Novi High School

Novi High School
Address
24062 Taft Road Novi, Michigan, 48375 United States
Coordinates	42°27′50″N 83°29′24″W / 42.4638°N 83.49°W / 42.4638; -83.49Coordinates: 42°27′50″N 83°29′24″W / 42.4638°N 83.49°W / 42.4638; -83.49
Information
School type	Public high school
Motto	A Commitment to Excellence
Established	1968
School district	Novi Community School District
Principal	Nicole Carter
Faculty	189
Grades	9-12
Enrollment	2,000
Student to teacher ratio	10.3
Campus size	500,000 sq. ft.
Campus type	Suburb
Color(s)	Green and white
Mascot	Wildcat
Website	novi.k12.mi.us/hs/

Novi High School (commonly Novi or NHS) is a public secondary school in Novi, Michigan, United States in Greater Detroit, serving students in grades 9–12. It is operated by Novi Community School District and was awarded Blue Ribbon School status in 1986-87 and 1999-00. Novi currently enrolls about 2,000 students and has a 200 strong faculty.

In addition to its primary purpose, Novi High School also houses adult education and various community recreational events, such as open swim in the swimming pool and basketball games in the gym and fieldhouse. The high school has been the venue for numerous competitions including state band festival and regional football, tennis, soccer, and volleyball matches.

History

Novi High School was first opened in 1968 and graduated its first class in 1969. Prior to 1968, high school students from the Novi district attended Northville schools. The high school started out in a rural community that saw a tremendous amount of growth between the late 1960s to the late 2000s, and subsequently, the growth of the school. The massive influx of students from the 1980s to today led to several renovations and expansions of the high school.

The first high school was located in the current Novi Meadows school at Taft and 11 Mile Roads which was built in 1964. This building was known as Novi Junior High School from 1964 until 1968 and opened to students in the fall of 1968. Explosive growth began in Novi during the 1970s and the district quickly outgrew the old high school, forcing the district to build the current high school which opened in the Fall of 1977. The current school was built on a portion of the Fuerst family farm. The Fuerst sisters sold the property to the school district, spurning residential developers who were seeking the prime piece of property located in the heart of Novi. At the time it was sold, the property was located in the Northville School District. The Fuerst property and several surrounding properties to the east, west and north were annexed from the Northville School District into the Novi School District. The Fuerst sisters were honored with the naming of the school auditorium after them. Over the years, much of the proceeds from the sale were returned to the school district through gifts to the school district by the sisters, who continued to live on the homestead until their deaths.

The first renovation of the high school occurred from 1993 to 1996, boosting the building capacity by 40%. More importantly, this renovation brought in then-state-of-the-art technology, including a telecommunications system, science labs, and a fine arts complex, effectively transitioning the school to a modern education institution. Coinciding with the renovation, the community also increased funding for education, resulting in a significant migration into the city.

The rapid increase of students quickly filled the renovated high school to capacity in a mere 5 years, creating debate among board members, employees, and residents regarding future action. Ultimately, a sixty-member committee in 2001 voted in favor of a second renovation over plans to build a second high school in Novi.

In 2001 a $75.6-million bond proposal passed. A $37-million expansion and renovation that followed included an expansion of the cafeteria; a renovation of the auditorium with a new sound system, new seating, and new carpeting; and a new fine arts wing with a choir room, a black box theater, and a dance studio.^[1]

These renovations took three years and added a new wing of classrooms, media center, black box theater, wireless technology, sports complex, three art rooms, music wing with a dance studio, and most notably, the glass atrium between the classrooms and the old cafeteria. The renovations also improved the swimming pool, football stadium, baseball field, broadcasting equipment, auditorium, gym, classrooms, restrooms, and parking lot. The second renovation increased the area of the school by another 35%, making the school among the largest buildings in the area.

Around 2005 Advanced Placement classes became increasingly popular among students at Novi High School.^[2] By that year, the school had converted to block scheduling.^[3] In 2005 the athletic department canceled a proposal to require student athletes to undergo drug testing.^[4]

In 2010, Novi High School announced that it would become an IB Accredited school. The first graduates of the high school with IB Diplomas graduated in 2012.

Academics

Novi offers 15 Advanced Placement courses as well as numerous International Baccalaureate courses, and also the IB Diploma if desired. The school also offers many vocational courses including the option to take some afternoon classes at the nearby Oakland Technical Center. In addition, the school offers a Computer-Aided Design Tech Prep program which qualifies its participants for seven college credits at Oakland Community College.

Demographics

In 2013 Chris Jackett of the Observer & Eccentric wrote that "The halls of Novi High School have long been considered diverse".^[5] By 2006 students created a mural reflecting the school's ethnic diversity. It featured ethnicities in non-stereotypical positions, as it had an African-American gymnast and an Asian American football player.^[6] In fall 2013 the school had 30 foreign exchange students while in the previous two years combined it had a total of 16 exchange students.^[5]

Athletics

An aerial view of Novi High School (before the 2005 expansion) and the old Novi Public Library.

Novi High School teams currently compete in Division I, the division designated for the largest schools. Originally founded in 1963, Novi became a member of the Southeastern Conference in 1971. In 1982, Novi joined the Kensington Valley Conference. Since 2008, Novi has participated in the newly formed Kensington Lakes Activities Association, a merger of the current KVC and Western Lakes Activities Association along with some other schools, in the majority of interscholastic sports and activities although some, notably the robotics, drumline, and quiz bowl teams, compete either independently or in other leagues.

Unlike most schools in the region, Novi fully funds the majority of varsity and junior varsity sports, but some, such as equestrian, skiing, and figure skating, and field hockey, require students to privately pay for uniforms, equipment, competition fees, coaches, and other aspects of their sport. The athletic department devotes the largest percentage of its funding to the football program which recently added a big screen monitor to the field.

Novi's Varsity Mens Soccer team won the MHSAA Division 1 State Championship in 1998. Novi's varsity girls soccer team won three consecutive MHSAA championships between 2005 and 2007.

The boy's cross country team won the MHSAA championship in 1998 and 1999.

The gymnastics team combined with Northville High School to win state championships in 1998 and 2001.

The ice hockey team won the state championship in 2011 by beating Orchard Lake St. Mary 4-0 at Compuware arena.

The Varsity Pompon team has been the Class A State Champions in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2010 and 2011; Div. II State Champion for 1994; Varsity High Kick Champions in 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2010 and Senior High Kick Champions for the year of 2011. The pompon teams compete at the Mid American Pompon competitions.

Extracurricular activities

The extracurricular activities offered at Novi High School are many and varied due to the school's large size. There are chapters of national organizations, such as the National Honor Society, and clubs founded by Novi students, such as Chess Club. The majority of clubs have a primarily social or recreational purpose, but some are academically-inclined, such as quiz bowl and math club. The usual range of athletic and music organizations are there for students to join, in addition to Novi's other clubs. The school also organizes several annual school plays and musical.

In 2005, the FIRST robotics team won the FIRST Robotics World Championship. The team name is the Frog Force, number 503.

Novi's fine arts department offers band,orchestra, dance, choir, and drama programs, all of which have won awards. The drumline competes in Percussion Scholastic A class and has won 2 back to back state championships in 2012 and 2013.

The debate team has had three state champions.

Notable alumni

• Nicole Blaszczyk, 2009 Miss Michigan
• Madison Chock, Olympic ice dancer
• Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent for CNN^[7]
• Mitch Maier (class of 2000), baseball player for MLB's Kansas City Royals^[8]
• Michelle Rzepka (class of 2001), Olympic Bobsledder^[9]
• Emily Samuelson, Olympic ice dancing international medalist^[10]

References

Further reading

• "Novi High shows German students pride in U.S." The Detroit News. October 15, 2001. ID: det10649021.

External links

• Novi High School
• Official site (Archive)