LTS Bobcat News – Bobcat Pride
March 16, 2025 | Member Submitted
Originally Published in Lake Tahoe School Email Newsletter
| As members of the Lake Tahoe School community – every one of us a Bobcat – we have much to be proud of. From our outstanding academic program and recent activities like last Friday’s Pi Day celebration, to enrichment classes for all grades in music, art, Makerspace, and PE—including Spanish and Science in the Lower School—and after-school programs that seem to grow in scope and offerings each year, the opportunities abound. While each of these areas serves as a significant and positive marker of what we do best, there are at least three other areas of impressive student offerings and achievement that often fly under the radar. The first of these is our Chess Club and Team. Composed of Lower School students with occasional Middle School invitees, the number of members for both often totals over 50 for various meetings and competitions. Coach Eric Ostertag has put together a formidable group of chess competitors. So competitive, in fact, that our girls captured the Nevada State Girls Championship last year. Recently, a large contingent of our students “invaded” Texas to enter the Texas Online State Scholastic Chess Championship. “Invaded” may be a tame word, considering we walked away with numerous individual and team champions. We are thrilled to host the upcoming Northern Nevada Scholastic Chess Championships (Open and Girls’) in Duffield Hall the last two weekends in March. We are incredibly proud of our Bobcat Chess Team! Another low-flying program, unless you are a Middle School student or parent, is our Middle School Winterim Program. Winterim serves as a wonderful capstone to our all-school outdoor program that begins with the second-grade sleepover on our backfield, and other Lower School overnight programs in South Lake, California Gold Country, and the Bay Area coast. Middle School overnights include Mt. Rose, Project Discovery, and our annual year-ending Adventure Week. Winterim is often our students’ most memorable experience of all these opportunities. This year, with trips to a working farm for the sixth grade, Washington, D.C. for the seventh, and our eighth graders now returning from a working coffee plantation in Costa Rica, our Winterim program remains a focal point of engagement and excitement for our Middle School students. Hardly buried under the radar, but worthy of as much recognition as we can provide, is our Drama Program under the marvelous direction of Ms. Amory and her able crew. Beyond her annual Middle School drama elective and performance, Ms. Amory engages LTS students from 2nd to 8th grade in an after-school program where their annual performances and musicals are the year’s highlight for both students and parents alike. If there is an unrecognized aspect of our productions, it is the hard work and effort Ms. Amory and her students put in with tryouts, rehearsals, and the final act of pulling it all together for the onstage performances. Overcoming their tears and fears, practicing for hours – at school and home – and memorizing innumerable lines, placements, and songs, our students shine every time they are on stage. Please join us at our Winnie the Pooh Kids production on Friday, March 28, in Duffield Hall and witness the magic and joy of our students on stage. To be a Bobcat means many things, but most of all, it means experiencing innumerable opportunities to try new things, find your strengths, and be supported and encouraged throughout that process. We are proud of all of our students and are proudest when we see their growth as students and young people right before our eyes. Bobcat Pride! Have a great week ahead! Bob |