Lighthouse High School balances fun, academics throughout school year

CARBON SCHOOL DISTRICT
    With the holiday season just passed, Lighthouse High School is moving toward improving its academics through rigorous testing, data collection, and interventions for students in need of course correction.
    Academically, the school continues to strive for perfection, and Monday interventions with students who need help continues. Data drives these interventions.
    For students who do not need intervention, that time is being used to provide service to the community, extend student learning, as well as a bit of fun.
    Students from the school have been to the park to clean up trash that may be present and have cleaned up various school properties in the area around Lighthouse High School, including the District Office and Mont Harmon Middle School.
    Presently, the school is in the middle of SAGE (Student Assessment of Growth and Excellence) interim testing.
    “The result of the scores on these tests will be used to plan for our future endeavors academically,” said Bedont. “We are looking at data, lots of data to drive our instruction.”
    The holidays, the end of the quarter, and some other kinds of events the school has been involved in has presented some great opportunities for the students and in some cases their families as well.
    When the quarter ended, there was another reward for students who had stuck it out and done well.
    “We took the honors kids up Nine Mile Canyon and Layne Miller did the tour for us as a volunteer. Mr. Thompson and Mr. Wilson went up early and prepared a Dutch oven lunch for us at Daddy Canyon, so it would be ready when we got there.”
    “We brought back our Thanksgiving Feast on November 15, which had been a tradition for years,” said Karen Bedont, principal at Lighthouse High School.     “We had so many people come that we had to get out many more tables and chairs than we thought we would need. We had between 120 and 150 people show up, including faculty members who attended. All students and their entire family were invited. It was a traditional dinner and Steve May, who retired last year, came back to make his fabulous stuffing.”
    The Christmas season also led to some big events at the school.
    Mr. Thompson’s music class sang at the Christmas Tree Regalia at the Carbon County Events Center during that event on Dec. 6.     Another activity included taking the entire school to the new Star Wars movie as a Christmas gift.
    “We also held a Christmas talent show and games,” Bedont said. “That meant that every first period class did some kind of skit, and in between those skits were ‘minute to win it’ games. Those who won a game got to pick a suitcase (similar to Deal or No Deal) and then at the end the kids opened their suitcase. There were prizes and gifts in the cases.”
They also held an event to thank some of those that support the school during the year as well.
    “The day after the talent show the Lighthouse sponsored a breakfast for everyone including the students, the district office, maintenance and the tech center,” she explained. “This was all cooked and prepared by Brenna Thomas (food service), Mrs. Crowe, Mr. Thompson, Mrs. Howa and me.”
    Students also did more than just have fun over the holidays, they also wanted to help some in the community who needed help as well.
    Some students created hygiene bags for the women’s shelter in Price. Often women and children who come to the shelter leave their situations with only the clothes they have on. These bags include a shampoo, a conditioner, a bar of soap and some lotion. Some of the girls doing this wanted to bring in other items such as some socks, toothbrushes and toothpaste as well. With that they made another 25 bags themselves.
    “Altogether I took over probably 50 bags,” said Bedont.
    The school also did a can drive for the food bank before the holidays.
    Some students also tied fleece blankets that went to homeless people who have contact with the food bank.     
    In addition students also wrote letters to servicemen and women to let them know they are appreciated.
    Bedont said the school is proud of Jared Higgs, who is an intern science teacher. He graduated in December with his Bachelor’s.  
    She reminds people the school now has a Facebook page, which people can use to learn about the school and make contact as well.