Niles West High School

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Niles West High School
Image:Niles West.gif
Established 1959
Type Public secondary
Principal Kaine Osburn
Students 3,004 (2007)[1]
Grades 9–12
Location 5701 Oakton
Skokie, Illinois, USA
Campus Suburban
Colors Red, White, black
Mascot Wolves
Yearbook 'Spectrum'
Newspaper 'West Word '
Website www.niles-hs.k12.il.us/west

Niles West High School, or NWHS, is a public four-year high school located in Skokie, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Niles Township Community High School District 219, which also includes Niles North High School. The 2008-2009 school year enrollment is expected to jump drastically, the senior class has an estimated 820 students while the junior class will have an estimated 830. The Sophomore class is expected to have 750 while the incoming freshman will have around 800. [2]. Its feeder Middle Schools are Lincoln Junior High, Fairview, Lincoln Hall, Culver, and Park View. The Suburbs these schools are located are Skokie, Lincolnwood, Niles, and Morton Grove.

Contents

[edit] History

Niles West High School is built on a former wet land and its campus sits on over 70 acres of land. In 1996, the Niles Township Federation of Teachers went on a strike for two weeks over negotiations with administrators. During that time numerous students staged a walkout and pledged their allegiance to Niles West. Strikes have also happened in 1979 and 1985 and the same things happened.

At the 1970 graduation, student speaker Brandon Leavitt spoke out forcefully against the War in Vietnam. During his address in the outdoor football arena, the wires to the P.A. system were pulled - reportedly by a faculty member, silencing his remarks. The next speaker, Merrick Garland, then-student council president, departed from his planned remarks to lecture the parents and students on the right to freedom of speech. Garland was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

[edit] Incidents

In the spring of 2004, four teachers were denied contract renewal a month before their tenure.[citation needed] The teachers, including the theater director Kevin Wall, were let go unanimously at a public vote by the school board for undisclosed reasons. Many students, parents, and community members attended the meeting in protest.

On October 25, 2006, an NWHS student posted a threatening message in Wikipedia's article about the school. An administrator reported the event to the police, and later replaced the revision of the page of with an older one, while permanently deleting the student's message from the page's history logs. Although police did not reveal his name, the student was revealed to be a freshman. The student was charged with a felony disorderly conduct. [3]

[edit] Academics

In 2006, Niles West had an average composite ACT score of 21.7, and graduated 95.2% of its senior class. The average class size is 21.3. Niles West has not made Adequate Yearly Progress on the Prairie State Achievement Examination, a state test part of the No Child Left Behind Act.[4]

Niles West has recently been honored with the following:

  • Outstanding Biology Teacher of the Year
  • Two Illinois History Teachers of the Year
  • DECA students place second in the nation
  • Qualified whole team in ICTM Math Team competitions in 2005 and 1999
  • Two theatrical productions taken to Illinois High School Theatre Festival (The Grapes of Wrath in 2002 and Metamorphosis in 2004.)
  • Highest percentile of students involved in extracurricular activities in the North Shore (35.4%).
  • Illinois State Champions Science Olympiad in 1999; second place in state (19th in country) in 2006
  • The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts recently chose District 219 for the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network and National School Boards Association award (which is awarded to only one school district in the US that is believed to have the best Fine Arts program in the country.) [5]

[edit] Schedule

A new change instituted at the start of the 2005-2006 school year included a switch to a schedule similar to that of New Trier High School with nine 42-minute classes, and the possibility of taking physical education early morning, before classes officially begin. Homeroom has been moved to the middle of the day in an effort to prevent students from missing it.

The switch to the newer scheduling system was done largely without community support. In the 2004 tax referendum, one of the concerns was that if the referendum would not pass, the mod system would be changed to a period system. When the referendum did pass, the Board of Education again made the schedule an issue in the contract negotiations later that year, allowing them to change the schedule as long as a public hearing was made. This public hearing had no discernible effect on the rescheduling plans.

One of the arguments used for and against the new schedule concerns school security. Supporters of the rescheduling believe that a reduction in students' free time will reduce the frequency of altercations. Opponents have made the claim that by having almost the entire school in the halls at one time is more dangerous, both because the halls become very crowded very commonly, and because if something (e.g. a super brawl) happens, security personal are less able to move to the scene of the incident.

[edit] Technology

  • Multiple computer labs, including one "walk-in" lab
  • Technology Leadership Program, where students help other students and/or senior citizens
  • Cisco IPTV, being phased out and replaced by similar on-demand internet videos
  • Sponsorship of http://www.digitalstories.org
  • Dell Computers in every science room, approx. 70-80 laptops (may be shared with Niles North High School)
  • Computers in each department's "Resource Center"
  • VoIP phones in every class room
  • "Language Lab", with top-of-the-line computers linked with the teachers to allow the instructors full control
  • E-mail and storage (accessible at home via POP3, IMAP, and FTP) for all students and staff
  • A/V lab with around 12 eMacs for multimedia editing

[edit] Athletics

Niles West competes in the Central Suburban League and Illinois High School Association. Its mascot is the Wolves.

Until October of 2000, the sports teams were known as Niles West Indians, a name which was changed to the Wolves so as not to offend Native Americans, despite protests from many alumni and community members and one member of the Board of Education. The school colors are still red and white, although wolf murals and symbolism appear throughout the school.

After the 2004-2005 boys' basketball season, head coach Dave Genis was fired for unsportsmanlike conduct as head coach despite his strong performance as head coach for three years. Although Genis was assured he would not lose his job after a profane argument with athletic director Steve Heuerman, he was terminated shortly after the argument. The Chicago Sun-Times reported on July 19, 2006 that a judge ruled in Genis' favor in his lawsuit against the school after he claimed his firing was due to District 219's anti-union bias. [6] 2006 Niles West graduate Dallas Monreal-Berner is a resident at the United States Olympic Education Center in Marquette, Michigan. She trains and competes in women's freestyle wrestling.

The Niles West football team plays at Mike Bazrak Field. The Niles West football team is coached by Curtis Tate.

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1] Viking Voice Newsletter
  2. ^ http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-061031niles-threat,1,4547563.story?coll=chi-newsroom-hed
  3. ^ Pantagraph.com | News | Teen charged after threat to school on Wikipedia
  4. ^ Illinois School Report Card
  5. ^ [2]"The Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network and National School Boards Association Announce Recipient of the 2007 Award", the official press released linked from the school's website, accessed April 18, 2007. (PDF File)
  6. ^ http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-coach19.html

[edit] External links

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Central Suburban League
North Division: Highland Park • Deerfield • Glenbrook North • Maine East • Maine West • Niles North
South Division: New Trier • Evanston • Waukegan • Maine South • Niles West • Glenbrook South
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