New Trier High School
Encyclopedia
New Trier High School is a public four-year high school
, with its major campus located in Winnetka
, Illinois
, USA
, and a second campus in Northfield
, Illinois, with freshman classes and district administration. Founded in 1901, the school is known for its large spending per student, academic excellence, and its athletic, drama, visual arts, and music programs. New Trier's primary campus in Winnetka is used by sophomores, juniors, and seniors, while the freshmen attend classes at the Northfield and Glenfield campus. The school serves Chicago
's North Shore
suburbs of Wilmette
, Kenilworth
, Winnetka
, Glencoe
most of Northfield
, part of Glenview
and part of Northbrook
.
The school is named after the city of Trier
, Germany
, and New Trier's logo depicts the Porta Nigra
, symbol of that city; the athletic teams are known as the Trevians.
New Trier Township High School was founded in 1901 in Winnetka, Illinois, with seventy-six students and seven faculty
members. Chicago's north shore communities had decided to build a school that would enable parents to educate their children without sending them to college preparatory schools on the Eastern seaboard.
The school has been marked by a series of firsts and other notable events. In 1912, New Trier became the first high school in America with an indoor swimming pool. During World War I
, New Trier became a training ground for soldiers. A student fundraising drive at the time led to the purchase of a field ambulance. In 1928, New Trier began its advisory system, the first such in American public secondary education, in which each student meets with one faculty advisor and the same fellow advisory students every morning throughout his or her career. Students sold tax warrants door-to-door in the 1930s to keep the school operating as the flow of property tax
funds dwindled in the Great Depression
. During World War II, students sold bonds to finance both a B-17 (The Spirit of New Trier) and a B-29.
In the 1950s, New Trier became the first American high school with an educational, non-commercial FM broadcast license for a radiated station (WNTH, 88.1 FM). By 1970 New Trier was home to the nation's first public high school-based CCTV instructional station, ITV, which broadcast educational programming to township elementary schools via microwave signals. Students operated WNTH under a faculty advisor, ITV was operated by students under professional television technical and programming staff.
By 1962, student enrollment was more than 4,000. Some 20 "temporary" trailer classrooms lined the rear of the building, which had been designed for 3,000. To accommodate the growing baby boom student body, voters approved a referendum for New Trier to purchase forty-six acres in Northfield. Chicago architecture firm Perkins and Will was selected to design a campus of curricular buildings clustered around a central library and administration building. The resulting modernist design was widely noted in secondary education architecture literature and practice, and emulated by Winnetka's Carleton Washburne junior high school several years later.
"New Trier West" opened to freshmen and sophomores in 1965. What had been "New Trier," at 385 Winnetka Avenue in Winnetka, became "New Trier East." In 1967, New Trier West was dedicated as a separate four-year high school. U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare John Gardner
keynoted the dedication, which was also attended by U.S. Senator Charles Percy
('37), and Congressman Donald Rumsfeld
('50).
Enrollment reached an all-time peak of 6,558 students in 1972. By 1981, enrollment had dropped significantly. As a result, the school board decided to combine the East and West schools and convert New Trier West into the freshman-only campus. The division of freshmen (at the former New Trier West) from upperclassmen (at the former New Trier East) lasted from September 1981 until June 1985. By then enrollment had declined enough for the board to bring all students under one roof, close the former New Trier West, and convert the Northfield campus into a community recreation space. The campus later housed a senior center, corporate dormitories, a public swimming pool, and an alternative high school program known as West Center Academy.
Jonathan Kozol
wrote a book called Savage Inequalities
in 1991 that discussed the harsh conditions in the poorest school districts in the United States, making a correlation between inequality and racial separation and segregation. In the book, Kozol contrasted New Trier High School's spending per student to impoverished schools within Chicago.
New Trier was featured in the December 9, 1996, issue of Time
in an article entitled "High Times at New Trier High." Among other claims, the article stated that "New Trier kids who smoke pot" were "by all accounts more than three-fifths of the student body," compared with national averages at the time closer to 33%. However, on the school's WNTH's radio program, the writer acknowledged that the "three-fifths" claim had been inadvertently rewritten during the editing process in such a way that seemed to imply that more than 60% of New Trier students may be regular users of marijuana, whereas that figure should have been clearly labeled as the portion of students who had ever used marijuana, including many who had used it only once or twice.
In 2001, due to increasing enrollment, the Northfield campus reopened. The decision to make it a freshman-only campus was a compromise from a stalemate between plans to either increase capacity at the Winnetka campus or reopen the Northfield campus as a separate school. The Northfield campus also houses the administrative offices of the New Trier Township High School District.
In the late fall of the 2006–2007 school year, the school had an outbreak of pertussis
, commonly known as whooping cough. There were approximately thirty confirmed cases among students and faculty members. A free vaccination clinic was offered at the school to curtail its proliferation.
In February 2008, a student broke into the school computer database, using his personal computer to obtain unauthorized access to the network. He took a faculty member's password and gained access to the student information system, obtaining grades for the then-current and last three graduating classes. The student also obtained ACT test scores for the class of 2008. The administration took disciplinary action against the student and he was later arrested by Winnetka police.
In the summer of 2008, Illinois state senator James Meeks
made a public plea for parents of Chicago public school students to assist their children in skipping the first day of school (September 2), and instead attend a protest at New Trier that involved attempting to mass enroll students there. The protest was over inequities in school funding between schools in Chicago and New Trier. New Trier administrators were supportive of the protest. Students were greeted by cheerful parent volunteers to register at the Northfield Campus. After a relatively quick and peaceful registration, the buses left.
The School Board reviewed a Long Range Facility Plan for the district, including a recommendation for a Project One that will demolish and rebuild portions of the campus on its west and east sides on On April 6, 2009. After their decision, the school's administration began a campaign in support of the re-construction plan for the Winnetka Campus.
The New Trier High School Board of Education's members are mostly from Glencoe, Illinois and from Wilmette, Illinois. This Board has retained the current executive administration, led by Linda L. Yonke, who has significant experience in executing new school construction. Linda L Yonke's compensation in 2010 was $266,420, excluding fringe benefits and pensions, ranking her in the top 25 highest paid primary school employees in the state of Illinois.
New Trier graduated 98.5% of its senior class in 2007. The average class size is 1100. New Trier spends more than $15,000 yearly per student, well above the state average of $8,786. It has been included in the "Top Hundred" and "Most Successful" lists of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, The New York Times
, The Washington Post
, and Parade
magazine. The school was also identified as "quite possibly the best public school in America" by Town & Country
, in a six-page article on New Trier that cited the "rich" and "demanding" curriculum, extensive arts and activities, strong participation in athletics, and faculty of the caliber typically found teaching at good colleges. Life
also recognized New Trier as one of the best high schools in America with cover stories in 1950 and 1998.
Approximately 97% of the class of 2006 enrolled in college. Of these 999 students, 13 were National Merit Scholarship
winners, 27 were National Merit Semifinalists, 25 were National Merit Finalists, and 75 received letters of commendation. For the class of 2006, the mean SAT
verbal score was 620 and the mean SAT math score was 650. The mean ACT
composite score was 26.8. According to an article by the University of Michigan
Department of Psychology, "New Trier students outperform their Illinois classmates on every conceivable measure." The article also points out that 92% of the school's funding comes from the high property taxes of its affluent surroundings. The degree to which the school's performance is actually high given its resources is not addressed.
New Trier ensembles or individuals have received 39 awards in the Downbeat Student Music Awards program. A record-setting 7 of these were achieved in 2007 alone. More than 1,100 students participate in the music department. All presented by the student run Soundtraks Club which produces all 24 concerts a year webcast live on the internet at ntjazz.com, live on local cable television, and in stereo on WNTH
radio.
New Trier was named a Grammy Signature School Gold recipient by the Grammy Foundation in 2000 for its commitment to music education, as well as being named the National Signature School in 2007 as the nation's top high school music program. In April 2006, the school's Concert Choir and Symphony Orchestra performed in New York City
at Carnegie Hall
. In the summer of 2000, the school's Jazz Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra and Bluegrass
Band enjoyed a successful two-week concert tour of China
.
According to official state of Illinois reports retrieved by the Family Taxpayers Network, 2005 salaries of more than $100,000 were received by 127 administrators, teachers and other staffers, all but 11 of whom were listed as working for 10 months of the year.
for over forty years. In this system, up to four different levels of difficulty are offered for each academic subject. Level 2E is considered a general level. Levels 2, 3 and 4 are college preparatory, accelerated, and honors
levels, respectively. Level 5 was reserved for Advanced Placement
classes and other college-level classes, such as multivariable calculus and linear algebra, but the level is being phased out beginning with the class of 2011. (All 5-level courses will be counted as 4-level.) Students may work at different levels in different subjects.
New Trier offers both unweighted and weighted grade point averages (GPA), and plus and minus grades are reported on transcripts. In calculating a weighted GPA, grades in a student's coursework are given different values depending on the level in which the grade is earned. For example, an A in a 2-level course is weighted at 4.00, while in levels 3 and 4 the values are 4.67 and 5.33, respectively (an "A" in a 5-level AP class is worth 5.67). In 2009 New Trier announced that for the 2010-2011 school year the "5 level" will be eliminated. A.P. classes will be weighted to level 4
Since the late 1990s, the Board of Education has been examining how to encourage students to pursue a strong academic career without having them focus too much on their class rank. The first step taken by the administration was to eliminate the process of reporting class rank and to switch to decile ranking. Around the same time, the scale for weighted GPA calculations was modified and plus and minus grades were implemented. In 2008, New Trier eliminated the reporting of ranks in class entirely.
New Trier's mascot is the Trevian, named after soldiers from the city of Trier
, Germany
during the Roman Empire. The Trevian mascot was chosen in recognition that the Grosse Pointe area of Wilmette was largely settled by immigrants from Trier, Germany. From 1901 to 1948, the school's sports teams were known as the "Terriers" and "Green Wave." During the 1948-49 school year they were renamed "Indians", reflecting the school's location in the Indian Hill section of Winnetka. When the new campus in the western part of the district opened in 1965, the new school's sports team was known as the "Cowboys". The year before the two schools merged in 1981, a number of student forums were held on both the East and West campuses, giving students the opportunity to provide feedback on potential school colors and nicknames. After a series of votes of the student body, the school adopted "Trevians" as a team name and green, blue, and gray as the school colors (East having previously been green and gray, while West was blue, gray, and white). During the 2004–2005 school year the mascot was named "Trevius Maximus" after conducting a poll among the students.
New Trier's biggest conference rival is Evanston Township High School
. The rivalry between their football teams is one of the oldest uninterrupted sports rivalries in the history of high school sports, dating back over 100 years. Both schools compete in the Central Suburban League
conference. The two annual basketball
games New Trier plays against Evanston draw so many people that since 2001 they have been held at Northwestern University
's larger Welsh-Ryan Arena
. New Trier's biggest non-conference rival is Loyola Academy
, which is located in Wilmette, just down the road from the Northfield campus.
With more than 120 state championships, New Trier High School currently has more than any other high school in Illinois
. New Trier also leads the state in both boys' and girls' state titles. The sports in which New Trier has the most IHSA
-sponsored state titles are boys' swimming
and diving
(21), boys' tennis (19), girls' swimming and diving (12), boys' golf
(9), , girls' tennis (9), and girls' badminton (8). New Trier has been strong in the sport of baseball, twice as state champions, winning in 2000 and 2009. New Trier has also historically been strong at non-IHSA sponsored sports, including 15 Midwest championships in boys' fencing, ten state titles (Blackhawk Cup) in boys' ice hockey, eight state championships in boys' lacrosse, six state titles in girls' ice hockey, 2 national championships in boys rowing, 7 national championships in girls rowing and five state championships in girls' lacrosse. The top varsity ice hockey team for boys, New Trier Green, won the first ever USA Hockey High School National Championship title in 2010. In May 2005, New Trier was ranked #12 in Sports Illustrated
s list of the "Top 25 High School Sports Programs in America," and first in Illinois.
The athletic facilities include the Leslie Gates Gymnasium for basketball; two natatorium
s for swimming, diving, and water polo; Phelps Field for lacrosse, encircled by the Doug Chase Track; the Robert Naughton Field at New Trier Stadium for football, soccer, and lacrosse; the Duke Childs Fields for baseball and softball; gyms for volleyball; courts for tennis; a wrestling room with four mats, and an indoor field house.
One noted club is the New Trier chess club. They participate in tournaments all over the country and have had many noted chess players compete for them over the years.
, a tournament that only allows the top 72 teams in the nation to compete through a system of qualification, and also placed teams in the top 16 in the past two years. New Trier has also won the Illinois High School Association's state debate tournament in all 3 divisions, most recently winning the 2010 championship in Lincoln-Douglas debate and the 2011 championship in Public Forum.
of Lake County, Illinois
, a non-profit organization
that fights homelessness
and substandard housing. Recently the campaign was 10 houses in 10 years and the class of 2010 fulfilled that goal. New Trier is the only school so far to build 10 houses with Habitat. Many fund raisers contribute to this and various other causes over the course of the academic year. The New Trier Tsunami Relief Committee donated more than $18,000 to relief organizations to save people that were affected by the tsunami and also helped victims of the Indian Ocean Tsunami
in December 2004.
festival began in 1983 and takes place on the first Saturday of February. Each year, the event brings in around fifty high school and junior high jazz ensembles from all over the Great Lakes region and Canada to perform during the day. The high school groups attend clinics with respected jazz educators and composers from around the country. Seminars are also held throughout the day on improvisation, transcription, and music business, as well as instrument masterclasses. A featured jazz combo and college big band perform in the afternoon, while the evening concert features a renowned professional big band. Past groups have included the Buddy Rich
Big Band (led by Dave Weckl
, the Woody Herman
Orchestra, the Count Basie
Orchestra, the Artie Shaw
Orchestra, the Duke Ellington
Orchestra, the Toshiko Akiyoshi
-Lew Tabackin
Jazz Orchestra, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the Chicago Jazz Ensemble (led by Jon Faddis
), the Bob Mintzer
Big Band, Gordon Goodwin
's Big Phat Band, the Mingus Big Band
, Maynard Ferguson
, and Dizzy Gillespie
. The festival was renamed in 2005 after Frank Mantooth
when the legendary jazz musician, educator, and composer passed away just days before the 2004 festival.
, Ferris Bueller's Day Off
, and Uncle Buck
were shot at the high school's west campus in Northfield, and scenes from Sixteen Candles
were shot outside the high school's east campus in Winnetka.
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
, with its major campus located in Winnetka
Winnetka, Illinois
Winnetka is an affluent North Shore village located approximately north of downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois. Winnetka was featured on the list of America's 25 top-earning towns and "one of the best places to live" by CNN Money in 2011...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and a second campus in Northfield
Northfield, Illinois
Northfield is an affluent village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located approximately north of Chicago. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 5,389...
, Illinois, with freshman classes and district administration. Founded in 1901, the school is known for its large spending per student, academic excellence, and its athletic, drama, visual arts, and music programs. New Trier's primary campus in Winnetka is used by sophomores, juniors, and seniors, while the freshmen attend classes at the Northfield and Glenfield campus. The school serves Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
's North Shore
North Shore (Chicago)
The North Shore is a term that refers to the generally affluent suburbs north of Chicago, Illinois bordering the shore of Lake Michigan.- History :Europeans settled the area sparsely after an 1833 treaty with local Native Americans...
suburbs of Wilmette
Wilmette, Illinois
Wilmette is a village in New Trier Township, Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located north of Chicago's downtown district and has a population of 27,651. Wilmette is considered a bedroom community in the North Shore district...
, Kenilworth
Kenilworth, Illinois
Kenilworth is a village in Cook County, Illinois, north of downtown Chicago. It is the newest of the nine suburban North Shore communities bordering Lake Michigan, and is the only one developed as a planned community...
, Winnetka
Winnetka, Illinois
Winnetka is an affluent North Shore village located approximately north of downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois. Winnetka was featured on the list of America's 25 top-earning towns and "one of the best places to live" by CNN Money in 2011...
, Glencoe
Glencoe, Illinois
Glencoe is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the village population was 8,723. Glencoe is located on suburban Chicago's North Shore. Glencoe is located within the New Trier High School District. Glencoe is regarded as one of the most affluent suburbs on...
most of Northfield
Northfield, Illinois
Northfield is an affluent village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located approximately north of Chicago. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 5,389...
, part of Glenview
Glenview, Illinois
There are at least two locations in Illinois called Glenview:*Glenview, Cook County, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago*Glenview, St. Clair County, Illinois, an eastern suburb of St. Louis...
and part of Northbrook
Northbrook, Illinois
Northbrook is a village located at the northern edge of Cook County, Illinois, which is also a North Shore suburb of Chicago. The population was 33,170 at the 2010 census....
.
The school is named after the city of Trier
Trier
Trier, historically called in English Treves is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and New Trier's logo depicts the Porta Nigra
Porta Nigra
The Porta Nigra is a large Roman city gate in Trier, Germany. It is today the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps and has been designated a World Heritage Site....
, symbol of that city; the athletic teams are known as the Trevians.
History
Faculty (university)
A faculty is a division within a university comprising one subject area, or a number of related subject areas...
members. Chicago's north shore communities had decided to build a school that would enable parents to educate their children without sending them to college preparatory schools on the Eastern seaboard.
The school has been marked by a series of firsts and other notable events. In 1912, New Trier became the first high school in America with an indoor swimming pool. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, New Trier became a training ground for soldiers. A student fundraising drive at the time led to the purchase of a field ambulance. In 1928, New Trier began its advisory system, the first such in American public secondary education, in which each student meets with one faculty advisor and the same fellow advisory students every morning throughout his or her career. Students sold tax warrants door-to-door in the 1930s to keep the school operating as the flow of property tax
Property tax
A property tax is an ad valorem levy on the value of property that the owner is required to pay. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state or a municipality...
funds dwindled in the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. During World War II, students sold bonds to finance both a B-17 (The Spirit of New Trier) and a B-29.
In the 1950s, New Trier became the first American high school with an educational, non-commercial FM broadcast license for a radiated station (WNTH, 88.1 FM). By 1970 New Trier was home to the nation's first public high school-based CCTV instructional station, ITV, which broadcast educational programming to township elementary schools via microwave signals. Students operated WNTH under a faculty advisor, ITV was operated by students under professional television technical and programming staff.
By 1962, student enrollment was more than 4,000. Some 20 "temporary" trailer classrooms lined the rear of the building, which had been designed for 3,000. To accommodate the growing baby boom student body, voters approved a referendum for New Trier to purchase forty-six acres in Northfield. Chicago architecture firm Perkins and Will was selected to design a campus of curricular buildings clustered around a central library and administration building. The resulting modernist design was widely noted in secondary education architecture literature and practice, and emulated by Winnetka's Carleton Washburne junior high school several years later.
"New Trier West" opened to freshmen and sophomores in 1965. What had been "New Trier," at 385 Winnetka Avenue in Winnetka, became "New Trier East." In 1967, New Trier West was dedicated as a separate four-year high school. U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare John Gardner
John W. Gardner
John William Gardner, was Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Lyndon Johnson. During World War II he served in the United States Marine Corps as a captain. In 1955 he became president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and, concurrently, the Carnegie Foundation for...
keynoted the dedication, which was also attended by U.S. Senator Charles Percy
Charles H. Percy
Charles Harting "Chuck" Percy was president of the Bell & Howell Corporation from 1949 to 1964. He was elected United States Senator from Illinois in 1966, re-elected through his term ending in 1985; he concentrated on business and foreign relations...
('37), and Congressman Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
('50).
Enrollment reached an all-time peak of 6,558 students in 1972. By 1981, enrollment had dropped significantly. As a result, the school board decided to combine the East and West schools and convert New Trier West into the freshman-only campus. The division of freshmen (at the former New Trier West) from upperclassmen (at the former New Trier East) lasted from September 1981 until June 1985. By then enrollment had declined enough for the board to bring all students under one roof, close the former New Trier West, and convert the Northfield campus into a community recreation space. The campus later housed a senior center, corporate dormitories, a public swimming pool, and an alternative high school program known as West Center Academy.
Jonathan Kozol
Jonathan Kozol
Jonathan Kozol is a non-fiction writer, educator, and activist, best known for his books on public education in the United States. Kozol graduated from Noble and Greenough School in 1954, and Harvard University summa cum laude in 1958 with a degree in English Literature. He was awarded a Rhodes...
wrote a book called Savage Inequalities
Savage inequalities
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools is a book written by Jonathan Kozol in 1991 that discusses the disparities in education between schools of different classes and races. It is based on his observations of various classrooms in the public school systems of East St. Louis, Chicago,...
in 1991 that discussed the harsh conditions in the poorest school districts in the United States, making a correlation between inequality and racial separation and segregation. In the book, Kozol contrasted New Trier High School's spending per student to impoverished schools within Chicago.
New Trier was featured in the December 9, 1996, issue of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
in an article entitled "High Times at New Trier High." Among other claims, the article stated that "New Trier kids who smoke pot" were "by all accounts more than three-fifths of the student body," compared with national averages at the time closer to 33%. However, on the school's WNTH's radio program, the writer acknowledged that the "three-fifths" claim had been inadvertently rewritten during the editing process in such a way that seemed to imply that more than 60% of New Trier students may be regular users of marijuana, whereas that figure should have been clearly labeled as the portion of students who had ever used marijuana, including many who had used it only once or twice.
In 2001, due to increasing enrollment, the Northfield campus reopened. The decision to make it a freshman-only campus was a compromise from a stalemate between plans to either increase capacity at the Winnetka campus or reopen the Northfield campus as a separate school. The Northfield campus also houses the administrative offices of the New Trier Township High School District.
In the late fall of the 2006–2007 school year, the school had an outbreak of pertussis
Pertussis
Pertussis, also known as whooping cough , is a highly contagious bacterial disease caused by Bordetella pertussis. Symptoms are initially mild, and then develop into severe coughing fits, which produce the namesake high-pitched "whoop" sound in infected babies and children when they inhale air...
, commonly known as whooping cough. There were approximately thirty confirmed cases among students and faculty members. A free vaccination clinic was offered at the school to curtail its proliferation.
In February 2008, a student broke into the school computer database, using his personal computer to obtain unauthorized access to the network. He took a faculty member's password and gained access to the student information system, obtaining grades for the then-current and last three graduating classes. The student also obtained ACT test scores for the class of 2008. The administration took disciplinary action against the student and he was later arrested by Winnetka police.
In the summer of 2008, Illinois state senator James Meeks
James Meeks
James T. Meeks is a Democratic member of the Illinois Senate, representing the 15th district since 2003. He is also an active Baptist minister in Chicago and chairs the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus...
made a public plea for parents of Chicago public school students to assist their children in skipping the first day of school (September 2), and instead attend a protest at New Trier that involved attempting to mass enroll students there. The protest was over inequities in school funding between schools in Chicago and New Trier. New Trier administrators were supportive of the protest. Students were greeted by cheerful parent volunteers to register at the Northfield Campus. After a relatively quick and peaceful registration, the buses left.
Master planning process
New Trier High School recently invested in an extensive campus expansion and modification plan for its two campuses, called the "Master Planning Process". The process took input, in roughly equal shares, from (1) faculty, (2) staff and administration, (3) students and (4) community at large when formulating the plan (though only the Board of Education made the final decision). The proposed project has cost of over $174M, paid by a massive bond issue that is set to increase township property taxes for the next 20+ years. A referendum to authorize the issuance of $174 million in bonds to finance the Winnetka campus renovation was placed on the February 2, 2010 ballot; it was defeated 63% to 37%.The School Board reviewed a Long Range Facility Plan for the district, including a recommendation for a Project One that will demolish and rebuild portions of the campus on its west and east sides on On April 6, 2009. After their decision, the school's administration began a campaign in support of the re-construction plan for the Winnetka Campus.
The New Trier High School Board of Education's members are mostly from Glencoe, Illinois and from Wilmette, Illinois. This Board has retained the current executive administration, led by Linda L. Yonke, who has significant experience in executing new school construction. Linda L Yonke's compensation in 2010 was $266,420, excluding fringe benefits and pensions, ranking her in the top 25 highest paid primary school employees in the state of Illinois.
Profile
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, and Parade
Parade (magazine)
Parade is an American nationwide Sunday newspaper magazine, distributed in more than 500 newspapers in the United States. It was founded in 1941 and is owned by Advance Publications. The most widely read magazine in the U.S., Parade has a circulation of 32.2 million and a readership of nearly 70...
magazine. The school was also identified as "quite possibly the best public school in America" by Town & Country
Town & Country (magazine)
Town & Country, formerly the Home Journal and The National Press, is a monthly American lifestyle magazine. It is the oldest continually published general interest magazine in the United States.-Early history:...
, in a six-page article on New Trier that cited the "rich" and "demanding" curriculum, extensive arts and activities, strong participation in athletics, and faculty of the caliber typically found teaching at good colleges. Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
also recognized New Trier as one of the best high schools in America with cover stories in 1950 and 1998.
Approximately 97% of the class of 2006 enrolled in college. Of these 999 students, 13 were National Merit Scholarship
National Merit Scholarship Program
The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and college scholarships administered by National Merit Scholarship Corporation , a privately funded, not-for-profit organization. The program began in 1955...
winners, 27 were National Merit Semifinalists, 25 were National Merit Finalists, and 75 received letters of commendation. For the class of 2006, the mean SAT
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
verbal score was 620 and the mean SAT math score was 650. The mean ACT
ACT (examination)
The ACT is a standardized test for high school achievement and college admissions in the United States produced by ACT, Inc. It was first administered in November 1959 by Everett Franklin Lindquist as a competitor to the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test, now the SAT Reasoning Test...
composite score was 26.8. According to an article by the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
Department of Psychology, "New Trier students outperform their Illinois classmates on every conceivable measure." The article also points out that 92% of the school's funding comes from the high property taxes of its affluent surroundings. The degree to which the school's performance is actually high given its resources is not addressed.
New Trier ensembles or individuals have received 39 awards in the Downbeat Student Music Awards program. A record-setting 7 of these were achieved in 2007 alone. More than 1,100 students participate in the music department. All presented by the student run Soundtraks Club which produces all 24 concerts a year webcast live on the internet at ntjazz.com, live on local cable television, and in stereo on WNTH
WNTH
WNTH is the FM radio station of New Trier High School. The station broadcasts to most parts of New Trier Township, Illinois at 88.1 FM.-Mission:...
radio.
New Trier was named a Grammy Signature School Gold recipient by the Grammy Foundation in 2000 for its commitment to music education, as well as being named the National Signature School in 2007 as the nation's top high school music program. In April 2006, the school's Concert Choir and Symphony Orchestra performed in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
. In the summer of 2000, the school's Jazz Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra and Bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
Band enjoyed a successful two-week concert tour of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
According to official state of Illinois reports retrieved by the Family Taxpayers Network, 2005 salaries of more than $100,000 were received by 127 administrators, teachers and other staffers, all but 11 of whom were listed as working for 10 months of the year.
Subject levels
New Trier has practiced subject-level groupingAbility grouping
Ability grouping is the educational practice of grouping students by academic potential or past achievement.Ability groups are usually small, informal groups formed within a single classroom. Assignment to an ability group is often short-term , and varies by subject...
for over forty years. In this system, up to four different levels of difficulty are offered for each academic subject. Level 2E is considered a general level. Levels 2, 3 and 4 are college preparatory, accelerated, and honors
Honors course
Honors course is a distinction applied in the United States to certain classes to distinguish them from standard course offerings. The difference between a regular class and the honors class is not necessarily the amount of work, but the type of work required and the pace of studying...
levels, respectively. Level 5 was reserved for Advanced Placement
Advanced Placement Program
The Advanced Placement program is a curriculum in the United States and Canada sponsored by the College Board which offers standardized courses to high school students that are generally recognized to be equivalent to undergraduate courses in college...
classes and other college-level classes, such as multivariable calculus and linear algebra, but the level is being phased out beginning with the class of 2011. (All 5-level courses will be counted as 4-level.) Students may work at different levels in different subjects.
New Trier offers both unweighted and weighted grade point averages (GPA), and plus and minus grades are reported on transcripts. In calculating a weighted GPA, grades in a student's coursework are given different values depending on the level in which the grade is earned. For example, an A in a 2-level course is weighted at 4.00, while in levels 3 and 4 the values are 4.67 and 5.33, respectively (an "A" in a 5-level AP class is worth 5.67). In 2009 New Trier announced that for the 2010-2011 school year the "5 level" will be eliminated. A.P. classes will be weighted to level 4
Since the late 1990s, the Board of Education has been examining how to encourage students to pursue a strong academic career without having them focus too much on their class rank. The first step taken by the administration was to eliminate the process of reporting class rank and to switch to decile ranking. Around the same time, the scale for weighted GPA calculations was modified and plus and minus grades were implemented. In 2008, New Trier eliminated the reporting of ranks in class entirely.
Athletics
Trier
Trier, historically called in English Treves is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
during the Roman Empire. The Trevian mascot was chosen in recognition that the Grosse Pointe area of Wilmette was largely settled by immigrants from Trier, Germany. From 1901 to 1948, the school's sports teams were known as the "Terriers" and "Green Wave." During the 1948-49 school year they were renamed "Indians", reflecting the school's location in the Indian Hill section of Winnetka. When the new campus in the western part of the district opened in 1965, the new school's sports team was known as the "Cowboys". The year before the two schools merged in 1981, a number of student forums were held on both the East and West campuses, giving students the opportunity to provide feedback on potential school colors and nicknames. After a series of votes of the student body, the school adopted "Trevians" as a team name and green, blue, and gray as the school colors (East having previously been green and gray, while West was blue, gray, and white). During the 2004–2005 school year the mascot was named "Trevius Maximus" after conducting a poll among the students.
New Trier's biggest conference rival is Evanston Township High School
Evanston Township High School
Evanston Township High School District 202, is a four-year, comprehensive high school occupying a campus in Evanston, Illinois, a Chicago suburb along the Lake Michigan shore. ETHS serves the multiracial city of Evanston and a small portion of the neighboring village of Skokie, for a total...
. The rivalry between their football teams is one of the oldest uninterrupted sports rivalries in the history of high school sports, dating back over 100 years. Both schools compete in the Central Suburban League
Central Suburban League
The Central Suburban League is an IHSA-recognized high school extracurricular conference comprising 12 public schools located in the northern suburbs of Chicago...
conference. The two annual basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
games New Trier plays against Evanston draw so many people that since 2001 they have been held at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
's larger Welsh-Ryan Arena
Welsh-Ryan Arena
Welsh-Ryan Arena is an 8,117-seat multi-purpose arena in Evanston, Illinois. The arena opened in 1952 as McGaw Memorial Hall. It is home to the Northwestern University Wildcats basketball, volleyball and wrestling teams. It is located to the north of Ryan Field on the athletic campus, and also...
. New Trier's biggest non-conference rival is Loyola Academy
Loyola Academy
Loyola Academy is a private, co-educational college preparatory high school, located in Wilmette, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago. Located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, it is one of 47 Jesuit high schools in the United States and is a member of the Jesuit Secondary Education...
, which is located in Wilmette, just down the road from the Northfield campus.
With more than 120 state championships, New Trier High School currently has more than any other high school in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. New Trier also leads the state in both boys' and girls' state titles. The sports in which New Trier has the most IHSA
Illinois High School Association
The Illinois High School Association is one of 521 state high school associations in the United States, designed to regulate competition in most interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level. It is a charter member of the National Federation of State High...
-sponsored state titles are boys' swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
and diving
Diving
Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.Diving is one...
(21), boys' tennis (19), girls' swimming and diving (12), boys' golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
(9), , girls' tennis (9), and girls' badminton (8). New Trier has been strong in the sport of baseball, twice as state champions, winning in 2000 and 2009. New Trier has also historically been strong at non-IHSA sponsored sports, including 15 Midwest championships in boys' fencing, ten state titles (Blackhawk Cup) in boys' ice hockey, eight state championships in boys' lacrosse, six state titles in girls' ice hockey, 2 national championships in boys rowing, 7 national championships in girls rowing and five state championships in girls' lacrosse. The top varsity ice hockey team for boys, New Trier Green, won the first ever USA Hockey High School National Championship title in 2010. In May 2005, New Trier was ranked #12 in Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
s list of the "Top 25 High School Sports Programs in America," and first in Illinois.
The athletic facilities include the Leslie Gates Gymnasium for basketball; two natatorium
Natatorium
A natatorium is a term given for a building containing a swimming pool. In Latin, a cella natatoria was a swimming pool in its own building, although it is sometimes also used to refer to any indoor pool even if not housed in a dedicated building...
s for swimming, diving, and water polo; Phelps Field for lacrosse, encircled by the Doug Chase Track; the Robert Naughton Field at New Trier Stadium for football, soccer, and lacrosse; the Duke Childs Fields for baseball and softball; gyms for volleyball; courts for tennis; a wrestling room with four mats, and an indoor field house.
Activities
There are over 150 different extracurricular activities at New Trier. Although some date back decades (to the founding of the school) and have strong traditions, others are much newer and consist of only a few members.One noted club is the New Trier chess club. They participate in tournaments all over the country and have had many noted chess players compete for them over the years.
Debate
New Trier's debate program has flourished in recent years with two students receiving the top speaker award at the Tournament of ChampionsTournament of Champions (debate)
The Tournament of Champions is a high school debate tournament held annually at the University of Kentucky on the first weekend of May. It is the most prestigious tournament on the "national circuit," representing some of the most competitively successful debaters from the nation's most prestigious...
, a tournament that only allows the top 72 teams in the nation to compete through a system of qualification, and also placed teams in the top 16 in the past two years. New Trier has also won the Illinois High School Association's state debate tournament in all 3 divisions, most recently winning the 2010 championship in Lincoln-Douglas debate and the 2011 championship in Public Forum.
Philanthropy
Each of the four official class governments (Sophomore and Junior Steering Committees and the Freshman and Senior Senates) makes significant annual donations to various philanthropic causes throughout the community, state, country, and world. Every year since 2001, the Senior Senate has fully funded the construction of a house in conjunction with Habitat for HumanityHabitat for Humanity International
Habitat For Humanity International , generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or simply Habitat, is an international, non-governmental, non-profit organization devoted to building "simple, decent, and affordable" housing, a self-described "Christian housing ministry." The international...
of Lake County, Illinois
Lake County, Illinois
Lake County is a county in the northeastern corner of the state of Illinois, on the shore of Lake Michigan. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 703,462, which is an increase of 9.2% from 644,356 in 2000. Its county seat is Waukegan. The county is part of the Chicago metropolitan area...
, a non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
that fights homelessness
Homelessness
Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...
and substandard housing. Recently the campaign was 10 houses in 10 years and the class of 2010 fulfilled that goal. New Trier is the only school so far to build 10 houses with Habitat. Many fund raisers contribute to this and various other causes over the course of the academic year. The New Trier Tsunami Relief Committee donated more than $18,000 to relief organizations to save people that were affected by the tsunami and also helped victims of the Indian Ocean Tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
in December 2004.
Frank Mantooth Jazz Festival
The jazzJazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
festival began in 1983 and takes place on the first Saturday of February. Each year, the event brings in around fifty high school and junior high jazz ensembles from all over the Great Lakes region and Canada to perform during the day. The high school groups attend clinics with respected jazz educators and composers from around the country. Seminars are also held throughout the day on improvisation, transcription, and music business, as well as instrument masterclasses. A featured jazz combo and college big band perform in the afternoon, while the evening concert features a renowned professional big band. Past groups have included the Buddy Rich
Buddy Rich
Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove, and speed.-Early life:...
Big Band (led by Dave Weckl
Dave Weckl
Dave Weckl is a highly acclaimed jazz fusion drummer. Weckl attended Francis Howell High School in St. Charles, MO and graduated in 1978. He majored in jazz studies at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut...
, the Woody Herman
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...
Orchestra, the Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
Orchestra, the Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw
Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings....
Orchestra, the Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
Orchestra, the Toshiko Akiyoshi
Toshiko Akiyoshi
is a Japanese American jazz pianist, composer/arranger and bandleader. Among a very few successful female instrumentalists of her generation in jazz, she is also recognized as a major figure in jazz composition. She has received 14 Grammy nominations, and she was the first woman to win the Best...
-Lew Tabackin
Lew Tabackin
Lew Tabackin is a jazz flautist and a tenor saxophonist. He is married to Toshiko Akiyoshi, who is a jazz pianist and a composer/arranger.-Biography:...
Jazz Orchestra, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the Chicago Jazz Ensemble (led by Jon Faddis
Jon Faddis
Jon Faddis is an American jazz trumpet player, conductor, composer, and educator renowned for both his highly virtuosic command of the instrument and for his expertise in the field of music education...
), the Bob Mintzer
Bob Mintzer
Bob Mintzer is a jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger, and big band leader based in Los Angeles, California. Mintzer is a member of the jazz rock band the Yellowjackets.-With The Yellowjackets:*Greenhouse, 1991;*Live Wires, 1992;...
Big Band, Gordon Goodwin
Gordon Goodwin
Gordon L. Goodwin is a Grammy award-winning American studio pianist, saxophonist, composer, arranger and conductor. He now lives in Southern California with his wife Lisa, daughter Madison and two sons, Trevor and Garrison.- Early years :...
's Big Phat Band, the Mingus Big Band
Mingus Big Band
The Mingus Big Band is an ensemble, based in New York City, that specializes in the compositions of the late Charles Mingus. It is managed by his widow, Sue Mingus and represented by Tree Lawn Artists, Inc.. In addition to its weekly Monday night appearance at the Jazz Standard in New York City,...
, Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson was a Canadian jazz musician and bandleader. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra, before forming his own band in 1957...
, and Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
. The festival was renamed in 2005 after Frank Mantooth
Frank Mantooth
Frank Mantooth was an American jazz pianist and arranger.Mantooth attended University of North Texas College of Music, graduating in 1969, then played in and arranged for the Air Force Academy Falconaires from 1969 to 1973...
when the legendary jazz musician, educator, and composer passed away just days before the 2004 festival.
In the movies
Scenes from Home AloneHome Alone
Home Alone is a 1990 American Christmas comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. The film stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old boy, who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to Paris for their Christmas vacation...
, Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a 1986 American teen coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by John Hughes.The film follows high school senior Ferris Bueller , who decides to skip school and spend the day in downtown Chicago...
, and Uncle Buck
Uncle Buck
Uncle Buck is a 1989 John Hughes comedy film starring John Candy, Amy Madigan, Jean Louisa Kelly, Gaby Hoffman, and Macaulay Culkin, and co-stars Jay Underwood and Laurie Metcalf.-Plot:Bob Russell Uncle Buck is a 1989 John Hughes comedy film starring John Candy, Amy Madigan, Jean Louisa Kelly, Gaby...
were shot at the high school's west campus in Northfield, and scenes from Sixteen Candles
Sixteen Candles
Sixteen Candles is a 1984 American film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling and Anthony Michael Hall. It was written and directed by John Hughes.- Plot :...
were shot outside the high school's east campus in Winnetka.
External links
- New Trier High School
- New Trier High School Profile
- New Trier Salaries
- Aerial image of Northfield Campus from USGS via Microsoft Research Maps
- Aerial image of Winnetka Campus from USGS via Microsoft Research Maps
- City of Trier, Germany