Liberty High School (Carroll County, Maryland)

Liberty High School

"Strive for Excellence"
Address
5855 Bartholow Rd.
Eldersburg, Maryland, Carroll County 21784
United States
Coordinates 39°24′48″N 76°57′10″W / 39.41333°N 76.95278°W / 39.41333; -76.95278Coordinates: 39°24′48″N 76°57′10″W / 39.41333°N 76.95278°W / 39.41333; -76.95278
Information
School type Public high school
Established 1980
School district Carroll County Public Schools
Principal Kenneth Goncz
Employees 132 teachers and staff
Grades 9-12
Enrollment 1,160 (2014)
Campus type Suburban
Color(s) Royal Blue and Gold         
Mascot African lion
Website www.carrollk12.org/lhs/
The mascot of Liberty High School, as seen in the main lobby

Liberty High School (LHS) is a four-year public high school in Eldersburg in Carroll County, Maryland, United States at 5855 Bartholow Road. The current principal of the school is Kenneth Goncz.

About the School

Liberty High School was established in 1980 in Eldersburg, Maryland as part of the Carroll County Public Schools system.

The school's first graduation ceremony was held in 1982. Since that time, 32 classes have graduated from Liberty High School.

Liberty follows a class schedule different from that followed in the rest of the county. Each class meets every other day (every pre-determined "A" or "B" day), with four class periods each day. Thus, it takes a student two days to attend every one of their classes. Because of this schedule, 1 credit courses are often held the entire school year every other day, or every day for one semester. Courses worth .5 credit are held during 1 semester, every other day. Some courses, such as AP Calculus AB BC taken simultaneously, meet on both "A" and "B" days during the entire year, and thus are worth 2 credits.

As of June 2014, Liberty High School is ranked 59th in Maryland in administering Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) tests to students.[1] Liberty High School's mascot is a lion. It is represented as an African lion; in comparison, Penn State College’s mascot, the Nittany Lions, is shown as a mountain lion, a species native to the United States. The school’s colors are the complementary colors blue and gold, or more accurately blue and yellow. The school motto is "Strive for Excellence".

Students

Liberty High School enrolls 1,160 students as of the 2014-2015 school year.[2]

Faculty

Liberty High School currently has a faculty of 132 teachers and staff.[3] Liberty's staff includes teachers that have worked at the school since its founding in 1980, and several teachers and staff that are graduates of the school.

Administration

Departments

Crest of Liberty High School

Extracurricular activities

Liberty High School has a very wide range of extracurricular activities and sports. Students are allowed to join as many clubs and sports as they wish, however are only permitted to be President (or equivalent) of a single club. Each club is sponsored by a member of the faculty who advises the club and helps direct its activities. Liberty High School is no longer the only school in Carroll County to host a robotics team, but has had the longest running robotics team in the county, since 2007.[4]

Fall Sports

Winter Sports

Spring Sports

State championships

Robotics

FIRST (FRC) Team 2199, the Robo-Lions, is a student run team that was originally founded as a Liberty High School sports team in the fall of 2006[8] following the collapse of the county wide team, 1464. However, the current relationship between the school and the team is a loose affiliation, with no legal ties. Although the team was originally made up exclusively of Liberty students, it is now open for membership from anyone living in Carroll County, Maryland. Currently, the team works in the garage of a team member due to a lack of space at the school. The size of the team has fluctuated between 15 and 25 since its creation.

Affiliations

In 2011, parents and teachers formed the non-profit PIE3 to fund robotics programs throughout Carroll County.[9]

In 2012, the Robo-Lions became a member of the Freedom Area Recreation Council.[10]

Currently, the team is working with Carroll County Public Schools to create a legal partnership with the school district.

Public Outreach

The team focuses not only on the robot, but also on public outreach to promote the growth of STEM in Carroll County. Currently, the team is mentoring 6 elementary and middle school age (FLL) robotics teams, and the Robo-Lions have run the regional FLL Regional Competition, the Roar of the Robots, for the past 4 years. Additionally, team members also volunteer at competitions for FLL, FTC, and FRC.

In 2012, the Robot-Lions started a summer Lego Fun Camp; students age 7-11 learn to work with the FLL technology to complete basic tasks, as well as engaging in other engineering related activities and crafts. Initially the team only offered one session, however in 2013 (their second year running the camp) the team expanded the sessions offered to 3 due to popular demand. The team also offers a mentor training session for parents and teachers interested in mentoring FLL teams.

Public outreach also extends to community events, such as elementary and middle school science fairs,[11] public library events,[12] craft fairs, the American Cancer Society's Freedom Area Relay for Life,[13] and events coordinated through the Freedom Area Recreation Council.

Additionally, the team works with Liberty High School clubs and organizations, including the drama club and the special education classroom, Learning for Independence. In 2010 the team built a robotic lamp post for the drama club's production of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe; in 2011, the team constructed a robotic crocodile for the drama club's production of Peter Pan (the robot won a Cappie for best prop).[14]

The Robo-Lions have also been featured on Fox 45 News, twice.[15]

Competitions and Awards

Drama

The Liberty High School drama club has won many accolades in theatre. Their drama department has attended the Cappies gala three years and has won 22 awards over those three years, including "Best Play"—twice. (The Cappies gala is similar to the Tony Awards, but for high school theatre). Their performances have become increasingly large and elaborate as the program gains steam within the school. Their spring 2012 play involved at least 140 students in the cast, the crew, and the publicity staff.

Liberty ITS

Liberty's drama program is also involved with the International Thespian Society. Liberty's troop (#984) has participated for 5 years. Their debut show in 2010 was "Conflict," and though met with strong audience support, the judges deemed it to be too comedic to send on to the final rounds. The next year, they took the alumna written "Looking the Other Way" to the stage. It was positively received and ranked runner-up. For their third year, they took the play "War Letters" and brought home a state victory and a rating of Superior, allowing them to attend the national competition in Lincoln, Nebraska. Two students were also selected to compete individually after earning rankings of Superior in their individual events. In the 2013 competition, Liberty once again claimed a state victory with the show "And." In the Maryland Thespian Featival in 2014, Liberty competed with the show "The Trench", which was the first show to have live music on stage. The music was written by two school students. Liberty once again took first place in 2014. Liberty did not compete in the 2015 Thespian Festival; however, Liberty took first place again at the state festival in 2016 with their one act show " A Little Box of Oblivion,"

Marching Band

The Liberty High School "Lions' Pride" Marching Band is directed by the school's band director. The Marching Band also has six other staff members, including color guard, battery, marching, and front ensemble directors.[19] The Lions' Pride marching band is highly decorated, and has consistently scored in the top 15 marching bands on the Atlantic coast since their present band director joined Liberty. In the past three years, the marching band has scored in the top ten of their Atlantic coast competition circuit, the Tournament of Bands. The Lions' Pride marching band is currently an open class, Group 3 band, and is ranked first in its local Chapter 5 region of the TOB tournament area. In addition, it hosts the highest-scoring Drum Major in the Atlantic Coast Championship of 2014.[20]

References

  1. ↑ http://apps.washingtonpost.com/local/highschoolchallenge/schools/2014/list/maryland-schools/
  2. ↑ http://www.carrollk12.org/lhs/
  3. ↑ http://www.carrollk12.org/lhs/departments/default.asp
  4. ↑ http://www.carrollk12.org/about/news/release/388
  5. ↑ Monocacy Valley Athletic League - (Hagerstown, MD) - powered by LeagueLineup.com
  6. ↑ "Cross Country State Championships". MPSAA.
  7. ↑ "Cross Country State Championships". MPSAA. http://www.mpssaa.org/state-championships/cross-country/. External link in |publisher= (help);
  8. ↑ http://robo-lions.org/
  9. ↑ http://www.pie-3.org/
  10. ↑ http://www.freedomarearec.com/?cat=34
  11. ↑ http://www.pie-3.org/hot-news-1/highschoolteamspromotestem
  12. ↑ http://www.pie-3.org/hot-news-1/summerreadingkick-offengagesyoungestengineers
  13. ↑ http://www.pie-3.org/hot-news-1/relayforlife-withrobot
  14. ↑ http://robo-lions.org/about-us/outreach
  15. ↑ http://www.pie-3.org/hot-news-1/post-seasonhighschoolroboticsteamsreachouttothecommunity
  16. ↑ http://www.pie-3.org/hot-news-1/robo-lionswinentrepreneurshipawardinrichmond
  17. ↑ https://sites.google.com/site/pie3org/hot-news-1/robo-lionswinchairmansawardraisefundstogotostlouis
  18. ↑ http://www.pie-3.org/hot-news-1/championship2013triptopsoutstandingfrcseason
  19. ↑ http://www.lhsimp.com/staff/
  20. ↑ http://www.lhsimp.com/marching-band/performance-history/

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/challengeindex/local/ http://www.carrollk12.org/about/news/release/388

External links

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