West Leyden High School

West Leyden High School is a high school in Northlake, Illinois. First opened for enrollment in 1959, the athletic mascot of West Leyden High School was originally the Knights until 1981. At this time, the East and West Leyden High School athletic programs merged to create an athletic team currently known as the Eagles.

West Leyden High School
Address
1000 Wolf Rd.

Northlake
,
Illinois
60164

United States
Coordinates41.927°N 87.9064°W / 41.927; -87.9064
Information
School typePublic
MottoEducate Enrich Empower
Opened1959
School districtLeyden H.S. Dist. 212
SuperintendentDr. Nick Polyak[1]
PrincipalPatricia Makishima
Staff109.65 (FTE)[2]
Grades9–12
GenderCo-Ed
Enrollment1,607 (2018–19)[2]
Average class size18.4[3]
Student to teacher ratio14.66[2]
CampusSuburban
School colour(s)     blue
     gold[4]
Slogan
  1. LeydenPride
Athletics conferenceWest Suburban Conference
MascotEagle
NicknameEagles[4]
AccreditationAdvancED[5]
NewspaperLancer[6]
Websitehttp://www.leyden212.org/

Together with East Leyden High School in Franklin Park, Illinois, it comprises Leyden High School District 212 of the suburban communities in Franklin Park, Northlake, Rosemont, Schiller Park, River Grove, Melrose Park and unincorporated Leyden Township.

In September 2019, threats of shooting were made in social media. This led to East Leyden High School and West Leyden High School having classes online for a day.[7][8] Further, at least one child was forced to undergo a 72 hour hold after the school stalked multiple student's social media accounts. The parents of these students were not notified, and all Power of Attorney was illegally moved to the state during this time.[9][10]

Academics

West Leyden's class of 2008 had a below average composite ACT score of points below the state average.[3] West Leyden did not make Adequate Yearly Progress on the Prairie State Achievements Examination, which with the ACT comprises the state assessments used to fulfill the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Overall, the school did not achieve AYP in reading or mathematics, while two of its three student subgroups failed to meet expectations in mathematics.[3]

Student life

Athletics
See also: East Leyden High School § Athletics

Since 1981, West Leyden and East Leyden have a combined athletics program. Prior to the schools unifying into a single program, West Leyden's teams were stylized as the Knights, and the school colors were blue and gold.[11] While East Leyden's team nickname of "Eagles" was retained for the combined program, West Leyden's colors became the colors for the unified program.

As a separate team, the only team to finish in the top four of their respective Illinois High School Association (IHSA) was the 1968—69 wrestling team.[12]

In 2014, 15-year-old student Brody Roybal won the gold medal with the American team in the 2014 Winter Paralympics. He acquired a gold medal again at the 2018 Winter Paralympics, this time as a 19-year-old.

Activities

School Activities Include:

Fine Arts

The Leyden Fine Arts program is composed of music, art and theatrical performance. Various music groups, ranging from choral groups to instrumental orchestras, have excelled in multiple regional, state and national competitions. Choral participants have consistently been top performers in the Illinois Music Educators Association (IMEA) competitions, both in the Jazz and Classical divisions. The Leyden Chamber Singers annually perform in the Madrigal Dinner, singing pieces from the . The Marching Band has also travelled to various locations throughout the United States, including Pennsylvania, Florida, among other locations. Student performers have also been participants of the Illinois High School Theater Association's (IHSTA's), annual TheaterFest. Students throughout the state compete for roles in the annual performance of a classical musical or drama production. The Speech and Performance Team is also a competitive group which has continued to develop and fine-tune their Forensics Speaking abilities throughout the years, with various events in Dramatic and Humorous Interpretation, Radio Speaking, Poetry Reading, and Oratorical Declamation.

Notable people
  • Tom Dore is a play-by-play announcer known for his long association with the Chicago Bulls (Dore attended West Leyden before transferring to and graduating from East Leyden).[13]
  • Manny Flores, Chicago City Council member from the 1st ward. He graduated from West Leyden.[14]
  • Tom Rooney, Republican member of the Illinois Senate. He has taught U.S. history at West Leyden for over twenty years.[15]
  • Frankie Sullivan is the lead guitarist in the band Survivor. Together with fellow Leyden alumni Rick Weigand they formed the band in 1978. He was nominated for an Academy Award in 1982, in the category Best Original Song for co-writing the song "Eye of the Tiger" from the film Rocky III.[16]
  • Mark Venturini was an actor who appeared in "Friday the 13th: A New Beginning," "Return of the Living Dead," and other films and television productions. He was a senior and quarterback for the West Leyden football team when he was tapped by drama coach Nancy Giovannoni to audition for the role of Hawkeye Pierce in the school's production of "M*A*S*H", which made him realize his talent and love for acting. [17]
gollark: You have plenty of choices. For instance, you could not do this.
gollark: I suppose I could just implicitly vote against things.
gollark: I read it. I just don't care much if the rule exists or not.
gollark: I just didn't actually care about that at all.
gollark: Consider that people can in fact actually disagree with (claimed) reasoning for things instead of just arbitrarily hating you.

References
  1. http://www.leyden212.org/admin/admin.htm Leyden HS District 212 Administration directory; accessed 12 May 2014
  2. "West Leyden High School". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  3. Class of 2008 school report card; accessed 16 July 2009
  4. School information for Leyden HS; ihsa.org; accessed 16 July 2009
  5. Institution Summary, AdvancED, Retrieved 2012-07-11
  6. Lancer homepage; accessed 17 July 2009
  7. https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/09/26/east-west-leyden-high-school-threats/
  8. https://wbbm780.radio.com/leyden-high-schools-e-learning-threats
  9. https://archive.is/8mkaK
  10. https://archive.is/R6WRD
  11. (Northlake) West Leyden High School "Knights"; illinoishsgolorydays.com; accessed 17 July 2009
  12. Season summaries for Leyden, East Leyden, and West Leyden; ihsa.org; accessed 17 July 2009
  13. Maciaszek, Marty; Goodman's floored by Leyden's court decision; 5 February 2009; Daily Herald; But Goodman had some special basketball players such as Dore, who transferred from West Leyden after his sophomore year...; accessed 17 July 2009
  14. Miller, Sabrina L. (March 13, 2003). "Granato facing a tough runoff, Flores outpolled him in primary". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
  15. "Split schedule to allow new state senator to continue teaching at West Leyden". Pioneer Press. Chicago, Illinois. November 11, 2016. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  16. Fieldman, Chuck; Survivor member takes the stage; 2 July 2008; Franklin Park Herald-Journal; As the only remaining original member of the rock band Survivor, Frankie Sullivan truly is the real survivor. The former Northlake resident and West Leyden High School student founded the band in late 1977...; accessed 17 July 2009
  17. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0893430/?ref_=nv_sr_1
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