Vernon Hills High School

history

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Silver | newspaper = The Scratching Post | yearbook = Continuum | website = »www.vhhscougars.org | picture = }}

Vernon Hills High School, or VHHS, is a public four-year high school located in Vernon Hills, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Community High School District 128, which also includes Libertyville High School.

History

Following the successful passage of a $48.5 million bond referendum in 1997, construction on the school began. The doors opened on September 7, 1999 for all freshmen in District 128. Construction continued for the next year, upon which the school opened for all grades in August 2000. The school was formally dedicated on April 9, 2000. The first graduating class was that of 2002. The Cougar mascot was chosen following a poll of the freshmen and sophomore students attending the new school in August 2000.

Academics

In 2008, Vernon Hills had a mean composite ACT score of 24.0»Vernon Hills High School Information for College Admission Counselors, and graduated 94.4% of its senior class. The average class size is 30. Vernon Hills has made Adequate Yearly Progress on the Prairie State Achievements Examination, a state test part of the No Child Left Behind Act.»Illinois School Report Card

The staff consists of 106 teachers, of whom 82 hold an advanced degree.

In 2006, Newsweek released a list of the best high schools in America. Vernon Hills High School was ranked 571st nation-wide and 12th state-wide.»The Complete List: 1,200 Top U.S. Schools

Athletics

Vernon Hills competes in the North Suburban (Prairie) Conference. Its mascot is the Cougar.

The VHHS football team finished the 2003-04 season with the best record in the North Suburban (Prairie) Conference. It finished the 2005-06 season undefeated, winning the conference. It has qualified for state finals in every year except the 2004-05 season.

The boys bowling team has also been successful, placing 3rd in the state during the 2005-06 season. They have since won Sectionals in both 2008 and 2009.

The 2007-08 Pom Pons team won a state championship in the TEAMDance Illinois Class AA Open Dance category. They defended their state title with another win in 2009.

The boys volleyball team has been very successful within the North Suburban (Prairie) Conference. They have earned three conference championships, in 2003, 2008, and 2009 (when they finished 10-0 in conference play). They were the first team of any sport at VHHS to become back-to-back conference champions.

In the 2007 season the varsity baseball team won in the Sectional semifinals but lost in the Sectional finals against the Lake Forest High School Scouts.

A complete list of notable state finishes can be found under State Competition Placements, below.

Activities

Vernon Hills High School offers more than thirty student organizations, including: {| |
  • A.C.E. (Athletes Committed to Excellence)
  • Academic Bowl
  • Anime Club
  • Art Club
  • Backlight Theatre Company
  • Best Buddies
  • Cougar Guard
  • Cougar-T.V.
  • DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America)
  • F.B.L.A. (Future Business Leaders of America)
  • F.C.A. (Fellowship of Christian Athletes)
  • First Class (Character education program)
  • G.S.A. (Gay–straight alliance)
  • Interact (Community service group)
  • International Club
  • Junior State of America
  • Junior National Association of the Deaf
| |}

FBLA and DECA

VHHS also sponsors two award-winning business clubs. FBLA sent five state winners to compete in the National Competition in Chicago in the summer of 2007. DECA sent 13 state winners to the International Competition in Orlando. VHHS's DECA Financial Analysis team, which consisted of two freshmen, Sean Hogan and Jake Dinkel, placed 7th at the International Competition out of the over 150 teams competing in 2007. Also, one of DECA's written events by senior Cody Meltzer placed 8th at the competition in 2007.

Math Team

The Math Team earned VHHS its first state championship when it won first place in its division at the 2001 ICTM State Math Competition. The team took 3rd place at the 2007 competition, where its freshmen and junior teams each took home 2nd place for written competition.

The Math Team again earned a state championship in division 3AA at the 2008 ICTM State Math Competition, where all 13 VHHS teams placed within in the top six in the state. Moya Chen placed first on the Algebra I test and VHHS took first place with its Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II teams. Also taking first place honors were the Frosh/Soph 8-person team and the Relay team of David Kim, Brynan Qiu, Parin Kadakia, and Paul Juhn.

Music

Ensembles

 Vernon Hills High School offers a variety of musical ensembles for its students to perform in. These include:
  • 3 Symphonic Bands
  • 2 Orchestras
  • 4 Choirs
  • 2 Jazz Bands
  • Jazz Strings

The Symphony Orchestra has been invited to play at the international Midwest Clinic and the MENC National Conference. The Wind Ensemble has performed in New York City and at Walt Disney World's Epcot in Florida.

State Competitions

VHHS has always performed very well at the IHSA state competition, placing 4th in its class in its first year of existence. As of 2009, VHHS has placed first in the state in Class A for three consecutive years. The complete record of music department state finishes is as follows:

In Class B:

  • 2001: 4th
  • 2002: 4th
In Class A:
  • 2003: 24th
  • 2004: 3rd
  • 2005: 3rd
  • 2006: 2nd
  • 2007: 1st
  • 2008: 1st
  • 2009: 1st

In 2006 and 2009, the VHHS Wind Ensemble was selected as the Class AA Honor Band at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign-sponsored Superstate band competition, recognizing the VHHS Wind Ensemble as one of the top high school concert bands in Illinois.

WYSE

The Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering club at VHHS continues to be successful in their 1500 division. They have placed at the state level in many years past. A team of 14 students compete in the events of Math, Biology, Chemistry, English, and Physics, with each student taking two tests, and at least two students per each subject. The competition takes place at a regional, sectional, and state level. Regional and sectional levels are usually successful, with resulting in first-place finishes. State rankings are as follow»WYSE Academic Challenge:

  • 2002: 3rd
  • 2003: Did not place
  • 2004: 2nd
  • 2005: 2nd
  • 2006: 3rd
  • 2007: 2nd
  • 2008: 2nd
  • 2009: 1st

State Competition Placements

{| class="wikitable" border="1" | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|Activity | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|2001 | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|2002 | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|2003 | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|2004 | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|2005 | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|2006 | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|2007 | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|2008 | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|2009 |- | IHSA Boys Bowling||||||||||||3rd|||| |- | IHSA Girls Gymnastics||||5th|||||||||||| |- | IHSA Music (Band, Choir, Orchestra)||4th||4th||||3rd||3rd||2nd||1st||1st||1st |- | Wind Ensemble (Superstate)||||||||||||1st||||||1st |- | ICTM Math||1st||4th||4th||5th||||||3rd||1st||1st |- | IDTA Dance Hip Hop||||||||||||4th|||| |- | IDTA Pom Pons Dance||||3rd||2nd||5th|||||||| |- | IDTA Pom Pons Hip Hop||||||||||5th|||||| |- | JETS Engineering Challenge (Nationwide)||||||||||||||||1st |- | Science Olympiad||||||3rd||2nd|||||||| |- | TDI Dance Team AA Open Dance||||||||||||||||1st||1st |- | WYSE Academic Challenge||||3rd||||2nd||2nd||3rd||2nd||2nd||1st |- |}

References

External links

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