The History of our school
Up to 1979 in Vilkaviškis there had been a single secondary school, which was no longer able to meet the growing needs of the town or to organize the educational process successfully.
Therefore, in October 1979, the new school (named Secondary School No. 2) for 1284 students, opened the door. Then the school had 41 training rooms, there were 27 classrooms. The first headmaster of the school was S. Rogovas, with the Deputies S. Blažaitienė G. Kurmienė, V. Puskunigienė.
In the academic year of 1979-1980 1262 students learnt here, taught by 50 teachers. There was a library (supervised by E. Bacevičienė), the organization of little octobrists, pioneers and some other organizations.
J. Papačkytė and R. Pučiliauskaitė were the first students who finished school receiving gold medals for the best academic achievements.
In 1987 A. Žilinskas was appointed to be the headmaster of the school. Soon after that the school became the Centre of the Lithuanian Reformative Movement in the district (the activists of the Movement were A.Simanavičius, L. Čeplevičius, V. Piečiukaitis, A. Žilinskas). In 1988 the tricolor Lithuanian flag was first raised in the school.
After a short period of A. Simanavičius’ being a headmaster, for one year the school was headed by V. Unguraitienė. During that year the school symbols (the flag and the coat of arms) were created.
The School began rapidly improving and was modernized when A. Žikevičius became the headmaster in 1992. A school newspaper “Žibintas” (“Lantern”) was started to print, a cafe of the same name was opened inside the school building. The school acquired the first school bus. The first computers were won through the G. Soros Fund. The first school students’ president M. Miesčionaitis, was elected in 2000.
In 2003 the reorganization (joining together) of the schools “Aušra” and “Žiburys” took place. Also, 132 adults started to study in adult evening classes.
In 2004 the School celebrated its 25th. anniversary, the school museum, which has so far been supervised by history teacher V. Sledžius, was opened. The association “Aušriečiai” was founded in the same year.
In 2009 the school community opened a new page in its life – the educational institution became a gymnasium. An amazing work phase full of responsibilities, hope, maturing, developing and growth started.
The first year was particularly significant for abundant national and international achievements. For example, Rokas Danilevičius returned with a bronze medal from the International Olympiad in Geography. Tomas Riklius became the winner of the national contest on Ancient Culture. Next year sisters Dominyka and Patricija Girdauskaitės won the gold medal at the Baltic Dance Championship in Tallinn.
And in 2011 Ieva Paškauskaitė became the winner of the National contest in the Lithuanian language and literature. A year later, Ieva was among the best in the European Union Contest for Young Scientists (National Level).
The year 2012 brought the First Prize to Justė Kazakevičiūtė for her exceptional appearance in the sung poetry contest “Spring, Poetry and Music”. Vytautas Šlenfuktas won a silver medal at the 62nd National Olympics in mathematics. So, on August 22-28, he participated in the 7th Central European Olympiad (MEMO) in Hungary, Veszprém city, the University of Pannonia where was awarded a letter of commendation.
Our gymnasium is constantly involved in European projects. Since 2013 “Aušra” has been participating in the two-year long international Comenius partnership project “Gastronomic Wonders Through Europe”. The Project Coordinator is our English teacher Angela Grikietienė.
Our gymnasium cooperates with various educational, cultural, health and other agencies, organizations, exchanges information, best practices, organizes events and festivals together.
The activities taking place in the gymnasium are based on the values of the culture of communication and cooperation, professional development and ability to change, inner harmony (internal balance and fundamental values, awareness of one’s goals, the ability to forgive).
The aim of the Gymnasium is to create an attractive learning environment that provides knowledge and develops skills which help successfully integrate into the society, to pursue a professional career and to create the well being.