District 203 Students Take a Bow Before a Packed House

Standing-room only crowds are not unusual at music venues, but they are less common at school board meetings.

Monday night's School District 203 board meeting drew a capacity crowd for a good reason, as the district celebrated many of its students.

Students were honored for academic achievements, including those who are semifinalists for National Merit Scholarships and those who earned a perfect score on the ACT test. Some students were honored for both achievements.

Principals from Naperville Central and Naperville North high schools and District Superintendent Mark Mitrovich presented certificates of achievement to the students. Each school had 22 students named semifinalists for National Merit Scholarships, which will award 8,200 merit scholarships nationally, worth more than $36 million, next spring.

Before he presented his students with the certificates, Naperville Central Principal Bill Wiesbrook said that if the students could speak on their behalf during the meeting, they would thank their parents and all of their teachers.

Naperville North Principal Kevin Probst passed out the certificates to his students. "There are few honors a student can achieve that are as prestigious as this," he said.

Probst said only two schools in Illinois had more students exceed the District 203 schools in these achievements, and those schools (Stevenson and New Trier high schools) are larger.

"We actually did better per capita," he said.

Along with the certificate presentation for students who are National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists, the principals also awarded certificates to 18 students who scored a perfect 36 on the ACT when it was taken in the spring.

A record number of students from the district scored that perfect mark.

"I have a shocking secret," Wiesbrook said. "I did not get a perfect score."

Several Naperville Central students scored perfectly in all four categories on the test, Wiesbrook said.

Also Monday night, State Rep. Michael Connelly (R-Lisle) presented a proclamation in honor of Naperville Central baseball coach Bill Seiple and his 2010 state championship team.

"It really is a great accomplishment," Connelly said. "It's the kids you coach and nurture who five, 10, 15 years from now will come back and say, 'Thanks, Coach.' "