LZHS turns 50

Ninety-five year-old Lake Zurich resident Juanita Wagner has a unique connection to District 95. Wagner worked as the principal’s secretary at the high school before the school was even established as LZHS.

“I was there when we were so crowded, and then they built Stevenson High School. All the students who lived near there moved to Stevenson High School and it was a relief because it was too overcrowded,” Wagner said. “[So] there’s always been a rivalry between the two schools.”

Although students continue to unofficially celebrate the ‘break up’ of LZHS and Stevenson, this year the school is officially celebrating the 50th anniversary of establishing our own, independent high school, according to Chris Bennett, social studies teacher.

After the separation in 1965, LZHS continued to use the two schools’ original Ela-Vernon High School, which is the current May Whitney building. The current high school building was not built until 1971, when the growing district needed more room for increasing student enrollment.

“The middle school needed more space and needed to move into our building, so we built the new building,” Wagner said. “All of us that worked there were extremely excited.”

The excitement of the move was contagious. Students during that time actually helped to move all of the library books from the old building to the new building.

“All the students lined up and each was given a couple of books. They all got on school buses and went to the new school and the librarians told them which shelves the books went on,” Wagner said. “That continued until all the books were moved from the old school to the new school.”

When the school was originally built in 1971, there was no B-hallway, S-hallway, Field House, Tonelli Gym, or Performing Arts Center, according to Bob Knuth, social studies teacher.

“When I first got here [in 1986], the building went from the Main Gym and came down to the cafeteria,” Knuth said. “The doors to the atrium were the senior doors back then. The small auditorium was used as the performing arts center where plays and class meetings were held. There were 67 teachers and 867 students.”

Today, LZHS consists of 2,040 students and 180 teachers, according to Bennett, and Knuth, who is on his 28th year teaching at LZHS, has seen the building transform through the years.

“The facilities have just tripled in size since I first started here. The size and complexity are the biggest things that have changed here,” Knuth said. “We’ve also had a ton of technology upgrades.”

Technology obviously became quickly outdated in the new school, with only three TVs in the entire building during 9/11, according to Knuth.

“Now, every classroom has a television,” Knuth said. “They’ve also added overhead projectors. Every teacher re-

ceived one computer in 1991, and we only had one computer lab. “

Not just the building has changed since the time Ryan Rubenstein, assistant principal for student activities and facilities, has worked at the school.

“The types of students that come here [have changed]. Lake Zurich as a town has changed from a sort of summer home community to a community that people live in year-round,” Rubenstein said. “I think it says a lot about the school and the town because in the 60s, Lake Zurich used to just be a town where people from the city would come for the summer, and now it’s a very thriving community. We have great schools and overall just a great community.”

Although the building itself has been changed numerous times, Knuth says one thing has remained constant: the people.

“I’m grateful to the community and our administration over the years. I’m on my eighth principal and all those people over the years have worked with the same vision to try and improve the facilities over the years, so I’m grateful for them and their ability to understand what needs to happen,” Knuth said. “This school really is awesome, like they said in the Back-to-School assembly this year. Despite the growth of the school, we’re still a family. We have the Lake Zurich family.”