| St. Viator High School | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
| 1213 East Oakton Street Arlington Heights, Illinois, 60004 United States |
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| Information | |
| Type | Private, Coeducational, secondary, parochial |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Established | 1961 |
| Oversight | Archdiocese of Chicago |
| President | Fr. Mick Egan, C.S.V.[1] |
| Chairperson | James Banaszak[2] |
| Principal | Mrs. Eileen Manno[1] |
| Staff | 118 |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Enrollment | 1,089 (2008) |
| Campus type | suburban |
| Color(s) | navy white[3] |
| Athletics conference | East Suburban Catholic Conference |
| Team name | Lions |
| Accreditation(s) | North Central Association of Colleges and Schools[4] |
| Publication | ROAR (literary magazine) |
| Newspaper | 'Viator Voice' |
| Yearbook | 'Viatome' |
| Tuition | US$9,400[5] |
| Affiliation | Clerics of Saint Viator |
| Website | saintviator.com |
St. Viator High School is a Roman Catholic co-educational secondary school in Arlington Heights, Illinois. It serves as a college preparatory school with approximately eleven-hundred students from the mid- and outer-northwest suburbs of Chicago. Part of the Archdiocese of Chicago, the school is run by the Clerics of Saint Viator.
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The Archdiocese of Chicago reallocated some land it had already owned — tentatively designated for a future cemetery — for educational purposes, and assigned the Clerics of St. Viator to build and run a boys' secondary school. It opened in 1961 to a small class of freshmen and a few sophomores, graduating its first class in 1965.
Enrollments waxed and waned over the next few decades. Faced with declining numbers in 1987, the choice was made to merge with Sacred Heart of Mary High School of Rolling Meadows, with which St. Viator already had a sister-school relationship[6]. The merger was effected in the summer of 1987; St. Viator absorbed the faculty, staff, and student body of Sacred Heart beginning with the 1987–88 school year, and admitted a co-educational freshman class (the class of 1991).
The physical plant remained largely unchanged from its original 1961 footprint. A co—educational student population required the construction of a girls' locker room. This kicked off a string of renovations to occur throughout the 1990s, including a renovation of the boys' locker room, the chapel, and science labs. After a major capital campaign, the school constructed a multipurpose athletic addition, and the Boler Center was dedicated in summer of 2005.
In 2011 a senior prank played by the departing class made headlines in the area, after a student used school stationery and envelopes to mail letters to all senior parents and claiming that mandatory body cavity searches would be performed at prom. The letter caused outrage among parents until it was revealed to be nothing more than a prank. Nonetheless, the story made its way to the local papers and later the Chicago Tribune and nationally broadcast on WGN News. As of May 11, the culprit has not been found.
St. Viator follows a college preparatory curriculum. Students are required to take classes from a breadth of areas, including math, English, fine arts, science, social science, and religion; a foreign language is required for a minimum of two years. Instruction in the Spanish, French, and Italian languages is offered. German is no longer offered since 2008.
13 Advanced Placement courses are offered in English Language, English Literature, Calculus (AB & BC), Spanish Language, French Language, Biology, Chemistry, Physics (C), U.S. History, European History, and Comparative Government and Politics[7]
The school requires students to complete a fixed number of community service hours in order to graduate. Starting with the class of 2010, students are required to complete 25 hours of community service-per-year, for a total of 100 hours prior to graduation. Prior classes required only 75 hours of community service.[8]
In 2008 St. Viator was named a blue ribbon school by the U.S. Department of Education. It is one of only three private high schools in the country to be recognized as blue ribbon schools.
Saint Viator offers various academic and leadership societies, such as the National Honor Society, Ambassador's Club, Viatribe, Computer Club, Ski Team, Student Action Tribe, Math Club, Chess Club, Outdoor Adventure Club, Anime Club (new), SADD-Students Against Destructive Decisions, French Club, Yearbook, Recycling Corps, Link Crew, Tech Crew and Student Council; student activism groups, like the Student Action Tribe; foreign language clubs, and Scholastic Bowl. There are also many performing ensembles offered: Concert Band, Symphonic Band, Pep Band, Musical Pit Orchestra, Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, Music Ministry, and Orchesis.
For most sports, St. Viator plays in the East Suburban Catholic Conference; for swimming and water polo, the Metro Catholic Aquatic Conference; and for lacrosse, the Mid-Suburban Conference of the Illinois High School Lacrosse Association. The St. Viator varsity hockey team plays in both the Chicago Catholic Hockey League and the Metro North Conference.
The following teams have placed in the top four of their respective sports in state tournaments sponsored by the Illinois High School Association:[9]
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