During the summer of 1980, a group of educators and professional people from the community of Aguadilla joined together to study and analyze the possibilities of establishing a private school of excellence.
Its fundamental characteristics were that it was to be non-secular, bilingual and operated by the parents of the students a a non-profit institution. The need for a private school with these characteristics became urgent.
The main committee was incorporated by the Department of State as a non-profit corporation. It was registered as of February 20, 1981 under number 11860. Once it was incorporated, the members of the committee became first Board of Directors of Liceo Aguadillano.
The next hurdle was to obtain accreditation from the Department of Public Instruction. This was received on June 3,1981 and the school was registered under the Number 392-R. With this document, the Board obtained the right for use of the building.
The name given to the institution has a meaningful origin. A “Liceo” (from the word lyceum) in ancient Greece was a hall for public lectures and discussions. The great philosophers and disciples spent many hours studying there.
The formal opening of Liceo Aguadillano was held on July 30, 1981. The first stroke of the bell formally started the first day of classes on August 10,1981 with 212 enrolled students.
Community:
Liceo Aguadillano is located in a well-developed community, with highly developed technological, industrial, academic and multi-religious institutions of a modern society. Our school empasizes the need to prepare students to meet and face the challenges of our community and to guide them towards acquiring professional excellence with an intellectual attitude in academical, technological and vocational fields.
The primary objective of Liceo Aguadillano is to offer its elementary, intermediate and high school students an education based on curriculum, which is non-secular and bilingual in character.
Special emphasis will be given to motivate parents towards involvement as proprietors, co-owners, and directors of the institution, which educates their children and through such involvement feel more directly responsible for one of the most important aspects of their children’s growth and development. Each parent should know Liceo Aguadillanos’ by-laws and should actively participate in assembly and in school activities.
Philosophy:
Our philosophical purpose is to prepare men and women to live functional lives within the social community of modern Puerto Rico. A basic postulate is respect for the student as a human being, with emphasis on the pursuit of personal excellence through order and discipline and a moral and academic environment in keeping with highest values, which should govern our community.
As a bilingual school, Liceo Aguadillano intends for its students to communicate with equal skill in two-languages-Spanish and English. Mastery of the two languages will allow students to broaden their knowledge as well as to understand other systems, cultures and ways of life. It will create new alternatives and will allow for an education that prepares students for full lives within the society. The non-sectarian characteristics of our school intends to exclude from its educational goals all dogmatic inference so as to create an academic community that will permit total religious freedom.
