Division Avenue High School is a four-year

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Levittown Levittown is the name of several large suburban housing developments created in the United States (including one in Puerto Rico) by William J. Levitt and his company Levitt & Sons. Built after World War II for returning white veterans and their ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. It is one of two traditional high schools in the

Levittown Union Free School District Levittown Union Free School District (LUFSD) is a school district in central Nassau County on Long Island, approximately ten miles east of New York City. The district approximately includes parts of the following hamlets; Levittown, North Wa ...

and one of four high schools in the hamlet of Levittown in the

Town of Hempstead The Town of Hempstead (also known historically as South Hempstead) is the largest of the three towns in Nassau County (alongside North Hempstead and Oyster Bay) in the U.S. state of New York. It occupies the southwestern part of the county, on t ...

, Nassau County on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

. It opened in 1948 as Division Avenue School. It was expanded in 1955 and renamed Division Avenue High School. Its first graduating class was in 1960. It is one of the original school buildings in the district. John Coscia is the school's principal. There is one assistant principal, Sam McElroy As of the 2019–20 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1043 students and 97.6 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a

student–teacher ratio Student–teacher ratio or student–faculty ratio is the number of students who attend a school or university divided by the number of teachers in the institution. For example, a student–teacher ratio of 10:1 indicates that there are 10 students ...

of 10.3:1. There were 137 students (13.0% of enrollment) eligible for

free lunch A free lunch is the providing of a meal at no cost, usually as a sales enticement to attract customers and increase revenues from other business. It was once a common tradition in saloons and taverns in many places in the United States, with the ...

and 69 (6.6% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.School data for Division Avenue Senior High School

National Center for Education Statistics The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance ...

. Accessed September 1, 2020.

Awards and recognition

In 2008, ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' ranked the school 1,127 on the list of the top 1,300 US schools. In 2007, it was ranked 873. In 2006, it was ranked as 1,059. The New York State Education Department named DAHS a Reward School for 2015–16.

Extracurricular activities

Division has over 60 after-school clubs available to students:

Sports

Division has over 25 varsity and junior varsity level athletic teams. They include badminton, baseball, basketball (boys' and girls') bowling, football, lacrosse (boys' and girls'), soccer (boys' and girls'), softball, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling. The Division Avenue football team were the 1996 New York State Rutgers Cup champions. Division has also racked up many accomplishments in other sports. In recent years, the girls' bowling team has won two county titles, and the wrestling, girls' soccer, and girls' volleyball teams have won conference titles. The baseball, boys' and girls' lacrosse, and softball teams have all advanced to the county semifinals or beyond in the past few years as well. In boys' lacrosse, Division has produced 13 All-Americans, including Maryland's all-time leading goal scorer, Bob Boniello. They were also 2010 Conference B Champs, tied with Garden City and Wantagh for first place. The Division cross country team won back-to-back New York State Class C Championships in 1969–70. The baseball, girls' basketball, and both the boys' and girls' lacrosse teams play in the top conference of their respective classes. During the 2009–2010 school year, both the girls' soccer and girls' basketball teams went to the Nassau County finals. The girls' basketball team defeated Lynbrook for the first county title in the program's history. The Lady Dragons went on to claim the Class A Long Island Championship. In the 2017 season, Division Lady Dragons girls lacrosse was ranked number one in their conference, winning the conference championships.

Pressbox/bleacher fire

According to arson/bomb squad detectives, the Levittown Fire Department responded Sunday January 3, 2010 at 2:50 p.m. with five trucks and 50 firefighters to a 911 call for smoke in the vicinity of the concession stand at Division Avenue High School's football field. The blaze, deemed suspicious, caused "extensive damage" estimated at more than $200,000 to the bleachers, gym equipment, rubberized track, and concession stand. There were no reported injuries. The football field and school were unoccupied at the time of the inferno. An investigation by the Nassau County Fire Marshal's Office, arson/bomb squad and Eighth Squad was completed in April 2010. The students responsible, who were between the ages of 11 and 13, were reprimanded, and the costs to the property were delegated to the families of the children. The cause of the fire was ruled as arson with gasoline.

Notable alumni

Sterling Morrison Holmes Sterling Morrison Jr. (August 29, 1942 – August 30, 1995) was an American guitarist, best known as one of the founding members of the rock group the Velvet Underground, usually playing electric guitar, occasionally bass guitar, and ...

(1942–1995, class of 1960),

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

for rock band

The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. The original line-up consisted of singer/guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. MacLise w ...

.Gamboa, Glenn
"LI Sound: Velvet Underground Experience explores legendary band's LI roots"
''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...

'', October 26, 2018. Accessed November 23, 2020. "There's a shot of guitarist Sterling Morrison graduating from Division Avenue High School in Levittown with his friend Jim Tucker, the brother of Velvets’ drummer Maureen Tucker." * Brandon Reilly (born 1981, class of 1999),

lead singer The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

and guitarist for rock band

Nightmare of You Nightmare of You is an American indie rock band from New York City. Formed in 2004, the band currently consists of original founder vocalist Brandon Reilly, guitarist Joseph McCaffrey, and drummer Michael Fleischmann. They have toured the US, a ...

Moe Tucker Maureen Ann "Moe" Tucker (born August 26, 1944) is an American musician and singer-songwriter who was the drummer for the New York City-based rock band the Velvet Underground. After they disbanded in the early 1970s, she left the music industry ...

(born 1944, class of 1961),

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

for rock band The Velvet Underground *

Len Wein Leonard Norman Wein (; June 12, 1948 – September 10, 2017) was an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men ( ...

(1948–2017), comic-book writer and editor

References

External links

Levittown Public Schools: Division Avenue High School
{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1955 Public high schools in New York (state) Schools in Nassau County, New York 1955 establishments in New York (state)