Jump to content

Wheaton North High School

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 71.57.127.44 (talk) at 03:46, 7 June 2007. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Wheaton North High School
Location
Map
1 Falcon Way
Wheaton
,
Illinois

USA
Information
TypePublic secondary
Established1964
PrincipalJill Bullo
Faculty118
Grades9–12
Enrollment2,254
CampusSuburban, 51 acres
Color(s)Royal blue and gold
MascotFalcons
Websitewww.wnhs.org

Wheaton North High School, or WNHS, and locally referred to as "North" is a public four-year high school located at the corner of Geneva Road and Gary Avenue in the northwest corner of Wheaton, Illinois, an affluent western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part Community Unit School District 200, which also includes Wheaton Warrenville South High School.

History

As demand for a second high school increased in the 1950s and 60s, Wheaton North High School split off from the original Wheaton Community High School. At this time Wheaton Community changed its name to Wheaton Central, which in 1992, again changed its name to become Wheaton Warrenville South and moved to its present location.

The building underwent significant renovations in the mid 1990s and on April 1, 2003, residents of Community Unit School District 200 approved, by a vote of 10,173 to 6,518,[1] a $72 million bond referendum to renovate and add onto both Wheaton North, and its counterpart, Wheaton Warrenville South. Construction began in the summer of 2003 with its first phase of the building of a field house. The second phase included renovations and additions to the building, which were completed in summer 2006.

Academics

In 2005, Wheaton North had an average composite ACT score of 22.6, and graduated 99.2% of its senior class. For the past three years, Wheaton North has not made Adequate Yearly Progress on the Prairie State Achievements Examination, a state test part of the No Child Left Behind Act[2] .

The staff is comprised of 118 teachers with a teacher to student ratio of 18:1, and an average class size of 23.

In the May 6, 2006 issue of Newsweek, Wheaton North was ranked 1097th out of 1,200, placing it in the top 5 percent nationally.Wheaton Warrenville South High School did not make the top 1200.[3] The rankings are determined by a Challenge Index, which includes the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests given at a school, divided by the number of seniors graduating that year.

Students are required to successfully complete twenty-four credits, each course at .5 credit.

Athletics

Wheaton North has athletic teams which play in the DuPage Valley Conference. Wheaton North's mascot is the Falcons. They have a large rivalry with their southern counterpart, Wheaton Warrenville South. In 2003, Wheaton North, and Wheaton South, both became the first high schools in the DuPage Valley Conference, and among the first high schools in the nation, to convert their football fields to artificial field turf, at a cost of $550,000 per stadium. Recent athletic accomplishments include a 3rd place finish in state for both the boy's and girl's soccer teams in the 2005-2006 school year, and a state championship for the boy's gymnastics team in 2005.

Activities

The Wheaton North Scholastic Bowl team won three consecutive state championships in 2002, 2003 and 2004. It placed 2nd in the state in 2001, 2005 and 2007, and 4th in state in 2006[4]. The school's speech team has also won several individual state titles in Individual Events and Performance in the Round competition, and placed 3rd as a team in 2007[5].

Wheaton North also has language clubs, service activities, and various other activities typical of an American high school.

Typically, Wheaton North presents a fall drama, spring musical, and evening of one-act plays annually.

Wheaton North has 11 performing arts ensembles, including:

  • Five choirs
  • Two orchestras
  • Three bands
    • Concert Band
    • Symphonic Band (Audition)
    • Wind Ensemble (Audition)
  • One pep band

Freshman Girl's chorus and SATB Concert Choir are non-audition choirs.

Audition Choirs consist of Treble Choir, sophomore-senior women's ensemble that focuses on more Classical repertoire, Show Choir, a group that performs student choreographed routines to pop and Broadway repertoire, and Chamber Ensemble, which performs a capella material.

Notable alumni

Miscellaneous

The school was featured on local TV news stations and countless internet sites after a boy named Marco Raphael Castro was suspected of ejaculating into the ranch salad dressing in the cafeteria. The allegations were proven and the school has "Taken very severe measures against this student." Some have disagreed that the punishment was harsh enough. The teenager was sentenced to 120 hours of community service with an AIDS organization and ordered to pay a $750 fine. He was also ordered to attend counseling, write a letter of apology to the high school, and enroll in college (though expelled from school, Castro had amassed enough credits to graduate). Castro will be eligible to have the misdemeanor convictions expunged from his record if he stays out of trouble for two years.[7][8][9]

References

  1. ^ High School Expansion
  2. ^ Illinois School Report Card
  3. ^ Wheaton North makes Newsweek's top 1,000
  4. ^ WNHS IHSA State Series results
  5. ^ 2007 IHSA State Speech Individual Events results
  6. ^ The National Quarterback Club
  7. ^ NBC coverage of salad dressing incident
  8. ^ CBS coverage of the same story. This kid is going down in history as a legend!
  9. ^ http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0523072salad1.html
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Wheaton_North_High_School&oldid=136519518"