difference we knew that when Natalie was a senior Hallie would be a freshman, so it’s been a really fun time,” she said. 

The people of Derby that push and drive students of DHS are one of the reasons why the school is able to do and have so many things.

“Because of our size we’re able to provide diversity of opportunities that a lot of schools can’t,” Wilson said. 

“Giving kids opportunities to do the things they love and outside the classroom walls, and that was definitely my experience when I was in high school so I think that’s something that I’m grateful for.”