LTHS ranks in Top 9%
“(A school’s) appearance on this list means that you are trying much harder than most schools to expose your students to the demands of college,” said Jay Mathews, reporter for the Washington Post who compiled the rankings.
Since 1998, Newsweek Magazine has ranked public high schools. Three years ago, The Washington Post took over the ranking, using a similar formula of measurement: Divide the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or other college-level tests a school gives by the number of graduating seniors.
“This index serves as a measure of the rigorous curriculum offered within the school, which impacts the entire school environment,” said Assistant Superintendent Brett Gould. “Michelle Conway, our AP coordinator, does a remarkable job supporting the program, students and teachers, who are the core of our success.”
Lockport Township High School District 205 has continually ranked on the list. The district consistently has outranked most Illinois school districts, including magnet schools that draw from a large student population not limited to residential boundaries.
“Our high rank in the state of Illinois reflects the dedicated work to give the best opportunities to our students,” Gould said. “And without the efforts of our faculty, feeder schools and families, we wouldn’t be so successful.”
For what is believed the first time in Lockport Township High School District 205’s history, three students have tied for salutatorian of the Class of 2013.
Ryan Biggs, of Lockport, is the valedictorian of the Class of 2013. Biggs, who earned a 4.789 GPA on a weighted 5.0 scale, is a graduate of Will County District 92.
Alyssa Brehm, Karolina Gogola and Kimberly Johnson have tied as salutatorian of the Class of 2013, each with a 4.763 GPA on a weighted 5.0 scale. Brehm and Johnson, both of Homer Glen, are graduates of Homer Community Consolidated School District 33C. Gogola, of Lockport, is a graduate of Will County District 92.
Lockport Township High School District 205 takes great pride and pleasure in announcing the Top Ten Percent students of the Class of 2013.
This year, 124 students have earned the honor of being included in the TOP TEN PERCENT weighted and unweighted ranking of the Class of 2013.
This distinction was earned by the following students:
Dena Abdelaziz, Samantha Almer, Alexandra Alontaga, Alexis Amerio, Dakota Anderson, Karina Arechiga, Reema Asfour, Matthew Babicz, Lindsey Bassett, Hayden Beissel, Jeffrey Bentley, Allison Bernotas, Ryan Biggs, Alyssa Brehm, Chesca Calicdan, Laura Canaday, Shannon Casserly, Ivy Cirar, Carlie Cisarik, Karissa Cockburn, Michael Coladipietro, Mitchell Cooper, Timothy Cruz, Alberto Davila, Robert Dealey, Alyssa DeYoung, Matthew Domalewski, Nicholas Domalewski, Angela Dominici, Ethan Doubleday, Jakob Elias, Alexis Ellstrom, Marlene Escudero, Kenneth Espiritu, Talia Farej, Rachel Frainey, Tomas Garbaliauskas, Karolina Gogola, Anna Gonzalez, Jeremy Grachan, Alyssa Grycko, Rebecca Gullett, Sally Hausken, Jason Hicks, Stephen Hippleheuser, Akshat Jain, Hannah Jankowski, Jessica Jirik, Kimberly Johnson, Michelle Johnson, John Kalmanek, Patrick Karli, Jenna Kennedy, Jakub Klapacz, Urszula Kolbrecka, Austin Kolmodin, Paige Kooi, Savannah Koszela, Marissa Kroll, Genevieve Kulak, Megan Kushner, Melody Ann Lamsen, Thomas Lesniak, Elizabeth Lewandowski, Jonathan Litoborski, Phillip Lullo, Amanda MacNab, Ann Martin, Laura Martin, Michaela Maslanka, Thomas McGrath, Jeremy Meeder, Jennifer Meyer, Brett Milewski, Emily Miller, Kelly Miotti, Cesar Moreno, Sara Napoli, Jennifer Norka, Daniel Oldendorf,
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John Orban, Andrea Palac, Rachel Parchem, Nicholas Paris, Christina Park, Tyler Pastore, Shannon Pedone, John Peterson, John Pfeiffer, Hannah Pilch, Samantha Pindak, Leah Plescia, Nora Polaski, Melina Ramirez, Nicole Ramotowski, Kelsi Rarick, Dante Reese, Anna Ricchiuto, Donatas Ruzys, Bahia Salah, Ranen Salah, Sharon Sanchez, Jamie Schuh, Matthew Serdar, Judith Stanford, Madeline Stein, Reno Stramaglia, Raymond Sullivan, Katie Tabisz, John Tague, Nataliya Vehera, Dustin Vilcek, Jacob Voltarel, Madeline Walder, Shannon Walsh, Nicholas Weidenaar, Kortney Weisenfluh, Jordan Wentz, Megan Westberg, Jenna Witek, Brandon Witsaman, Briana Zabierek, Mitchell Zaplatosch, and Najla Zayed.
The Lockport Rotary Club honored the Top Ten Percent April 17 with a banquet at DiNolfo’s in Homer Glen.
LTHS 5K unites runners, community
The fourth annual LTHS Foundation 5K Run/Walk drew record numbers on April 21 as area runners gathered to support the foundation and commemorate the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.
More than 300 runners/walkers – many wearing black badges that read “Boston – 4/15/13 – we won’t forget” – took park in the annual event, which is held at East campus.
The overall male winner was Marc O’Neal, of Lockport, who ran an unbelievable time of 17:32.
Amy Bowden, an English teacher at LTHS who lives in New Lenox, took top spot for women with an equally impressive time of 21:35.
This year, the LTHS Science Department – being led by teacher Bob Champlin - took top honors as the fastest departmental team at the race. The Math Department was a close second with teacher Ryan Visser leading their pack, but that department was unable to hold onto its winner’s title for a second consecutive year.
Department winners are chosen by averaging the top three runners in each department and then deducting 10 seconds for each team member over the first three. By doing it this way, large departments of walkers can beat smaller departments with fast runners.
The Science Department had a time of 20:19, compared to the Math Department’s time of 21:65.
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As the winner, the Science Department will receive a $250 minigrant to be used at their discretion and a large trophy for display. More importantly, they also now have bragging rights for the rest of the year.
The LTHS Boys Tennis Team also won a free training session with Nick Setta of Setta Performance thanks to their participation in the race. As an incentive for participating, the Foundation was offering a free session to the team that had the most members run the race.
For a complete list of race results, please visit our web site at www.lths.org.
at Midwest Clinic
The Lockport Township High School Wind Symphony has been accepted to perform at the 2013 Midwest International Band & Orchestra Clinic, which is held in December in Chicago.
An invitation to perform at the Midwest Clinic is the highest international honor that can be bestowed upon any high school band, with most bands in the nation never reaching the incredibly high standard of performance excellence required to be accepted.
LTHS is the only high school concert band from the state of Illinois to be bestowed this honor, and one of only four high school concert bands in the nation selected this year.
This is the second invitation for the ensemble in four years, coming in the first year they were eligible to apply after their 2008 performance.
The Midwest Clinic exists for educational purposes exclusively; to raise the standards of music education; to develop new teaching techniques; to present the highest levels of music; to hold clinics, lectures and demonstrations for the betterment of music education; and in general to assist teachers and others interested in music education in better pursuing their profession.
More than 16,000 attendees from all 50 states and more than 40 countries around the world are represented at the Midwest Clinic. Music educators from this country and around the globe involved with grade school, middle school, high school, college, military, adult, and professional groups all converge in Chicago once a year for this monumental conference.
In addition to educators, over 70 music colleges, universities, all military branches, music camps, and every major music association also attend the Midwest Clinic. Only the highest level of ensembles and programs are selected to demonstrate these ideals, and in December 2013 Lockport Township High School will be well represented by the Wind Symphony as a model high school band program for others nationally and internationally.
Currently, the wind symphony’s roster includes the following:
Piccolo - Kaitlyn Bricker; Flute - Laura Martin (Principal 1), Maddie Kopija, Kaitlin Jaros (Principal 2), Weronika Abram: Oboe - Sally Hausken, Gabby Rodriguez; Bassoon - Courtney Baltzer, Ray Sullivan; Clarinet - Maddie Walder (Principal 1), Gabby Gervasio, Anna Gonzalez (Principal 2), Dana Mikolajczak, Mallory Murphy, Jennifer Mulhall (Principal 3), Andrew Wolgemuth, Hannah Pilch, Alexis Swanson, Pat Piwoni; Bass Clarinet - Laura Canaday, Mathew Babicz; Alto Saxophone - Betsy Pearson, Miranda Gurra; Tenor Saxophone - Kallista Kamberos; Bari Saxophone - Amanda Dewey; Trumpet - John Kalmanek (Principal 1), Jessica Uhrenbacher (Principal 2), Daniel Michalik (Principal 3), Jenna Kennedy, Matthew Ploger, Tyler Barrett; French Horn - Nick Spontak (Principal), Tara Reimer (1), Michelle Alano (2), Emma Mueller (3), Jon Kamba (4); Trombone - Nick Drake, Zach Matushek, Matthew Pilot, Joanna Surowka; Euphonium - Tim Cruz, Brynn Feeley; Tuba - Kristin Esposito; String Bass - Tom McGrath; Percussion - Robbie Dealey,
Andrew Ascencio, Joe Bordenar; Sophie Svobodao, Stephan Del Rio, Alex Schneider: Piano - Liz Rutter.
The Lockport Township High School Horticulture Club’s annual spring flower sale will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, May 9 and Friday, May 10.
Flowers will be sold at the greenhouse at East campus, 1333 E. 7th Street.
Annuals and perennials will be available for purchase on a first-come, first-served basis.
Congratulations to the Lockport Township High School Girls Varsity Soccer Team for winning the Lynn and Scott Magnesen Community Service Award, which was presented at halftime of the Pepsi Showdown Girls Championship April 21 at Toyota Park.
The Pepsi Showdowns is a high school varsity soccer tournament, the largest in the United States. Each team is seeded and placed in a single-elimination winner’s bracket. Lockport was seeded No. 6 of 42 area teams.
The Porters were presented with a $1,000 grant for their work teaching soccer skills to our Special Recreation students. You may see their community service video by clicking here.
The Lynn and Scott Magnesen Community Service Award seeks to recognize and award those who significantly impact their community and are themselves impacted by that contribution.
This award is designed to inspire volunteerism on a continual basis, encouraging the utilization of various service organizations.
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The LTHS Foundation is hosting its 14th annual golf outing on Wednesday, June 19, at Prairie Bluff Golf Course in Lockport.
Please consider participating by golfing, attending dinner, or sponsoring the event.
The first 13 outings have raised more than $217,000 for scholarships for graduating LTHS seniors.
For more information, click here.
LTHS freshmen get life lessons
To teach freshmen students about the realities of independent living, Lockport Township High School on
April 10 offered its annual Reality Store.
Each year, freshman students chose a profession and then are randomly assigned whether they are married or single and with or without children. Once they know how many family members they are supporting, students are then asked to chose affordable housing, childcare, car, insurance, clothing, and food options.
The Reality Store also includes recreation and leisure options and a spin on the Wheel of Fortune that would decrease or supplement monthly income depending on luck.
While many students dreamed of buying luxury vehicles and large homes, many quickly realized such amenities did not fit into their budgets.
“The Reality Store teaches (the students) what goes into a household budget and many of them have no clue how expensive things are and how quickly it all adds up. It’s a real eye-opener for many of them,” said one community volunteer.
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Summer Camps at the CWC
The Community Wellness Center at LTHS offers a variety of summer camps and activities for area youths, including aquatics, basketball, cross country, diving, football, poms, soccer, softball, tennis, water polo, wrestling and more.
In addition, the CWC welcomes members to use its fitness and weight rooms, walking track and aquatic facility.
For a list of hours, camps, and more, please visit www.lths.org
and click on the CWC link.
at Midwest Regional at UIC
Students from LTHS FIRST Robotics Team tested their skills and creativity when they competed at UIC Pavilion April 4-6 in the Midwest Regional Robotics Competition called the Ultimate Ascent.
The challenge required team members to use math, science, technology and engineering skills to construct a robot designed to retrieve and shoot Discs into slots for different point values and then climb a railed pyramid.
Teams had 6 weeks to design, program and build the robot. Steve Dulkowski and Jeff Brown, LTHS teachers and advisors, worked with this team after school and on weekends to get their robot ready to compete.
Team members include: Kegan Anspach, Marcin Bachleda-Blaszczak, Trevor Bandauski, William Cattaneo, Amir Khalaf, Eddie Kline, Brett Kovanda, Collin Mehnert, Jordan Parker, Jack Parrinello, Mitchell Pericak, TJ Waddell, Cody Ziarko and Danielle Alfrey (who also received honorable mention for the events poster)
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Mentors include: Steve Dulkowski (Electicity/Electronics/Machine Tool Metals instructor), Jeff Brown (Engineering Design instructor), John Schulz (Technology Advisor and parent) and Nick Oles (former Porter Bot team member and current college student)
Lockport Township High School recently inducted students into the World Languages Honor Society.
German Honor Society: Luke Burnett, Katherine Denemark, James Hunziker, Brittany Kraus, and Jessica Uhrenbacher
Japanese Honor Society:
Danielle Alfrey, Kenneth Espiritu, Edward Gillot, Madeline Kopija, Andrew Longanecker, Patrick McCarthy, Tara Reimer, Ryan VanWieren, and Jessica Zduniewicz
French Honor Society:
Gwendolyn Allen, Samantha Baio, Rainah Basile, Alliyah Bridges, Margaret Burke, Christy Carlson, Samantha Carlson, Taylor Coffey, Marisa Coladipietro, Mary Daley, Kyle Gallagher, Lauryn Geringer, Brianna Hanes, Sally Hickstein and Gehrig Hollatz, Caitlin Honein, Hayley Jankowski, Kasey Kaminsky, Brendan Keska, Tara Kolmodin, Mitch Mason, Andrianna Martinez, Jamari McAfee, Amber Miller, Riley Miller, Elise Mueller, Kassi Panfil and Alexis Pintoran, Mike Regotti, Steve Rokosz, Kali Rounsaville, Nick Spontak, Kaci Stecker, Allison Stoch, Brandon Sutter, Dovile Svirupskaite, Alexis Swanson, Elizabeth Walder, David Walus, Hannah Webster, and Toni Wolfe
Spanish Honor Society:
Elizabeth Anderson-Vargas, Haylie Arndt, Jordan Arndt, Emilie Ascencio, Taylor Barsz, Allison Bennett, Lauren Brannick, Andrew Buchheit, Natalia Budz, Robert Bugos, Kyla Creal, Kathleen Demuth, Amanda Dewey, Cathy Donnelly, Gina Dubin, Aubrey Elwood, Kimberly Firganek, Meredith Friscia, Johnna Gerona, Lindsay Gersetter, Andrew Gilson, Brittany Harmon, Phil Holle, Caleigh Horan, Mary Horne, Kaitlin Jaros, Jennie Jaso, Eric Johnson, Kacie Kenney, Kaitlyn Kim, Violet Kobylak, Billy Krawczyk, Robert Lallky, Margaret Lesnefsky, Jenni Magnuson, Stephanie Mattingly, Emily McCann, Reilly McGuire, Alyssa McLaughlin, Pamela Miglans, Joshua Miller, Christian Monte, Rachel Napoli, Katie Nestsiarovich, Marisol Onate, Francisco Paramo, Zack Prudin, Daniel Reyes, Madeline Rodriguez, Jessie Rudd, Katarina Samardzija, Julisa Scotland, Nicolette Simmons, Danielle Slavik, Haily Slavik, Katie Smigielski, Samantha Smith, Carmen Soto, Amber Stefanski, Aneta Strama, James Tsakopoulos, Morgan Valley, Lindsey Visvardis, Rachel Weis, Jessi Wernsman, Elaena Williams, Sarah York, and Megan Zajac
May Rotary Students of the Month
Seniors Aubrey Ficek and Jackie Claffy have been named May Students of the Month by the Lockport Rotary Club.
In the classroom, Aubrey is an extraordinary student towards both her teachers as well as her peers. Aubrey possesses a remarkable work ethic, and she demonstrates this in every task that she undertakes in Spanish class. Aubrey is early and prepared for each class session, effectively and efficiently uses class time, works patiently and happily with others, asks pertinent and stimulating questions, participates frequently and positively in class, and voluntarily and graciously helps others. Aubrey is very conscientious of her schoolwork, and she consistently takes the necessary measures to plan ahead so that she is able to devote the appropriate time and effort to produce a product that she is proud to share. Outside of the classroom, Aubrey continues to demonstrate exceptional character, excellent interpersonal skills, and estimable leadership. Aubrey has actively involved herself during her years at Lockport Township High School as a hard-working, dedicated member of the volleyball team; as a member of reputable organizations such as Student Government, National Honor Society, and Spanish National Honor Society; and she establishes time to volunteer her time outside of school.
The World Language department at Lockport High School teaches students to develop their skills in the areas of reading, writing, speaking, and listening within their foreign languages. We encourage students to take the skills they learn in the classroom and expand these skills in the world outside the classroom. Jackie Claffy has combined her passion for helping those in need and her interest in the Spanish language and will be attending a mission trip in The Dominican Republic and Haiti this summer. Jackie will have the opportunity to communicate with others in Spanish, as well as to provide them with food and clothes, such as shoes and tops.
