Viking Families and Friends,

April is here and with it has given a taste of the four seasons in the span of a weekend. While you decide to either open the windows in your homes, close them, or listen to the birds sing, please take a moment to relax and enjoy reading about some of the great things happening around VHS.

On March 19th, 147 Vikings were inducted into the Valparaiso High School Chapter of the National Honor Society. March 20, 2023 is a day that will go down in history for VHS as that was the day the boys volleyball team played their first match, which was against Lake Central. Last weekend, some of our Vikings showed off their skills in April Antics. The Honors Art Show also took place last week where the gifts and talents of our students shone through. Congratulations to the VHS Viking Ayres, Viking Tones, and Viking Voices Choruses! The Viking Voices and Viking Ayres Choruses earned Gold Ratings in Performance and Sight-reading last weekend at the ISSMA Choral Organizational Festival, which was held at Kankakee Valley Middle School. Viking Tones earned a "With Distinction" rating.

The Academic Super Bowl team also proudly showed off their green and white at the area competition earlier this week. The English and Fine Arts teams both won first place in their rounds, with the English team earning a perfect score for their round! The following four Vikings make up the English team: Audrey Barriball, Vince Grisolano, Maddux Horka, and Makenzie Wahlman. Good luck to the English team as they represent VHS at the state finals on May 6th at Purdue University.

Every year, students participate in the American Legion Americanism and Government Test. At VHS, the test is available to students in grades 10, 11, and 12. There are only two winners from each grade level at the district and state levels; therefore, there are a total of six district and six state winners. VHS was fortunate to have winners at both the district and state levels. The following four students were named District Award Winners of the American Legion Americanism and Government Program: Lauren Balla, Griffin Dennis, Claudia Stage, and Sean Sistrunk. Lauren Balla and Claudia Stage were also American Legion Department of Indiana winners. Congratulations to these students as well as their parents and guardians.

On Friday, April 7th our teachers continued their educational journey by participating in professional development sessions created and facilitated by our instructional coaches, Student Services team, and fellow teachers. Teachers attended a session on building relationships in the classroom. This session focused on building both student to teacher and student to student relationships. Teachers then had the opportunity to select from either of the following two sessions: Test Taking Strategies or Ways Teachers Can Support College-Bound Students. The Test Taking Strategies session focused on test taking strategies for standardized multiple choice tests, such as AP exams and the SAT, which you may recall is the graduation qualifying exam. The Ways Teachers Can Support College-Bound Students session focused on providing teachers with information that they can use to help students through the college application process, including some of the scholarship programs for which our students can apply and how to navigate Naviance so teachers can upload recommendation letters for students.

Finally, I have just one update for you. The construction on the serving lines continues to move along. As a reminder, we expect to complete it for the start of the 2023-24 academic year. A temporary serving area has been set up so that our food and nutrition staff can continue serving our students during this time.

Thank you for continuing to support our students, teachers, and staff.