Vernon Hills High celebrating 25 years

Homecoming is always special, but there will be an added attraction Friday at Vernon Hills High School.

Principal Jon Guillaume has invited alumni and retirees back for festivities as the school celebrates 25 years.

Village officials, school board members and administrators, and representatives from local police, fire and parks also are expected for the occasion.

“This is a recognition and a thanks,” said Guillaume, who moved his family from Arlington Heights to Vernon Hills to head the math department at the new school when it opened in September 1999.

Now in his 11th year as principal, Guillaume is among about 20 staff members referred to as “the originals” who were there when the school welcomed its first students.

Because he’s noticed a drop in the number of alumni attending homecoming, Guillaume extended a personal invitation to this year’s events in a newsletter to parents, former staffers and graduates.

Besides free admission and food, alumni and retirees attending the 5 p.m. soccer match or the 7:30 p.m. football game Friday against Maine East High School will be recognized at a special halftime ceremony.

Before the game visitors can take a building tour starting in the foyer from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Trivia, a celebrity video and tales of success will be shared.

Built on a former Navy pilot training field, Vernon Hills High has helped establish a sense of identity in town.

But it took years of effort to land the school, a process that included several referendums until one passed, according to Mayor Roger Byrne, who was elected mayor in 1993. Byrne said he considers the high school to be transformational for the village.

“It was a battle,” he said. “In my opinion it’s what really made Vernon Hills a town and gave people something to be truly, truly proud of,” he added.

Trustee Thom Koch Jr., a retired teacher and village trustee since 1993, agreed the school has had a big impact.

“Having your own high school gives you a strong sense of community,” he said. “It ranks right up there with what we’ve done with Hawthorn,” he added, referring to the 1970s-era shopping mall now undergoing a major redevelopment.

Vernon Hills residents on the Libertyville-Vernon Hills Area High School District 128 school board were passionate about getting a high school in town, Guillaume said.

Several factors, including a land donation by the federal government — which nearly two dozen taxing bodies had an interest in and had to be sorted out — and a question of how best to provide space for District 128 students, also came into play.

The school opened as a freshman-only campus in 1999-2000. Students were enrolled in all four grade levels for the first time in the 2001-2002 school year.

Steve Downey, now a counselor at VHHS and head girls golf coach, was part of the first graduating class.

“It was just a lot of young people in their 20s and early 30s who came over here with an open mind to everything,” he said of the school’s initial faculty. “The staff here is always willing to try a new idea or initiative.”

“It feels the same in a lot of ways,” Downey added. “It’s a tight-knit community.”

Kristin Cummings also was in the first VHHS graduating class and worked at the school before moving to the district office as an administrative assistant.

“It was just such a blank canvass in the beginning,” she said. “It’s nice to have all the traditions now.”

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Vernon Hills High School under construction. The school opened in September 1999 and is celebrating its 25th anniversary this weekend.
Courtesy of District 128