Lower Merion High School , is an American public high school in Ardmore, a community on the Pennsylvania Main Line.
It is the larger of the two high schools in Lower Merion School District, which serves both Lower Merion Township and the Borough of Narberth. It was ranked among the top 60 U.S. high schools, public or private, by the Wall Street Journal in 2005.
In 2005, 1,495 students attended the school. In September 2008, former assistant principal Sean Hughes became principal of Lower Merion. The athletics teams are known officially as the "Aces," but the football team is called the "Bulldogs".
History
The school was founded in 1894, when it sat on the south side of Ardmore Avenue (photo), between West Athens and School Lane. Lower Merion High School started with twenty-one staff members under principal "Professor" Charles B. Pennypacker.
The building burned in 1900 (photo). The high school moved to a new granite and limestone building (photo) in 1910, allowing the Ardmore Avenue building to become an elementary school.
By 1940, George H. Gilbert was principal with a teaching staff of sixty-one. By 1957, the enrollment had grown to 1,663 students.
In 1963, the limestone-and-granite building was demolished and replaced with the current modern structure designed by H.A. Kuljian and Co.
A second school was built on East Montgomery Ave., sharing the location with the Lower Merion School District Administration building and, from 1922 to 1992, the Lower Merion Township Junior High School, which was known as Ardmore Junior High School. The latter school was demolished in 1992 after a long fight with the community (photo)
The school had a grounds of 17 acres (69,000 m 2 ) and has seen several building projects. Around 1943, an adjoining building was added for technical studies along the School House Lane side. It had workshops for teaching auto repair, metal, print (photo), wood-working and drafting. The cafeteria/library wing (photo) was added in 1950 near the Pennypacker athletic field and was designed by Savory, Scheetz and Gilmour. At the same time, General Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold athletic field was opened, in honor of the Lower Merion graduate. Since the 1990s, some rooms in the former Technical Building have been used for art classes and others for technology classes and extracurriculars.
In November 2007 The Lower Merion Board of Directors voted 8-0 to approve the new building plans for LMHS. The new school was designed by KCBA Architects, and the contracts were awarded to numerous different builders. This is the last project of the district's Capitol Improvement program. The "Ardmore Annex" along with the natatorium and one of the school's two gyms were demolished in the summer of 2008. In the spring of 2008, Lower Merion High School was used as the film set for the movie Tenure in culmination with other area schools. This occurred just before demolition commenced. The district plans on leaving only the administration building. The transition into to the new building is currently set for the Fall of 2010. This approval comes after a long fight with angry taxpayers in the community.
Academics
Lower Merion is often listed among the top public high schools in the country, and graduates many students each year to the top academic colleges in the nation. It offers programs for students with a wide range of abilities, including Advanced Placement Program, honors, standard, and modified classes along with supplementary programs for all types of students.
Foreign languages
All students can take Spanish, French, or Latin; Japanese is available to upperclassmen only. Thanks to a "School of the Future" grant, each student in Spanish 4 honors or AP French receives an iPod for the duration of the school year. On these iPods, students listen to Spanish or French music, podcasts, and watch TV shows.
Extracurriculars
Lower Merion offers extracurricular activities, for which many students stay after school as late as 9 p.m..
Ace Harmony and Ace's Angels
Ace Harmony and Aces Angels are the two a cappella groups at Lower Merion. Both choral groups feature 16 students. Ace Harmony is a co-ed group, while Ace's Angels are all girls. They performed the entire Beatles album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, for their January 2007 winter concert. The manager of both groups, Joshua Hunnex, teaches in the music department at Lower Merion. He is also an accomplished singer with an extensive musical background.
buildOn
The Lower Merion chapter of buildOn, an international organization committed to enhancing education and empowering youth throughout the United States and "helping people of developing countries increase their self-reliance through education". Students meet weekly to learn about, and raise awareness for, global issues, and perform community service on the weekends and during some of the meetings. Since the Lower Merion chapter's inception in fall 2007, buildOn has grown to over 100 members and currently raises $1,200 per month to build schools in developing nations. The chapter is currently raising funds for the construction of a school in Malawi. Students from the Lower Merion chapter, along with those at other Philadelphia schools, have the opportunity to apply for the chance to help build one of the schools overseas- last year, 12 students from the Philadelphia area traveled to Mali, West Africa, to construct a school in a rural village and have a meaningful cultural exchange. Meetings are held in Room 103 on Wednesdays during Academic Advisory or after school.
Culinary Arts Club
The culinary arts club (colloquially known as cooking club) is for students at Lower Merion High School who love to make food and learn about culinary history but cannot fit a cooking class into their schedule. Its club members make a wide variety of gourmet food, ranging from oatmeal raisin cookies to traditional Japanese sushi to great American soul food classics like Mac 'n Cheese. Club members also watch food-preparation demonstrations done by various teachers at Lower Merion High School as well as guests from the real culinary world. The club provides its members hands on activities in the kitchen and good life skills.
Interact
Interact is the high school extension of Rotary International. It is a community service club which has an obligation to perform at least one local and international project each year, as dictated by its international Constitution. Sponsored by the Ardmore Rotary club, LM's chapter has gone on to volunteer at senior citizens centers, paint murals through the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, refurbish houses and parks in West Philadelphia through AchieveAbility, and has raised money for Rotary's Shelter Box program and Interact's BluePack campaign. Unfortunately, the Lower Merion chapter of Interact is no longer in existence.
LM Programming Club
The LM programming club was created in the 2009-2010 school year, and is still quite incipient. They intend to learn Scheme, and the C and Ruby programming languagues, and also plan to analyze such topics as computability theory and data structures and algorithms.
LMSDtv
Was started as a student-run after school club at Lower Merion during the 04-05 school year. The team worked very hard against scheduling and budget issues to put together and launch a news-type show that ultimately never got very far off the ground. Then in November 2006, with the aid of district funding and teacher training, Lower Merion started broadcasting morning announcements to homerooms through its video system, instead of the traditional PA system. Although the program is no longer run by students, many in the original after- school team keep the show alive for the "Aces Update", broadcasted to the student body and staff by a "Voice of the Aces".
Aces Update is currently scheduled to resume for the 2007-08 school year on December 17, 2007, after receiving a new Flash Video distribution system, similar to that of popular video sharing sites such as YouTube and Meta Cafe. This upgrade comes along with others in the studio including new computers used to edit and produce the show. This new system will bring viewers a better viewing experience, such as eliminating buffer times, better video and sound quality, and less bandwidth used.
Players
Players is Lower Merion High School's theatre club. Its members perform three shows a year: a fall musical, winter drama, and spring comedy. All students are allowed to audition for a role or apply for a Production Design position. When rehearsing a production, Players meets almost every day. It is an entirely student-run program, with students filling the roles of Director, Assistant Director, Stage Manager, Set, costumes, or lighting designer, and many others. It is one of the largest clubs at Lower Merion, and has been in existence for decades.
Student government
Lower Merion's Student Government plays a very active role in the day to day life of the student body. It currently consists of five elected officers: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Sergeant at Arms. It also has a variety of officer elected committees to further expand the amount the organization can achieve. The 07-08 administration rearranged committees for efficiency. Committees include: Communications, Spirit, Fundraising, Nationa