Lincoln North Star High School

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 1900 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 largest high school in Lincoln. 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, 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.

Traditions

North Star also has many traditions which have started in the short 7 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. There is also a Gator Walk for all freshman on the first day of school at the end of the day, as well as a final Gator Walk for graduating seniors days before graduation. 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.

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

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

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

• Young, JoAnne. "Some LPS schools have offered Chinese for years". Lincoln Journal Star. Lincoln, Nebraska. December 13, 2005

External links

• LNS Homepage