Lincoln North Star High School

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Lincoln North Star High School
Welcome to the Swamp
Established 2003
School type High School
Principal Dr. Nancy Becker
Location Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
Enrollment 1800+
Faculty 200+
Mascot Gators
Website [1]
Motto Charting our Course, Navigating the Journey, Celebrating Success

Lincoln North Star High School is a public secondary school located in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. Lincoln North Star opened its doors in 2003 to 1,150 students, it currently has over 1800 students, and remains the newest high school in Lincoln, and is modeled the same as Lincoln Southwest High School. North Star along with Papillion-La Vista South High School, are the 2 newest high schools in the state of Nebraska both opening in 2003. It currently is the 2nd largest high school in Lincoln behind Lincoln Southwest High School. It operates on a traditional 7-period day schedule, sometimes 8 periods for those who choose it. North Star is the only school in the Lincoln Public Schools system that teaches the Chinese language. North Star also features a system of academies to assist students with post-secondary planning. The means to implement the academies was provided through federal and local grants. Students are able to participate in a Science and Engineering Academy, a Business and Information Technology Academy, a Law and Global Affairs Academy, a Health and Biotechnology Academy, and an Arts and Communications Academy. Additionally, all freshmen are placed in a separate academy designed to help them transition to high school. North Star was the first Lincoln high school to use this innovative system, and the program has since been expanded to the other five Lincoln public high schools in the form of Professional Learning Communities. North Star was originally supposed to be named Lincoln Northwest (Every high school in Lincoln is named after a direction depending on where they are located with the exception of Lincoln High) due to its location in Northwest Lincoln. After a student vote before the school opened, the students voted on the name North Star due to the schools location and the positive symbolism and uniqueness of the name. North Star rivals Lincoln High as the most diverse school in Lincoln and in the state of Nebraska.


The school's colors are navy blue and burgundy/maroon. Although the official mascot is the North Star Navigators, its mascot is an alligator, nicknamed as "Al Gator". Most students seemed to prefer the alligator mascot, and as a result, most locals now refer to the students and interscholastic teams as the Gators.

Contents

[edit] Sports

The North Star Gator Football team has experienced significant improvement over the past 3 years. The 2006 season was a down year, only winning one game out of the 9 game regular season. The following year they came back and almost reversed their win-loss record and made it to the state playoffs, the first time since 2005, but losing in the first round to Millard South. In 2008, the Gators made it to the second round of the playoffs, soundly beating their opponents in previous games, but then suffered an away loss again at Millard South. The Gators finished the season 9-2 as city, district, and conference champions and in the top 10 in Class A by the Omaha World-Herald and Lincoln Journal Star. North Star has had a very successful year in sports in the 2008-09 school year so far. The entire boys cross country team, softball team, football team, and 2 wrestlers have qualified for the state tournament so far this year. The boys cross country, track, and football team were first teams in school history to ever win the LPS city championship all in the 2008-09 school year. The LNS boys track team recently won the district title for the 2nd year in a row. In 2005, the North Star boys 3200 meter relay won the state championship and broke the state record for the fastest time at 7:44:13. This was one of the fastest times in the nation at the time and was ranked in the top 10 nationally.

[edit] Traditions

North Star also has many traditions which have started in short 6 year existence of the school. One of these includes the Gator Walk to state, in which the North Star Drumline marches through the school playing cadences and picks up students who have qualified for state events to send them off to there state events. Qualifying state members also receive a "North Star State Qualifier" shirt. North Star also known for having lunch jams once a quarter, in which certain groups such as the LNS Drumline, the ENT Step Team, the concert choir, or other groups perform during lunch as a form of entertainment for the students.

North Star's current principal, Dr. Nancy Becker, presents the daily announcements almost every morning, and after her cheerful remarks on the lunch menu for the day, she always ends her message with "Have a Great Day!"

The Gator Galaxy is the school newspaper. (North Star High School, 2006).

The cafeteria is nicknamed The Bayou, and the main gym is called The Swamp, a theme developed from the nearby freshwater wetlands.

[edit] References

North Star High School. 2006. North Star Publications: Lincoln, Nebr., web page, accessed 3/28/2008 at http://lns.lps.org/publications/index.html

North Star High School. 2008. North Star Women's Soccer: Lincoln, Nebr., web page, accessed 3/28/2008 at http://www.nstarsoccer.com/

Powell, Ron. 2008. Ex-Husker Williams to coach Gator girls: Lincoln Journal Star Prep Extra, March 13, 2008; accessed 3/28/2008 at http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2008/03/13/sports/prep_extra/girls_basketball/doc47d87b24d4e50947271370.txt

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_North_Star_High_School"
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