Celebrating Student Achievement

Lancers earn prestigious academic recognition and perfect scores on the ACT.

During the Monday, November 16 regular Board of Education meeting, Lancer students and their families will be recognized for impressive academic accolades that rank among the highest nationwide.

Perfect ACT Scores: Congratulations to Lake Park seniors Luke Hansen, Adhrit Mahesh, Lillian Potts, and Aayush Sharma for earning a perfect score of 36 on the ACT taken during their junior year. Achieving a full 36 is the rarest score of all with just 0.22% of all test takers earning a perfect ACT score.

National Merit: Congratulations to Lake Park students who have earned academic recognition through the 72nd Annual National Merit Scholarship Program. About 1.2 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

Semifinalists: Three seniors Lillian Potts, Aayush Sharma and Klaudia Zabierowska have been selected as a Semifinalist in the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Competition. Selected based on test scores of the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test and represents less than one percent of the U.S. high school seniors. To become semifinalists, the students must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed by their school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm their earlier qualifying test performance. They must also submit a detailed scholarship application, which includes a self-descriptive essay and information about their participation and leadership in school and community activities. The approximately 16,000 semifinalists have the opportunity to continue in the competition for 6,700 Merit Scholarship awards, worth nearly $24 million.

Commended Students: Six senior Lancers have been named Commended Students in the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program: Nico Bruinsma, Adhrit Mahesh, Olivia McGowan, Ismael Orue, Dylan Schalbert and Nathan Wilson. About 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise. Although they will not continue in the 2027 competition for Merit Scholarship Awards, Commended Students placed among the top five percent of more than 1.2 million juniors who entered the 2027 competition.

Lancer Stories

Learning Beyond Facts: Durable Skills for Life

In an era driven by search engines and increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence, information is available in milliseconds. Reciting facts, historically a central focus of traditional schooling, is no longer a primary driver of career success. 

What these technological tools cannot replicate are distinctively human abilities in critical thinking, problem-solving, empathetic communication, global awareness, and collaborative leadership. In The Lancer Way, we call these 21st Century Durable Skills.

Labor market data shows that today’s graduates will change jobs and industries multiple times throughout their careers. While specific software and tools change, human skills transfer everywhere. Whether a student enters medicine, law, engineering, or the skilled trades, these core traits remain constant requirements for success.

To build a common standard for growth, Lake Park is integrating unified, district-wide frameworks for these durable skills across every department. These tools give teachers, students, and families a shared language to provide feedback across departments and grade levels in five core attributes of the District's Portrait of a Graduate:

• Global Citizenship
• Critical Thinking
• Thoughtful Communicator
• Resilient Learner
• Collaborative Leader

Academic content like language arts, history, math, and science remains vital, but now serves as the dynamic lens through which students practice these lifelong skills.

Course Selection Begins in November

The 2027-2028 Academic Planning Guide is now available!



As Course Selection Kick-off Week concludes today, which included the October 29 Lancer Period preparing for course selection, Lancer Families are strongly encouraged to review the 2027-2028 Academic Planning Guide prior to the upcoming selection dates.

Class of 2028 - Rising Seniors: November 2-6 

Class of 2029 - Rising Juniors: November 2-6

Class of 2030 - Rising Sophomores: November 11-18

Class of 2031 - Incoming Freshmen (8th Grade): December 10-17

As an additional resource, the Friday, October 16 edition of the LP Link featured a Spotlight on 2027-2028 Course Selection. The article contains Career Pathways video links, a 10-part College and Career Discovery Series embedded in the GPS Parent Series and more!

ICTFL New Teacher of the Year Award
World Language teacher receives statewide recognition for her contributions.

Congratulations to Natalie Graetz, World Languages Teacher, for recently receiving the Illinois Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ICTFL) New Teacher of the Year award. Eligible to anyone in their first four years of teaching, the recognition is a testament to the hard work, dedication and the positive impact that Natalie is making early in her teaching career. She teaches all levels in the French program and teaches courses for English Learners. A Lancer for Life, Natalie personally experienced some of Lake Park’s European travels as a student and is now affording Lancers the same opportunity to travel to France and participate in the French exchange program.

World Languages Department Leader Emily Brown shared, "Natalie thinks outside the box when creating lessons for her students. She is always trying new things in her classroom and sharing her successes with the department, whether she has introduced a new review game, tried a new strategy, or collected a wide range of brain breaks for other teachers to use in their classrooms. Madame Graetz is warm, innovative, and a wonderful example of what students can aspire to become in their futures. Her willingness to experiment in the classroom demonstrates that she is not afraid to continue innovating as a teacher."

Lancer Period Bell Schedule

The Lancer Period lessons takes place on November 12.

While maintaining the same start and end times for each campus, Lake Park designed a Lancer Period Bell Schedule to allocate 38 minutes for whole-school programming that falls outside the traditional curriculum. The Lancer Period is scheduled approximately once per month on Thursdays. All students and staff are assigned to a designated classroom for the Lancer Period to ensure whole-school participation in each activity. On Thursday, November 12, the Lancer Period will cover the Signs of Suicide (SOS) at East Campus.

In partnership with Elyssa’s Mission, a nonprofit organization dedicated to suicide prevention, this lesson will deliver the Signs of Suicide (SOS) program. SOS is an evidence-based program that incorporates two key suicide prevention strategies: a curriculum that raises awareness of suicide and mental health issues and a brief screening for depression and other risk factors associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The program will be facilitated by classroom teachers who will engage students by showing the SOS video and leading students in a discussion about how to implement the key message of Acknowledge, Care, and Tell (ACT). Lancer families received more information via ParentSquare and can notify the Student Services Team if you wish for your student(s) not to participate. * West Campus students will participate in the SOS program during the Lancer Period in February 2027.  

Advanced Placement Exams

Reminder: payment for AP exam fees is due by November 13.

Lake Park High School will administer Advanced Placement (AP) exams from May 3-14, 2027. Payment for AP exams is due by Friday, November 13. Families may pay with a credit card through the Lake Park Fee Payment Portal by logging in with the credentials from summer online registration.

For those paying by cash or check, students may bring their payment to the main office at either campus. Checks should be made payable to Lake Park High School and must include the student’s ID number in the memo line.

Important: AP exams will not be ordered for any student whose fees are not paid in full by Friday, November 13. If your student is taking AP exams and you do NOT see fees on your account, or if you have questions regarding payment, contact Sheila Finstein at sfinstein@lphs.org or (630) 295-5321.

ACT Test Prep Course Registration

Enroll in a weekday or Saturday morning course starting in January 2027.

In preparation for the ACT test on April 14, 2027, Lake Park High School will offer a course beginning in January 2027 for juniors to develop study skills to improve ACT scores. In addition to Reading, English, Math, and Science, the course emphasizes test-taking strategies and techniques for the ACT. Students will gain insights into ACT testing situations, gain familiarity and comfort with the technology, practice and remediation, and explanations to ACT questions and answer choices.

Taught by certified teachers, the course fee is $225 and is offered on either weekdays (Tues/Thur) after school or Saturday mornings. Registration will be accepted until Friday, December 4. For additional details, view the course brochure and complete an application form.

Film Appreciation Society: Psycho

Film buffs are invited to a free screening at West Campus on November 4.

Lake Park's Film Appreciation Society announces its Horror film pick for the season: Psycho. Open to the community, this free screening will be held on Wednesday, November 4, at 6:00 p.m. in the West Campus auditorium. Run time for the film is 1 hour, 49 minutes.

The definitive 1960 Hitchcock thriller stars Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, an office worker feeling trapped in both her job and her relationship status with her lover, Sam Loomis (played by John Gavin), a divorcé who must spend all his money on alimony. When entrusted to make a large bank deposit, she takes advantage of the situation to launch a new life for herself and Sam. Driving to meet Sam in California at his store, Marion encounters a nasty storm...and much more, when she pulls off the highway into the Bates Motel to seek shelter and receives anything but. Her consummate "Mama's Boy" host, Norman Bates (portrayed by Anthony Perkins) is intrigued by his guest and pays her some special attention. The film's haunting score by Bernard Herrmann is the perfect backdrop for one of Hollywood's most iconic scenes in the film that cemented Hitchcock's genius standing in the pantheon of the suspense genre.

Community film buffs are invited to attend the cinematic presentation and stay for an in-depth panel discussion regarding the background and history of the featured film. Trivia questions and door prizes will follow. Patrons will also preview and vote for film selections for the next presentation in early December. 

Community Connection: Athletics and LPEF

Back Lancer Athletics and celebrate LP fine arts at upcoming fundraisers.