Vel Phillips Memorial High School is a public high school in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was established in 1966 and is part of the Madison Metropolitan School District. The school is named after Vel Phillips, an American attorney, politician, jurist, and Civil Rights activist, who served as the first female alderperson and judge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and as Secretary of State of Wisconsin (1979-1983). Previously named James Madison Memorial High School after Founding Father James Madison, the school was unanimously renamed by the Madison Metropolitan School District board in 2021 after concern was raised by the public over Madison's ownership of slaves. Academics Memorial offers classes ranging from Algebra 1 to Photography. Chinese, German, French and Spanish are some of their language classes. The school also hosts the Madison school district's planetarium and offers an Astronomy class. Small Learning Communities grant In 2001, Memorial received a U.S. Department of Education Small Learning Communities federal grant to support a "neighborhood" reorganization. The four neighborhoods are Rock, Wolf, Fox, and Wisconsin . School newspapers The official school newspaper is The Sword and Shield and until 2014 kept all issues online. Independent newspapers, The Spartacus and Aficionado existed at one time, but have all ceased distribution. The Independent was created after the 1990–91 school year by The Sword and Shield staff. Extracurricular activities Memorial offers interscholastic sports and extramural activities. The Spartans have won 64 state championships across all sports, ranking third in the state of Wisconsin. Athletics Baseball 1990 State champion; beat Marinette, 8-7 (9) 1992 State champion; beat Oconomowoc, 10-8 Basketball (boys) 2005 State champion; beat Milwaukee Vincent, 63-55 2009 State champion; beat Racine Horlick, 56-41 2011 State champion; beat De Pere, 80-78 (3OT) Cross country (boys) 1967 State champion; beat Antigo, 80-82 1969 State champion; beat Milwaukee Marshall, 52-109 1991 State champion; beat Homestead, 65-97 Cross country (girls) 1980 State champion; beat Neenah, 98-114 1984 State champion; beat Neenah, 85-99 Football (boys) 1984 State Runners Up; 10w - 2l Current Winningest Team Golf (boys) 1972 State champion; beat Whitefish Bay, 611-618 1984 State champion; beat Madison West, 647-649 1990 State champion; beat Eau Claire North, 670-686 Golf (girls) 1977 State champion; beat Madison West, 710-739 1979 State champion; beat Appleton East, 710-728 1980 State champion; beat Appleton West, 729-785 Hockey (boys) 1976 State champion; beat Superior, 4-3 (3OT) 1977 State champion; beat Superior, 3-2 (2OT) 1979 State champion; beat