Lakeview Fort Oglethorpe High School senior Evan Stichler saw something never seen before Wednesday morning.

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue giving a high school a second Governor’s Cup.

The Governor's Cup Challenge focuses on raising SAT scores across the state. Schools compete on 3-year average gains from their "most recent" SAT average based on scores in critical reading and math and in the latest round writing. The SAT is a reasoning test taken by juniors and seniors used for college admissions.

The school average is now in its fourth year of increase beginning in 2005 at 976, 2006 at 997, and 2007 at 1044, with the latest in 2008 at 1533.

“I want to congratulate the principal, superintendent and the staff for being the first back to back winners in the state for the Governor’s Cup,” he told the cheering crowd in the LFO gym. “Winning the Governor’s Cup back to back is pretty special.”

Perdue called for a round of applause from the students for the teachers who he said play a vital role in working to get students to give their best and urge them to be champions.

“It is very impressive to be back,” he said. “To have improvement over 25 SAT points per year is pretty dramatic.”

The governor challenged juniors and seniors to continue to raise the bar.

“The good thing about academic achievement is — the better you get the better you want to be,” he said. “There is no rule against a three peat. We can be here this time next year. It’s up to you.”

Georgia State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox told the students body that LFO is more than the best school in Georgia.

“I think it can be said in the whole three state region you have the best high school,” she said.

Stichler and students like him can only benefit in their academic careers from the increased achievements the Governor is recognizing.

He is one of many students who contributed to the school yielding yet another state award for 4-A schools across the state.

“I’ve taken two SATs and one ACT,” he said.

Stichler said that although he opted out of the SAT preparation class to study from the “big blue book,” a SAT preparation manual, he said that his classes went a long way to prepare him for the test in April 2008.

“The classes that helped the most are English classes — Ms. Blevins vocabulary. You had to have the vocab,” he said. “Algebra one and two they suggest you don’t take the SAT unless you really have high Algebra scores. I exceeded in those classes pretty well so I felt pretty confident going in after that point.”

He said that vocabulary preparation came every week through his freshman and sophomore years.

“It wasn’t basic,” he said.

He said that during his junior year, his teacher gave slips of paper everyday that were SAT questions that asked the student to read and analyze or do this and answer.

“Each day we did something,” he said. “In math it was repetition and it helped. You memorized the patterns and you knew what you were going to expect on the SAT.”

He said that his overall score was 1820.

“My strongest area was writing, followed by reading and math,” he said.

He plans to attend Georgia Tech followed by University of Georgia.

“It kind makes me feel proud,” he said. “It is putting our school on the map. We had big trophy and check presented. It made me feel like A, I am helping myself; and B its setting and example for more kids to score higher so we can keep the high expectations of our SAT scores.”

Principal Jerry Ransom said that he is enthused over how well the teachers did in continuing to prepare the students and especially pleased at the success of the students.

“Last year when the governor and state superintendent were here I (jokingly) made a statement that they needed to put calendar to plan on coming back next year,” he said. “Our seniors had made a commitment to do what they needed to do to make some good scores on the SAT.

“Our biggest increase came last year and this year so it was a higher increase than anybody in the state for 4A schools for the last two years,” he said. “Next year if we were to get it we would really have to blow the top out of it.”

Ransom said that one of his goals as principal was to raise SAT scores.

“Without having any kind of plan basically, our teachers took the bull by horns,” he said. “We invested in a web-based program called USAtestprep.com. Our teachers got on board. Especially our junior and senior English and math teachers who then were incorporating questions into their lesson plans along with standards.

He said that students such a Stichler might start the day with an SAT question.

“Our guidance counselors did terrific job setting up prerequisites (courses),” he said. “They did a great job of counseling students on what they needed to do before they take SAT. Some of them were you needed to have Algebra II and made an A or high B in there. You needed to have a good PSAT score

Ransom said that students needed to do well in literature and now writing is also a component of it.

“They needed to be able to do all those things,” he said. If they had not we need to set them up in some kind of remediation to help them do some of the things to help them make a high score.

“We had a juniors took it first time last year,” he said. “Along that same line for the last few years anyone that took it and made below a certain score, I would bring them in my office and talk with them individually and find out why they thought they did not do well on it.

I’d ask them ‘What did they do to prepare for it? What could we have done to make better scores,’” he said.

From those inquiries, he said the information gathered continues to help refine the process of preparing all the students.

Catoosa County Schools Superintendent Denia Reese said she is extremely proud of the students and teachers for their accomplishment.

“LFO has accomplished something no other school in Georgia has accomplished,” she said. “As an LFO graduate, I know this is true Warrior Spirit. I am thrilled with the award, and I am proud of the administrators and teachers at LFO because they are intensely focused on preparing our students for the future.

“A high score on the SAT opens doors for college-bound students,” she said. “Our teachers, counselors, and administrators are making sure our students are prepared to succeed at the secondary level, and that they have excellent test scores so they can attend the college of their choice.”

In addition to the trophy, LFO received a $2,000 award to the school. Turner Broadcasting System sponsors the Governor’s Cup Challenge.