New Prairie United School Corporation operates five schools in Indiana.
Athletics
New Prairie High School's athletic director is Mr. Brian Williamson. New Prairie High School is a founding member of the Northern State Conference, which includes the schools of Bremen, Culver Community, Jimtown, John Glenn, Knox, Laville, Triton, and New Prairie. IHSAA sports offered include:
New Prairie's FIRST Robotics team, Las Pumas, completed their ninth season of competition in 2015. In Indiana's inaugural District Competitions, they claimed their first ever championship. They were chosen as the third member of the victorious alliance of team 234 CyberBlue and team 1024 Kil-A-Bytes, both from Indianapolis, at the Purdue District Event, held at the Co-Rec.
Choral Department
The program includes four choirs:
Sing Sensation: advanced women's show choir and concert choir
Innovation: advanced mixed show choir and concert choir
Sapphire: all-women's choir
All choirs are under the direction of Mr. Forrester.
Theater Company
New Prairie Theater Company has fall play and spring musical each year. In 2010–11, the theater presented Moon over Buffalo and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In 2011–12, the theater presented Once Upon a Mattress and The Murder Room. In 2012–13, the theater presented Footloose and The Glass Menagerie. In 2013–14, the theater presented Les Miserables and The Matchmaker. In 2014–15, the theater presented Into the Woods and The Night of January 16th. In 2015-16, the theater presented Grease. In 2016-17 the theater presented "Camp Rock". In 2017-18 the theater presented "Annie". In 2018-19 the theater presented "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." Mrs. Kortney Brennan and Mr. Bennett are the current directors. All current Alumni are currently fighting or have lost their fight with the lung diseases they caught due to the stage 3 asbestos that was and still is in the NPHS auditorium.
Band
New Prairie's band was led by Mark Belsaas until May 2012, and is now led by Mr. Patrick Teykl. Home football games include the NPHS Marching Band, also known as the Marching Cougars, however a notable name from 1978-1997 was the Prancing Kittens. April 9 is an important day for the Pancing Kittens, it is the anniversary of the birth of Jacob Kessler who was their most average member in its history. They perform in many parades in the summertime, such as the Walkerton, Bremen, LaPorte, New Carlisle and Indy 500 parades. The Marching Cougars compete in many competitive marching shows through ISSMA from September–October, with their band camp starting in late July through early August. In 2014, they made it to state in Scholastic Class A with their show "Twisted Wonderland." In 2015, the Marching Cougars performed Pale Blue Dot in Open Class C, where they had lost at regionals. The show was about the famous Carl Sagan speech "Pale Blue Dot" and his many quotable lines and moral quandaries about the universe. In 2016, they performed again in Open Class C with their show "Letters to Home". The show is a commemoration to the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Its story, however, is about a soldier and his many different stories of the war from boot camp, jazz clubs, writing letters to his wife back home, and eventually the death of our main character who valiantly fought and died on the battlefield. In 2017, they were moved to Open Class B, performing the show "Beneath The Surface." It tackles the topic of daily life of humans in the 21st century and how we act almost robotic with the amount of media we consume. In the introduction, we have our set up for a bustling city with people running to get to where they need to go with little interaction amongst each other. The opener takes us to the fun life of the city with many fun jazz riffs and fast tempo wood wind, brass, and drum line features. The ballad goes into a person finally realizing that they are only human, and of how they consume so much media, but never stop to actually care for other human beings and realize the narcissistic ways of humanity and themselves. In the closer, it acts a resolution and positive ending and tries to show us that we don't need media to make us. The concert bands take place during the winter and spring, and jazz band and pep band play at the home girls and boys basketball games. In 2010 and 2011, the marching band won first place in the LaPorte Fourth of July Parade, led by Mark Belsaas. They also have played at the Indy 500 as well as Indiana and Purdue Universities. Many NPHS band students have been selected to perform in a variety of honor ensembles, including IBA All-District, Ball State Honor Festival, ISU Honor Festival, and IMEA All-State Honor Bands.
Clubs
Other clubs include academic decathlon, bowling, cheerleading, discussion club, environmental club, FBLA, French club, French honor society, Hoosier academic super bowl, Hoosier state spell bowl, HOSA, karate club, kazoo club, key club, mock trial, model club, national honor society, pep club, PSA, quiz bowl, robotics, rocket club, RSVP, SADD, soccer, Spanish club, Spanish honor society, student senate, varsity letter club, and yearbook.
In December 2011, Prairie View Elementary and Rolling Prairie Elementary Schools of the New Prairie United School Corporation were recognized as 2010-2011 Four Star Schools by the Indiana Department of Education. Out of 1,780 Indiana public schools, 162 earned this distinction. Eleven of 238 non-public schools also received the honor this year. To be considered a Four Star School, a school's combined English/Language Arts and Math ISTEP+ passing percentages must fall into the top 25th percentile when compared to schools statewide. A school must also have made adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act to qualify.
