"It's awesome -- Jacket pride, amplified," says Lexington City Schools Board of Education Chair Sherraine McLean. Lexington Senior High hosted the state championship NCASA The Quill writing competition Saturday, March 3 and came away with a close second-place finish, missing the top spot by decimals. The Lexington team of four high school students finished second to Atkins High School by less than a full point, with a total team score of 89.67 vs. Atkins' 90.50.
Lexington won two of the four categories, with Atkins winning one and Myers Park High School winning the other. With points awarded for this competition, LSH now ranks second in NCASA's Scholastic Cup annual standings. The North Carolina Association of Scholastic Activities (NCASA) hosts a number of academic competitions open to its member schools, and partners with various other competitions to award its Scholastic Cup to the "Top High School in NC." For more information about the NCASA, see its website at http://ncscholastic.org.
For The Quill, each school brings four writers to address four separate prompts and students have 90 minutes to complete their compositions. While the students break for lunch, the papers are judged anonymously by a panel of carefully chosen teacher judges, then awards are announced and trophies presented at an afternoon presentation. Lexington student Sethea Seang was the top writer in Literary Analysis, and Daniel Owens was the top winner in Creative Writing. Rachel Woodridge finished second in the Argumentative Writing category, and David Powell also finished second in his category of Problem Solution. Students winning their categories were awarded individual trophies. "It made me so happy to see the proud look on all four of our students' faces. Their sense of accomplishment was so apparent. We are very pleased with all of them," said Coach and LSHS Scholastic Director Scott Plaster.
Leon Pfieffer, Executive Director of NCASA said, "Congratulations to the Lexington Senior High School The Quill team for their second place finish in the State Finals. This is a dramatic improvement from last year's seventh place finish. Long hours of studying and practice paid off for these students, especially Daniel Owens who took first place in the Creative Writing event, and Sethea Seang who won the Literary Analysis topic." Lexington's other competitors included Myer's Park High School from Charlotte with an enrollment of over 2,800. Myer's Park is regularly ranked in the top 50 schools in the country and competes nationally in several academic competitions. Another school at the competition was Page HS, with around 1,800 students. Winners in the Argumentative Writing and Problem Solution categories were Meredith Hemphill from Atkins High School and George Robertson from Myers Park High School.
"Our students' excelling in each of the four areas of competition speaks to the instruction they are receiving across all disciplines at LSHS. A student's ability to respond to a problem-solving prompt can be attributed to excellence in his science and math classes; addressing an argumentative prompt attributed to the social sciences and CTE courses; and creative writing skills are heightened in all liberal arts classes," said teacher Dawn Poole, who taught three of the Lexington Quill team's four students this year in her AP English classes. Plaster added, "It does truly take an entire faculty to prepare students for a competition like The Quill."
Lexington history teacher Steve Raker has been teaching at the school for ten years and graduated from the high school in 1967. He said, "I remember the day that our school had academic teams and was competitive with every school around. It's good to see us returning to those traditions." "It was a goal of the Scholastic Program from the start that our academic teams represent the true diversity of our school, and that has been no problem to accomplish," said Plaster, who said the school's academic teams have included an equal mix of both genders, grades 9-12, and a broad range of ethnic groups, including Caucasian, African-American, Cambodian, Hispanic, and several students from Guyana.
Pfieffer commented on Lexington's current top ranking in the Scholastic Cup, "In my meetings with superintendents and principals I repeatedly said that any school can win the Scholastic Cup. It is not just for the elite or magnet schools to pursue. This statement is greeted with raised eyebrows and strange looks. However, the current standings bear out this claim. Lexington Senior High School has 65% free and reduced lunch and more extreme poverty students than any high school in North Carolina." Over 500 of Lexington Senior High's 782 students qualify for free or reduced lunch. A January Dispatch article reported that one in five of the school system's children live in extreme poverty.
Lexington City Schools Superintendent Richard Kriesky said, "The Lexington City School System is very proud of the recent second place finish in the Quill writing competition. The writing excellence that our Lexington Senior High students displayed in the statewide academic contest speaks volumes for the quality of students and instruction
at our high school. Congratulations to the outstanding student competitors from LSHS and a special thanks to Mr. Plaster, the team's coach. At this point LSHS is in first place overall in the comprehensive state competition. Good luck, Jackets. Continue to make us proud." LSH Principal Travis Taylor said, "Out of sight, wonderful work for our first year. Great for our image, reputation, community and students!"
Scholastic Director Scott Plaster assembled a full team of academic coaches at the beginning of the year with the idea, he says, "You can't win if you don't compete." The coaching staff includes Kristen Wall for Science, Dawn Poole for a general competition called the Twelve, math coach Tiffany George, choir director Lee Mabe, Quiz Bowl coach Dr. Keith Curry, and Economics coach Robert Hairston. Plaster also coaches the school's chess team, which will be attending the state chess championship later this month. Other upcoming competitions this year include the NC Economics Challenge, the State Mathematics Contest, and the NC Glee Club Competition.
The school's Quiz Bowl team will compete in the District competition on Saturday, March 10 at Guilford College. Curry said, "It has been great to be involved in the school's scholastic program and to get to work with such bright kids. We've been working hard in our weekly meets to prepare for the district competition and hope to do well enough to advance to the state championship." The Quiz Bowl is NCASA's most popular competition, with over 30 schools competing for a chance at the title. The six-week quiz bowl conference play marks the first time in North Carolina history that academic teams have competed in regular "conference" play.
For more information about Lexington Senior High School's academic competition program, contact Scholastic Director Scott Plaster at 336-473-7369 or http://mrplastersclass.com.
A chart with the Cup standings:
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Scholastic Cup Standings after three events:
1 - Lexington Senior HS - 105 pts
2 - Ardrey Kell HS - 95 pts
3 - Atkins A&T HS - 90 pts
4 - Myers Park HS - 85 pts
5 - NC School of Science and Mathematics - 55 pts
6t - Chapel Hill HS - 50 pts
6t - Raleigh Charter HS - 50 pts
6t - Thomas Jefferson Classical - 50 pts
9t - Jordan-Matthews HS - 40 pts
9t - Newton Conover HS - 40 pts
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