Lexington High School (Massachusetts)

Lexington High School is a public 9-12 high school located in Lexington, Massachusetts, United States. The school's mascot is the Minuteman. Students attending Lexington High School generally attended one of the town's two 6th-8th grade middle schools, Jonas Clarke Middle School and William Diamond Middle School. In turn, Clarke is fed by three of the town's six elementary schools: Bowman, Bridge, and Harrington; while Diamond is fed by the other three: Estabrook, Fiske, and Hastings.

In 2014, Lexington was ranked as the 19th best high school in the country by Newsweek on its "America's Top Public Schools" list.^[7]

In 2013 and 2014, Boston Magazine ranked Lexington as the 2nd best high school in the Greater Boston area. Out of 50 high schools, Lexington had the highest SAT average, 1903 out of 2400.^[8] In the 2016 graduating class of 524 students, the mean Critical Reading score was 626; the mean Mathematics score was 656; the mean Writing score was 626.

Lexington's colors are blue and gold, and its teams are nicknamed the Minutemen, in honor of the colonial-era militiamen.

Campus

Lexington High School originally occupied this building from 1854 to 1902

Lexington High School's facilities are divided into four buildings.

The Arts and Humanities House, contains the bulk of the following departments: English, Social Studies, Fine and Performing Arts, and Physical Education. It also has the Donald J. Gillespie, Jr. Auditorium, the Ralph Lord Gymnasium, and a fieldhouse. Commons I and Commons II are used as cafeterias and meeting places. The library and the main administration office are also in this building. Thus, the Arts and Humanities building is informally and frequently called the "main" building by many students. The gym, locker rooms, etc. are numbered in the 900s. Other rooms in the Arts and Humanities building are numbered by floor, 100s for the first floor and 200s for the second floor.

The Science House contains the Science department. The building contains the "Science Lecture Hall" (SLH), which has many purposes, and is used for, among other things, math competitions and detentions. Because of the detentions, the chairs and tables are known to have been scarred by delinquent etchings and markings. Rooms are numbered by floor, 300s for the first floor and 400s for the second floor.

The World Language House contains the World Language and the Health Education departments, and rooms are numbered by floor, 500s for the first floor and 600s for the second floor.

The Math House contains the Math department, as well as the LABBB program, and rooms are numbered by floor, 700s for the first floor and 800s for the second floor.

The "Quad" is an outdoor common area. It is bounded by the Main building (on two sides), the Science building, and a covered walkway between the Science building and the Foreign Language building.

Demographics

In the 2015-2016 school year, Lexington High School had 2,154 students enrolled. 548 students were in 9th grade, 562 were in 10th grade, 520 were in 11th grade, and 524 were in 12th grade. The student body is 55.3% White, 33.3% Asian, 3.7% African American, 3.6% Hispanic, and 4.2% multiracial.^[5]

Academic competition

Computer Science Team

Lexington High School's Computer Science Team won second place in the Senior-5 division at the 2009-10 American Computer Science League All-Star Competition. The team finished third and fourth in the same division in 2010-11 and 2008-09 respectively.^[9]

Debate Team

Lexington High School has a historically strong debate program, consisting of three divisions: Lincoln Douglas, Policy, and Public Forum. Lexington is the only school in the country with the distinction of having won all three major divisions at the Tournament of Champions. Among other National Championships where it has competed (National Catholic Forensic League, National Debate Coaches Association, National Speech and Debate Association), it has recorded winners or runners-up at all of them. As of 2016, Lexington's debate team has won both the Policy division and the Sweepstakes Award at the State Championship for the last 40 years.

Lexington won the Policy division at the TOC in 1994. A Lexington team won the TOC in the Public Forum division in 2007.^[10] In 2011 Lexington Debate teams won the NDCA.^[11]

The Lexington Winter Invitational Tournament

The team annually hosts the Lexington Winter Invitational Tournament, nicknamed "Big Lex," with the categories of public forum debate, policy debate, and Lincoln-Douglas debate. The event is a Tournament of Champions qualifier at the quarterfinal level and drew 1000 debaters in 2014 from as far away as California.^[12]

Math Team

Through the Massachusetts Mathematics League and the Greater Boston Mathematics League, Lexington High School has had superior success in qualifying for the MAML (Massachusetts Association of Math Leagues) State Meet and the NEAML (New England Association of Math Leagues) New England meet. Lexington has won the Massachusetts State Championship Math Meet 20 times between 1978 and 2013, competing in the large school division: 1978-1980, 1992-1995, 2000–2008, and 2010-2013.^[13] In the New England Championship Math Meet, Lexington has won seven championships: 1994, 2002, 2003, 2006-2008, and 2012.^[14]

Lexington also participates in the MAML-organized Massachusetts Mathematics Olympiad (MMO), where many of its students have succeeded in finishing in the top 20 statewide.^[15]

Lexington High School's math team has sent teams to HMMT. Lexington won the entire competition in 1998 and 2001. Additionally, Lexington won second place in 2002 and 2009; fourth in 1999 and 2000; fifth in 2004, 2008 and 2012; sixth in 2003; seventh in 2013; and eighth in 2007. In many years, Lexington High School also has had a few students finish in the top ten in certain individual categories.^[16]

The high school has also sent teams to the Harvard-MIT November Tournament (HMNT). Lexington won second place overall at the 2008, 2009, and 2011 iterations of the tournament. Lexington finished fourth at the tournament in 2010 and 2012.^[16]

The WPI Invitational Math Meet, which has been held continuously since 1988, has been won by Lexington High School 21 times, from 1988-1994 and 1996-2010. In 2011, Lexington finished in second behind Northfield Mount Hermon School, and in 2012, Lexington finished in third.^[17]

Lexington competes in the American Mathematics Competitions. In 2009, 5 students from Lexington High School, as well as 2 from Clarke, qualified for the USAMO.^[18] In 2010, with the split of the USAMO format into the USAMO and the new USA Junior Math Olympiad (USAJMO), Lexington had 5 USAMO qualifiers (one was from Clarke), and 5 USAJMO qualifiers.^[19][20] From 2006-2011, Lexington had a total of 34 USAMO qualifiers, including 4 middle schoolers. In the first two years of USAJMO's existence, Lexington had 9 total qualifiers, including 2 middle schoolers. Between 1987 and 2011, there were 76 USAMO qualifiers from Lexington High School, 7th most among all high schools in the nation.

The math department of the Lexington Public Schools system has received national merit through the Mathematical Association of America, as the Edyth May Sliffe Award has been won by 8 Lexington Public Schools teachers (5 from the high school, 2 from Diamond, and 1 from Clarke; all but the one at Clarke are listed under Lexington High School) a total of 11 times. Lexington High School also has the most two-time winners (3 teachers; no teacher can win it more than twice).^[21] Indian Woods Middle School, Shawnee Mission, KS (10) and Frost Middle School, Fairfax, VA (11) are the only other schools to have teachers win the award 10 or more times.

In 2010, the Lexington High School Math Team founded the Lexington Math Tournament, an annual math tournament inspired by tournaments such as HMMT, and geared for middle school students.^[22]

Science Teams

Lexington High School's FIRST Tech Challenge team, 2 Bits and a Byte, went to the FIRST world championship in 2012, 2014 and 2015. In 2014, their roster reached 53 people, much greater than FIRST's recommended team size of 10 people.

Lexington High School's National Ocean Sciences Bowl team won the National competition between 1998 and 2002, the first five years of the competition's existence. In 2009, the team won the regional Blue Lobster Bowl^[23] and returned to the National competition to win 2nd place. The team also won regionals in 2011 and repeated their 2nd-place performance at the National competition. The team also won regionals in 2012 and placed 4th at the national competition.

Lexington High School's National Science Bowl team has qualified for the National competition 12 times, more than any other school in Massachusetts, doing so in 1993, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2005, and in 2008-2016.^[24][25] The team won 2nd place nationally in 2009, losing in the final to Mira Loma High School. In 2010, the second team from Lexington also reached the semifinals of the regional qualifying competition before losing to the first team. In 2011, Lexington's B Team defeated Lexington's A Team in the regional finals to qualify for the National competition. In 2012, after defeating the B Team in the regional finals, Lexington's A Team outlasted 68 of the nation's finest science bowl teams to win the National Science Bowl competition.^[26] In 2013, Lexington placed 3rd; in 2015, 5th; and in 2016 beat Thomas Jefferson and lost to Clements to place 4th.

Science Olympiad teams also exist at both Lexington High School and Diamond Middle School. The High School team won the state competition from 2001 to 2003, second place in 2009 and third place in 2010 at the state competition. The middle school team won second in 2010, fourth in both 2008 and 2009, and third in 2007.

Lexington High School's Envirothon team qualified for the National competition in 2008 and placed 7th.

Quiz Bowl Team

The Lexington Quiz Bowl team was founded in the 2012-2013 school year. The year of its establishment, the team placed 33rd at Nationals in the 2013 NAQT High School National Championship Tournament, and also placed 16th in the JV division of the National History Bowl. In 2014, Lexington claimed first place in the HSAPQ Massachusetts Quizbowl Championship East Regional, but subsequently placed fourth at the state tournament at MIT in April, as well as winning the National History Bowl Massachusetts State Championship. In 2015, the team placed 5th overall at the National History Bowl. In 2016 a team placed 2nd overall at the National History Bowl, the highest ever finish at a national competition for a Lexington team.

Chess team

In 2008, the Lexington High School chess team made its debut at the annual Hurvitz Cup of the Massachusetts State Team Championship where the team placed 4th overall.^[27] The following year, the team placed second in the grade nine team section of the annual National K-12 Scholastic Championship in Dallas, Texas.^[28] In March 2010, the team tied for first in the high school section of the annual Hurvitz Cup^[29] and placed second in the Rhode Island State Championship.^[30] In April and May 2011, respectively, the team won the high school section of the annual Hurvitz Cup^[31] and placed thirteenth in the K12 section of the National K12 High School Championship.^[32]

School sports

Lexington High School offers the following sports:^[33]

The high school's field house

Lexington's teams compete in the Middlesex League. Its past athletic rivalry was with Concord-Carlisle Regional High School (Concord, MA). Currently, the rivalry has sprung with Burlington High School (Burlington, MA).

Athletic titles and acknowledgements

Lexington High School sports teams have received the following accolades:

• The Girls' Indoor Track team tied for the first in the Massachusetts Division I State Championships in 2013.
• The cross-country team was undefeated within their league from 2000 to 2005, and again from 2011 to current.^[34]
• The Boys' Cross Country team finished 4th at the All State meet in 2015.
• The Boys' Indoor Track team won the Massachusetts Division I State Championships in 1970, 1994, and 2006^[35] and repeated in 2007.^[36] The boys won the Massachusetts Division I State Championships in 1970, 1976, 2006, 2007, 2015, and 2016.^[34] In 2007, the Lexington Boys' outdoor track team captured both the Division I State Championship and the All-State Championship. In 2016, the team was the runner up to the Division 1 title. The boys running teams were also undefeated in the Middlesex League all of 2015-16 ^[34]
• The LHS Girls' Varsity Softball team won the Massachusetts Division I State Championships in 2008 and 2009.
• Former LHS Football coach Bill Tighe was the oldest football coach in the country.^[37]

Notable alumni

Other details

The Musket

The Musket is the school newspaper for Lexington High School, and has notable popularity around Lexington.

Until 1965, the school newspaper was called The High-Spot; the name was changed to The Musket.^[42]

Musket Controversy

In 1997 The Musket ran into controversy by refusing to run an abstinence ad. The Musket's First Amendment rights were maintained with the victory in Yeo v Town of Lexington, a case argued in the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.^[43]

In 2005, Fred Phelps, of Topeka, Kansas, and his church (the Westboro Baptist Church) protested the Lexington High School graduation because of the school's support of its gay-straight alliance. The group returned in 2009.^[44]

The LABBB Program

The LABBB program, a special education program serving mentally challenged students from surrounding towns (Lexington, Arlington, Burlington, Belmont and Bedford) emphasizes real world skills for the mentally handicapped. LHS students have the opportunity to work with the LABBB students in the Best Buddies program, special events, and classes.^[45]

Notes and references

External links

• Official website