Located just south of the
historic Florence area in northeast Omaha, McMillan Junior
High opened in the fall of 1958. The students chose a Monarch as the school nickname representing the royal nature
of the lion - the king of the jungle.
McMillan
Junior High School was named for Edward E. McMillan
(1875-1943), the first principal of North High School.
Mr. McMillan served as North High School principal from 1924, when it
opened, until he retired in 1942.
In the mid-1980's,
McMillan became the Omaha Public Schools' first magnet
junior high school featuring special courses in computers
and mathematics. Ninth graders were moved up to the high
schools in the late 1980's. Since that transition, McMillan has been a middle
school for 7th and 8th graders. Communication Arts was added as a magnet theme in the
early 1990's, and the name of the school was changed to
McMillan Magnet Center.
In 2003, a $13 million on-site renovation
project was completed to update the facility. McMillan
is now the home of a new library/media center, state-of-the-art
technology and living laboratories, computer labs, and
an outstanding indoor and outdoor athletic
complex.