Harry S. Truman High School (Levittown)

Harry S Truman High School
Address
3001 Green Lane
Levittown, PA, 19055
United States
Information
School district Bristol Township School District
Principal Mr. James Moore
Mascot Tiger
Website

Harry S Truman High School is a public high school located in Levittown, Pennsylvania. It was named after the US president Harry S Truman. It is the sole high school of Bristol Township School District. It hosts grades 9-12. The current principal is Mr. James Moore.[1] It was formerly known as Woodrow Wilson High School.

Contents

Academics

AP Level Courses

Harry S Truman High School has historically offered the following Advanced Placement (AP) level classes: U.S. History, U.S. Government and Politics, Chemistry, English Literature, and Calculus AB (though BC has been offered to particularly advanced students).

The school has been known to offer AP Physics and AP Psychology, given sufficient student interest, which varies from year to year. As of 2007-2008, AP Psychology has become permanent.

Language Instruction

Truman offers five years of instruction in French, Italian, German, and Spanish. It also has an extensive English as a Second Language (ESL) program and habitually hosts international students who are studying abroad in the United States. The German program is led by Mr. Dailey. Also, the German club organizes a trip to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg almost every year. Truman currently offers German 1, 2, Honors 3, and Honors 4 courses, and is expected to add both a fifth and honors 5 course next year.

NJROTC

Harry S Truman HS was a pilot school for the United States Navy's Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps program. The Harry S Truman NJROTC unit was active from 1968 until 1996, and was the first JROTC unit to admit female cadets.

Debate & Forensics

Truman has a nationally recognized speech and debate team. The debate team's main coach is Carl Grecco, Shawn Eliason is the CX/Policy (Cross Examination or Policy) coach, and Tom Gushue is the Lincoln Douglass coach. Currently there is no speech coach. The program has qualified hundreds of students to National (NFL & NCFL) and state (PHSSL) championships . Truman students continue to place among the top debaters at national tournaments. The program has produced many state & local champions. The team competes in the Valley Forge district of the National Forensic League, the Philadelphia Catholic Forensic League, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Debate League, District 12 of the Pennsylvania High School Speech League, and at numerous national and regional invitationals. Truman's speech & debate team is the reigning champion of the 26 school PCFL for the 2005-2006 school year. The team has accumulated too many individual and team awards to list them all. However, during the 2008 - 2009 year, Truman has won the Southwestern New York Debate League 50 year anniversary Sweepstakes award. The team consists of many members such as Gregory Scott (Senior), Jenny Tunnicliff (Senior), Allyson Cornwell(Senior), Mary Bidlingmaier (Senior), Justin Thomashefsky(Senior), Tyler Smith (Senior), Makenzie O'Neal (Junior), Jennifer Nuygen (Junior), Fatima Camara (Junior), Kaylin Barry (Junior), Dina Abdel-Rahman (Junior), Shane Ennis (Junior), Beth Borger (Junior), Chelsea Schools (Junior), Shirley Pineda (Junior), Emily Cantrini (Junior), Ray Zayas (Senior), Romi Vandeginste (Senior), Nele Vandeginste (Sophomore), Laura Squiccimara (Junior)

2010-2011 School Year

Drama

Truman's well known drama program has been led by Lou Volpe for 40 years. Prior to that time it was led by Mr. Carl Grecco who is now Truman's renowned Debate and Speech coach. The program is known regionally and nationally. They were honored for their excellence by being chosen to pioneer Les Misérables for high school use in 2001. They received that honor again in 2007 and performed the pilot of the student edition of Rent. Their latest musical is Blood Brothers, which opened in March 2009.

In spring 2006 Beauty and the Beast was performed, which garnered nearly-universal positive reviews. They performed the Disney- produced musical Aida in spring 2007. Past works include: Epic Proportions, Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, Equus, Found a Peanut and Grease. They have been granted the rights to pioneer their next Broadway-born show, Spring Awakening. Spring Awakening premiered in November and it was a huge success. Students such as Luke Robinson, Georjenna Gatto, and Tyler Kelch, were very good as the lead roles. The musical showed scenes with Georjenna Gatto and Tyler Kelch coming out of the grave to save Luke Robinson from killing himself. The show received a standing ovation every performance.

Sports

All Truman teams compete in the suburban one league of Levittown, PA.

Truman High School's basketball program has the second most wins of any high school in Nassau County within the past five years that compete in AAAA leagues under current coach Al Mumford. They have won Suburban I championships in 2001, 2004, and 2005. They have also reached the State Playoff Tournament for AAAA schools in 2005 and 2006. Former class president and high school record-setting basketball player Tyrone Lewis graduated from the Truman basketball program.[2]

Field Hockey

Truman Field Hockey is coached by Dawn Martesi for the 2007 season. Prior to that it was coached by Mrs. Lobecker.

Football

Truman Football fell on hard times over the past few decades, but have considered having hope. They have "strong" rivalries with Conwell-Egan, Pennsbury, and Pittsburgh. They went 2-10 in 2008 and showed improvement in 2009, 3-8, under new head football coach John M. Iannuccini. Coach Iannuccini resigned days before the first game of the 2010 season.

Lacrosse

Truman Lacrosse has grown and greatly improved over the last 3 seasons.

Student life

Student Traditions

During the 2005-2006 school year there was a student-inspired revival of Spirit Night. A week long celebration concludes in Spirit Night which includes men's dance routines and 2 relay events.

Re-starting in the 2005-2006 school year, the Tigers have brought back the annual bon-fire the day before homecoming.

External links

References