Viking Families and Friends,

I hope your students have enjoyed the first few days of summer break. The first session of Summer School wrapped up today, and our custodial staff is hard at work preparing the building for the upcoming academic year

On May 31st, we celebrated a milestone in the lives of over 450 seniors as many of them walked across the stage, turned their tassels, and made the change from students to alumni. I wish them all the best as they move on to the next phase in their lives.

In May we also held a dedication ceremony as well as an open house for our newest addition, The Valparaiso High School Military Hall of Honor. Prior to the ceremony, names were collected of VHS graduates who served in the military. Those names were then put on small name tags in preparation for the wall.

Members from the community and armed forces were invited for the dedication of this beautiful space. The Valparaiso High School Band performed the Armed Forces Medley at the event as well. That evening, the school was opened so that the community could come in and see the space and find their loved one’s name on the wall. The names of VHS graduates who served in the military can still be submitted. Those names will be added to this space every May, the month of Memorial Day, and November, the month of Veterans Day. This display was inspired by the example and service of two legendary Valparaiso leaders: Dr. E. Ric Frataccia, an army veteran, and Mr. Myron Knauff, a navy veteran.

The end of the 2022-23 academic year was a busy one. Our Vikings took advantage of every opportunity given to them. Here are just a few highlights of how we ended this academic year. The Concert Choir had a terrific performance at State and placed 9th. Choir was also the recipient of the Indiana State School Music Association All-Music Award. Wind Symphony placed as one of the top 14 bands in the State. Speech, Debate, and Mock Trial had a national qualifier. Our Academic Super Bowl team traveled to Purdue for the state competition and placed 6th for Class 1. The Vikings were also sectional champs in baseball.

Although the school year came to an end, our Vikings were not finished yet. We had multiple teams head to State level competitions. Boys golf headed to Carmel and represented Valpo this week. Our boys, girls, and Unified track teams headed to Bloomington a couple of weeks ago and our Unified team tied for runner up. It has been another great year for our Vikings.

Finally, the SAT exam results are in! The average total score for Valparaiso High School was significantly higher than that of the State coming in at 1065 compared to the State’s average of 959. Vikings, give yourselves a pat on the back for a job well done!

Thank you for continuing to support our students, teachers, and staff and have a wonderful, safe, and relaxing summer.

In Coding Club / Girls Who Code Club, we spend time exploring the world of computer science. While the club’s overall goal is to provide a supportive and encouraging environment for female students to explore computer coding, we also welcome the participation of male students who are interested in expanding their knowledge in the field. Throughout this past year, we have developed our basic coding skills in Python. The programs we built generate choose your own adventure stories, and mad libs. We expanded our reach to include block coding for the purpose of programming robotic vehicles. Our final focus for the year was on graphic user interfaces (GUIs). This GUI platform allowed us to build images and animate objects on the screen for the purpose of game design.

In planning for next year, we hope to add Java to our list of coding languages. We hope to develop field trip experiences to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, and Valparaiso University’s Computer Science Department. In addition, we will be adding guest speakers from university computer science programs and professionals in the industry. This club has come about through the hard work and motivation of our student club president, Lauren Harris, who had a vision and drive to bring this extracurricular computer science opportunity to Valparaiso High School. If you have any questions please contact Ms. Koelm at kkoelm@valpo.k12.in.us.