Northwood High School, Irvine, California
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| Northwood High School |
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| Established | 1999 |
| Type | Public secondary |
| Principal | Cassie Parham |
| Students | 2240 |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Location | Irvine, California USA |
| Mascot | Timberwolves |
| Newspaper | NHS Howler |
| Website | [1] |
Northwood High School (also known as NHS) is one of the Irvine Unified School District's five public high schools. Students can take up to eight classes per semester with the exception of those students participating in Performing Arts, Athletics, Leadership, MUN, Newspaper, Speech & Debate, or Yearbook. Students in grades 9 and 10 are expected to complete a curricular core that includes: Humanities: World Literature and World History (9), Humanities: American Literature and United States History (10), Mathematics, Integrated Science 1 and 2, a World Language, and a Visual or Performing Arts course. In addition, all students are required to take four semesters of Physical Education. The school operates on what is known as a 'block schedule,' where there are 'odd days' and 'even days.' On odd days, students attend periods 1,3,5,7, while on even days, they attend periods 2,4,6,8. In addition, there are 'Tutorials' every Tuesdays and Thursdays. During these 40 minutes, students are free to socialize, do homework, and get help from teachers.
Every year, dozens of Northwood High students receive major academic awards such as the National Merit Scholarship and the school consistently sends several dozen students to prestigious universities such as UC Berkeley, UCLA, and Stanford. In 2006, Newsweek Magazine labeled Northwood High School as one of the 21 "Public Elite" high schools of the nation due to its strong academic program and fairly high average SAT and ACT scores. The school has also been recently recognized as a California Distinguished School. Many academic teams such as Model United Nations (MUN), Science Olympiad, and the Speech and Debate team are well-acclaimed. The school also has successful athletic teams which include football, basketball, volleyball, soccer, cross country, and softball. In 2005, the Varsity football team made it all the way to the CIF Division IX finals. The school also has a highly acclaimed video production class, winning such awards as best music video at the 2006 STN convention at the Disneyland hotel in Anaheim, California. In 2006, Northwood was named a Blue Ribbon School. Also in 2006 Northwood Marching Band Has Won 2nd in 5A division at The Huntington Beach High School Surf City Open. They also won the Grand Sweepstakes, best percussion, visual and auxilary in their 5A division. The Northwood Boys Water Polo team also advanced, for the first time, to Division I CIF finals in 2006, led by senior standout and olympian Caleb Hamilton. Northwood Music programs have been nationally recognized by winning the prestigious GRAMMY Signature School music award in 2006. It has recently won nomination as a finalist for the GRAMMY Signature School award in 2007 announced by the Grammy Foundation.
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[edit] Location and layout
Northwood High School sits in a narrow ravine in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains, and was surrounded by working avocado groves at its founding. Currently, the surrounding land is being graded to prepare for the construction of Orchard Hills, a future residential community extending north from the existing community of Northwood Pointe. Northwood High School's site had been designated for a high school from the very beginning as part of the Irvine Company's master plan, which was drafted in 1960. So, when the school opened in 1999, it had been destined to be in that spot for some 39 years.
The school was one of the last major projects by architect William Blurock. Its spartan, blocky, stucco-covered buildings were most likely inspired by the work of Ricardo Legorreta, architect of the similarly-designed The Market Place shopping complex which is only four blocks from the school. The school is based heavily on 1950s architecture, incorporating such elements of that period as teal-tinted glass, steel louvers over high windows, glass-block panels, and Poul Henningsen-style lighting fixtures. The school was designed in a circular fashion around a central courtyard, in similar fashion as the University of California, Irvine, in an attempt to acclimate students to the layout of a college campus. The shapes and layout of the buildings are strictly conformed to imaginary radial lines emanating from the central court. This courtyard has at its center a very large Coast Live Oak, which was removed and transported from the nearby hills at a reputed cost of $10,000. This tree in effect became the schools "second mascot". The school's theater department, for instance, produces its plays under the name "Oak Tree Productions". The school won numerous awards for its design within the first four years of its existence. Students simply refer to the courtyard area around this oak tree as "The Oak Tree." It is a popular gathering place before and after school, as well as breaks and lunchtime.
In 2002 the names of the school's first graduating class were inscribed onto bricks and placed in a series of eight radial spokes around the famous Oak Tree in the center quad of the school.
Although the school was built without a swimming pool, there was always the intention of building one. The space set aside for a future pool was temporarily occupied by three tennis courts (the school had four others which were meant to be permanent). In 2002, the decision was made to keep the tennis courts, as they saw more use than was expected, and the pool site was moved to the lower half of the parking lot, which was already deemed as too small by most students, and plans were made to annex the flat parcel of orange groves immediately above the property for an expanded parking lot. The pool was built in 2003.
[edit] Companies Involved
- The Blurock Partnership (Newport Beach, California) - Architect
- Frederick Brown & Associates (Irvine) - Electrical engineering
- Richard Price & Associates (San Juan Capistrano) - Landscape architect
- Douglas E. Barnhart, Inc. - General contractor
[edit] Student body
The school has a very diverse student body; out of the 2240 students currently enrolled, 51% are Caucasian, 40% are Asian, 4% are Hispanic, and 1% are African American. Only 2% of students participate in a free or reduced lunch program, compared to the state average of 50%.
[edit] Trivia
- In the school's first year, the central control system for the school's fire alarms was still being worked on, and this resulted in an inordinate amount of unplanned "fire drills" during that year.
- In 2001 a truck caught fire in the art storage yard behind the gymnasium. The building was unharmed, but a large area of the concrete pavement was blackened. The ceramics kiln located in that yard was not believed to be responsible for the fire, despite the fact that it leaked gas for some time.
[edit] See Also
University High School, the sister high school to Northwood High
