St. Viator High School

St. Viator High School
Address
1213 East Oakton Street
Arlington Heights, Illinois, 60004
United States
Coordinates 42°05′39″N 87°58′10″W / 42.09423°N 87.96944°WCoordinates: 42°05′39″N 87°58′10″W / 42.09423°N 87.96944°W
Information
Type Private, Coeducational, secondary, parochial
Denomination Roman Catholic
Established 1961
Oversight Archdiocese of Chicago
President Fr. Corey Brost, C.S.V.[1]
Chairperson James Banaszak[2]
Principal Mrs. Eileen Manno[1]
Headteacher Eileen Cairo
Staff 118
Grades 9–12
Enrollment 1,089 (2008)
Campus type suburban
Color(s)      navy
     white[3]
Fight song Ye Fighting Men of Viator
Athletics conference East Suburban Catholic Conference
Mascot Lion
Team name Lions
Accreditation North Central Association of Colleges and Schools[4]
Average ACT scores 26.3
Publication ROAR (literary magazine)
Newspaper Viator Voice
Yearbook Viatome
Tuition US$12,324[5]
Affiliation Clerics of Saint Viator
Website community.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 nine-hundred and fifty 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.

History

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.

Controversy

Since 2007, St. Viator High School has used hair samples to test each of its 1,000 students for drugs in the fall and then conduct random screens during the rest of the school year. Starting in 2013, the school will also test for alcohol. Private schools have broader legal authority to test students for illegal substances than their public counterparts. And while a few area public high schools do conduct drug testing, the practice is limited to teens in sports or other extracurricular activities. Yet even among private schools, testing students' hair for alcohol use appears to be particularly rare. The testing company, Massachusetts-based Psychemedics Corp., said St. Viator is among a handful nationwide using the company's new hair test for alcohol. At St. Viator, students are notified of their mandatory testing appointments on the morning of the test. At lunchtime, a school official snips off a sample of about 60 hairs from the crown of each chosen student's head. The alcohol test measures ethyl glucuronide, or EtG, to indicate alcohol consumption in the previous three months. The tests take about a week to process and are capable of indicating a minimum average consumption of two to three drinks per week. Students who test positive must attend a meeting with their parents, counselor and the school president. After 100 days, the student must pay about $85 for another test, and a second positive could lead to expulsion. Ed Yohnka, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union, said schools are going far beyond their educational role to control students' activities outside of class. While acknowledging that private schools can in general mandate drug and alcohol tests at their own discretion, Yohnka said it's "troubling" that students can lose their protection against unreasonable searches with no evidence they've had any alcohol.[7][8][9]

Academics

St. Viator follows a Christian Catholic Environment. 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, Italian and Mandarin Chinese languages is offered. German is no longer offered since 2008.

14 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, Human Geography, and World History[10]

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 hours.[11]

In 2008, St. Viator was named a blue ribbon school by the U.S. Department of Education.[12] It was one of only three private high schools in the country to be recognized as blue ribbon schools. Again in 2014, the school was recognized as a blue ribbon school.[13] This time around it was only one of six private high schools in the nation and the only high school in the Archdiocese of Chicago to be recognized. Since 1996, two students from Saint Viator have achieved a 36 on the American College Test, the ACT. In 2014, eight students were named National Merit Commended Scholars and two were named National Merit Semi-Finalists.

Extracurricular activities

Saint Viator offers various academic and leadership societies, such as the National Honor Society, Ambassador's Club, Justice League, Math Club, Anime Club, Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), Yearbook, Viator Voice (newspaper), Recycling Corps, Link Crew, Tech Crew and Student Council; foreign language clubs; and Scholastic Bowl. There are also many performing ensembles offered: Concert Band, Symphonic Band, Musical Pit Orchestra, Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, Music Ministry, and Orchesis.

Athletics

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 Scholastic Hockey League.

The following teams have placed in the top four of their respective sports in state tournaments sponsored by the Illinois High School Association:[14]

Notable alumni

Notable staff

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 School administration
  2. ↑ School trustees
  3. ↑ School traditions
  4. ↑ NCA-CASI. "AdvanceEd-NCA Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement". Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  5. ↑ Finational Info
  6. ↑ http://www.illinoisloop.org/cath_closed_school_84_04.pdf
  7. ↑ Alcohol Testing-Chicago Tribune
  8. ↑ Alcohol Testing-CBS
  9. ↑ Alcohol Testing-Fox News
  10. ↑ Curriculum Guide
  11. ↑ Curriculum guide and graduation requirements
  12. ↑ http://www2.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/2008/2008-schools.html
  13. ↑ http://www2.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/2014/index.html
  14. ↑ IHSA records for St. Viator HS
  15. ↑ Brett Basanez stats and bio @nfl.com
  16. ↑ "Brett Basanez". CSTV Online, Inc. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
  17. ↑ Rob Eiter's wrestling accomplishments
  18. ↑ http://www.saintviator.com/ns/news/2012/2012_10DistAlumNew.pdf
  19. ↑ http://patch.com/illinois/arlingtonheights/an--saint-viator-high-school-seeks-distinguished-alumd3d76de182
  20. ↑
  21. ↑ USA Today article: Ted Nugent's mother honored
  22. ↑ Chicago Sun Times article, partially written by Jarrett Payton
  23. ↑ O'Conor, Sean (2005-11-09). "YA Exclusive: Mature Beyond His Years". Yanks Abroad. Retrieved 2008-10-16. Pro soccer now his chosen career path, the next step was to decide between high school and a college career or a place at US Soccer's residency program in Bradenton FL. He chose the latter and graduated in their class of 2003 alongside Freddy Adu and Eddie G aven.
  24. ↑ http://www.redcafe.net/f6/c-p-article-about-spector-53536/
  25. ↑ NBC 5 Chicago interview with Brian Stack
  26. ↑ Emmett Cleary Tampa Bay
  27. ↑ Emmett Cleary Colts
  28. ↑ Emmet Cleary Scouting
  29. ↑ Maciaszek, Marty (2 February 2000), "Former St. Viator coach Feiereisel dies at 68", Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL, USA)

External links