Lipa City National Science High School

The Lipa City National Science High School (Filipino: Pambansang Mataas na Paaralang Pang-Agham ng Lungsod ng Lipa) is a public science high school located in Lipa City, Batangas in Philippines. It is a DepEd-recognized science high school and one of three science high schools in the province of Batangas, the others being the public Batangas Provincial Science High School in Batangas City and the private Batangas Science School, Lipa City.

History

The Lipa City National Science High School started as a Special Science-Math class at the Comprehensive High School of Lipa City, located at Fernando Air Base, which was then the city high school of Lipa. A year later, the Comprehensive School organized the Special Science-Mathematics Class as a scholarship program (SY 1982-1983). The class was composed of 33 students who were selected from 100 applicants from different public and private schools of Lipa City. The scholars were selected based on a competitive examination.

The class transferred to the Old City Hall Building that same year, bringing the program closer to the heart of the city, thus, making it accessible to its students. Four teachers composed the teaching staff then, with Mr. Jose R. de Castro as the administrator. On August 10, 1985, the program finally was given government recognition under Batasang Pambansa Blg. 232 by Saturnino R. Magturo, then the DECS Regional Director for Region IV.

Its facilities started with the old and dilapidated Old City Hall Building but, in 1987, this gave way to a six-room building under the Aquino administration. In the same year, its request to be placed directly under the Regional Office was approved. It received 3.6M shares of the national assistance, acquired equipment and a three-room building to house the administrative office and two laboratory rooms.

On May 1998, the school expanded its operation by offering post-secondary courses. Two junior college courses were offered: Computer Programming and Office Management.

The biggest development in the history of the school began in the latter part of 1989, when the City Government, with the help of the Division Office, set up classes at the Old City Hall with the intention of putting up a General City High School.

Since the classes were located right within the Old City Hall compound, DECS proposed an integration, which took place on January 29, 1992. The LCSTI became a three-component school; a Science High School, a General High School, and a Tech-Vocational School. New facilities included a library, THE Room, Computer Room, a canteen and a perimeter fence. The DOST also has played a major role in the academic development of the school, as recipient of numerous laboratory facilities and audio-visual materials. It was during this time that the LCNSHS became one of the DOST Node school (ESEP). One significant donation that the school acquired was the Science and Technology Building complete with laboratory facilities amounting to Php 1,761,689.09 by the Department of Science and Technology in 1996, (ESEP-MHSSLB).

In 1994, the three component schools were given separate entities. The Tech-Vocational School was absorbed by the Lipa City Public Colleges, the Lipa City General High School was made into the Lipa City National High School by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports on July 15, 1997.

In 1994 the Lipa City Public Colleges was placed under the administration of Mr. Jose R. de Castro. Meanwhile, the Lipa City National Science High School was supervised by Mrs. Niceta M. Parilla as Office-in-Charge and the General High School was monitored by Mr. Rodeo M. Gatdula as Teacher-in-Charge of the school for four consecutive years.

In the event of the separation of the three component schools, (1996-1997), the school continued to be under the supervision of Mrs. Parilla with an approved appointment as Principal 1 dated December 8, 1995 and assisted by Mr. Gatdula having an approved appointment as Head Teacher III, dated January 12, 1996.

As of today, Mrs. Natalia V. Padua, principal II, is the principal of the said school.

Finances

The school operation is like a little division in the sense that the DECS, RO IV directly releases an allotted/appropriated fund like Personal Services (PS), Maintenance and Operating Expenditures (MOOE), and Trust Fund/Capital Outlay for the school and its personnel.

Admission

Students to be admitted at the LCNSHS take two written screening tests. Among those who took the written tests, a number of them will be chosen to undergo a third screening test which is an interview. From this pool of interviewees, the incoming freshmen will be chosen consisting of 80% Lipa City residents and 20% non-residents who are mostly from nearby cities and municipalities.

To be retained at the Science High School, a student has to maintain a grade of at least 85% in Science, Math and English, an overall weighted average of at least 85% and no final grade lower than 83% in any subject area.

The school used to have only one section for each year level, starting from 50 students in the freshman year, but it has recently made two sections for its Grade 7 and Grade 8 to accommodate about 80 students.

Performance

The performance of the school shows that from SY 1985-1986, the school was always the top school in the division level contests/competitions, belongs to the top five schools in the regional level contests/competitions and one of the top 30 schools in the national level. It can also be noted that in SY 1997-1998, the school ranked 18th and SY 1998-1999 it ranked 27th, in the National College Entrance Examinations in the national level.

From SY 2000-2004, the school was always the top school in the Division and Regional Achievement Test results and belongs to the top 20 schools in the National level. Furthermore, in SY 2002-2003, the school ranked 7th in the National Achievement Test (NAT) in the National Level, having a raw score of 119.9 and ranked 8th for SY 2003-2004 and ranked 4th for SY 2005-2006 in the Assessment of Learning Competence in English, Mathematics and Science (ALCEMS) with a 100% overall performance composite score in the three subject area. Last SY 2006-2007, the school ranked 4th in the National Achievement Test (NAT) in the 3 major and 2 minor subjects. Recently, LCNSHS placed 8th in the National Achievement Test (NAT) for the SY 2011-2012.

Principal

With the resignation of Mrs. Niceta M. Parilla as principal on May 6, 2002, Mr. Gatdula was appointed as OIC until he was appointed as principal of the school on June 23, 2003. Last August 2011, Mrs. Natalia V. Padua became the principal of the institution and still holds the position.

Clubs

School clubs include How and Why Club - HWC (Science), Englicom Society (English), Philomath Society (Mathematics),Lipunang Iskolar (Araling Panlipunan), Samahang Pilipino ang Titik - PILANTIK (Filipino), Sports and Cultural Club - SCC (MAPEH), Girl Scouts of the Philippines (GSP), Boy Scouts of the Philippines(BSP) and the Supreme Student Government.

Graduates

From 1985 to the present, 70% of the graduates are enrolled at campuses of the University of the Philippines, and the remaining 30% are enrolled at the Ateneo de Manila, De La Salle, University of Sto. Tomas, Batangas State University, etc., who were either on full scholarship or partial scholars of the DOST and the local government.

Campus

At present, the LCNSHS has a three-storey, 12-classroom VSR Building as its main campus. The new building was under the auspice of the Lipa City Government under the former mayor of the city Honorable Vilma Santos-Recto with the help of the former Senator Ralph G. Recto.

Notable Alumni

Paulo Perez - http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865588623/Center-for-Engineering-Innovation-turns-ideas-into-products.html

Gay Marie Lubigan-Rafael - LCSHS Batch '90, newly appointed RTC Judge. Link : http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/09/07/1182371/noy-appoints-22-new-judges

Florentino Bolo - LCSHS Batch '90 - http://www.op.org/en/content/international-coordinator-priestly-fraternities-order

Aldwin Anterola - LCSHS Batch '89 - http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/aldwin-anterola/