North High School, usually referred to simply as ''North'', is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

located in

Des Moines Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

. It is one of five

secondary schools A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

under the

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

of the

Des Moines Public Schools The Des Moines Independent Community School District (The ''Des Moines Public Schools'', or ''DMPS'') is the largest public school district in Iowa. It is accredited by the North Central Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges and the Iowa ...

. The school's mascot is a

polar bear The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...

and the school competes in the

Central Iowa Metro League The Central Iowa Metro League (also called CIML) is a high school athletic conference whose members are located in the suburban cities of Des Moines, Iowa, . The conference includes 9 schools, all of which compete at the 4A classification lev ...

conference.

History

North High started as the Forest Home School with four rooms, three departments (primary, intermediate, and higher grades), and three teachers. In 1885, Dr. John A. Nash gave North Des Moines The Forest Home School. it was located on Forest Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets. By 1889, two rooms had been added to the school, which was established as a high school during that year. The first high school curriculum was made up of college entrance subjects: English, Latin, Greek, German, mathematics, science, history, and some art and music. In 1892, the school colors were chosen. During this year, a parade was held in Des Moines, and the schools marched wearing their school colors. Miss Louise Patterson, principal of North, suggested that pink and green be used (North had previously been without colors). Later in 1894, a committee was appointed to select school colors. After several combinations had been considered, one boy looked out the window and saw pink blossoms set against the green leaves of a crab apple tree. “Why not pick the colors which we have already used,” he said. The committee then chose pink and green as the official colors of North High School. In 1896, North moved into a new $30,000 building located at Eighth Street and College Avenue. That building is Moulton Elementary School today. In 1915, North High was enlarged with a second section on the North side of the school. The original building was removed in the late 1950s and the second section was remodel for the elementary school. In 1957, North High was moved from Eight and College to the present site at Sixth and Holcomb Streets. The new building cost $3,335,397: total area of the school grounds including the athletic field is 34.5 acres. In 1989, North High celebrated 100 years of serving this community. Examine the pictures of some of the outstanding graduates in the Athletic or Alumni Hall of Fame. You will soon recognize the important role North has played in helping develop local and national leadership. In 2010, the school started a multimillion-dollar renovation which includes new offices, internet wiring, bio-thermal heating and cooling, new windows, paint, new ceilings and flooring and countless other improvements. On September 14, 2015, 44th president of the United States,

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

visited North High along with

United States Secretary of Education The United States secretary of education is the head of the United States Department of Education, U.S. Department of Education. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States, and the federal government, on ...

Arne Duncan Arne Starkey Duncan (born November 6, 1964) is an American educator who served as United States Secretary of Education from 2009 to 2015 and as Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Public Schools from 2001 to 2008. A lifelong resident of Chicago, Du ...

for a back-to-school bus tour. This event celebrated how states and communities are working to increase access and opportunity from early learning to college. Friday, October 16, 2015, long-time governor

Terry Branstad Terry Edward Branstad (born November 17, 1946) is an American politician and former diplomat. A member of the Republican Party, he served three terms in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1973 to 1979 before serving as governor of Iowa fro ...

signed a proclamation at North declaring the month of October as College Application Month in Iowa. The purpose of the proclamation was to make students and their families aware of the importance of completing and submitting college applications early on in the process. In addition to the countless improvements in the school's outside skeleton, the new administration has set its eyes on raising the bar in the classroom by looking at new innovative teaching methods. Most notably, Des Moines Public Schools partnered with Learning Sciences International for the 2016-2017 school year to make North a Demonstration School, a school focused on rigorous coursework where students work more collaboratively with their peers.

Faculty

Benjamin Graeber replaced Mike Vukovich as principal of North High School in mid-2017. Vuokovich made many efforts to improve the school.

Extracurricular activities

North has a variety of extracurricular activities, the most notable of which is the

Academic Decathlon The Academic Decathlon (also called AcDec, AcaDeca or AcaDec) is an annual high school academic competition organized by the non-profit United States Academic Decathlon (USAD). The competition consists of seven objective multiple choice tests, tw ...

team, which has a long history of success, including a placement of 7th in the nation in the Medium School e-Nationals (2012), a placement of fourth in the state in 2011, and has won the regional competition in 2011 and 2012.

Athletics

The Polar Bears are members of the

, and participate in the following sports: *Fall **

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

** Cross Country *** 6-time State Champions (1944, 1945, 19546, 1950, 1952, 1953) ** Boys'

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

** Girls'

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

*Winter **

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

Bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

Wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

** Boys' swimming *** 2-time State Champions (1938, 1942) * Spring — **

Track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

*** Boys' 7-time State Champions (1917, 1919, 1934, 1948, 1953, 1954, 1959) **

Soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

** Girls' golf * Summer **

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

*** 3-time State Champions (1931, 1934, 1936) **

Softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

In 2016, ESPN covered North High football and their turnaround story behind Major Sean Quinlan.

Curriculum

The school day is split into 4 blocks lasting 85 minutes that meet every other day and a 'skinny' period that lasts for 45 minutes and meets every day. The school district requires that students take a number of core academic courses, if they wish to graduate and receive a diploma. This includes social studies, English, mathematics, science, art, and physical education. The exact amount of academic credit needed to satisfy graduation requirements is determined by the school district. All students are required by the district to enroll in four subject courses and a Physical Education course. However, the school compels lower-class students to schedule a full day of classes, in order to ensure satisfaction with district graduation requirements. Juniors and Seniors have the option of having an "open period" during the first or last period of the school day (''Seniors may have open periods during any period''). However, Juniors require parental permission to have an open period. All students are required to take finals. From being one of the bottom schools in the State of Iowa, North has tightened up their standards, and has consistently raised its expectations of its students and faculty. North has many visitors from around the country to see what they can come away with to help their students. North is the largest school in Iowa to provide a laptop for every student and faculty member, which it did in the 2011-2012 school year. In 2013-14 school year, North stopped the use of the Apple Mac laptops in favor of the IPAD. So far no data has been generated to show that this has increased academic scholarship among the student body. North has also required all athletes to maintain a "C" average or above to be eligible to participate in athletics.

Notable alumni

Herbert W. Armstrong Herbert W. Armstrong (July 31, 1892 – January 16, 1986) was an American evangelism, evangelist who founded the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). An early pioneer of radio evangelism, radio and television evangelism, Armstrong preached what he c ...

(Class of 1910), founder of the Worldwide Church of God. *

Ed Beisser Edward J. Beisser (May 9, 1919 – October 7, 2000) was an American standout basketball player for Creighton University in the early 1940s and was named a consensus NCAA First Team All-American as a senior in 1942–43. He was a three-time First ...

(Class of 1939), All-American basketball player at

Creighton University Creighton University is a private Jesuit research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1878, the university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2015 the university enrolled 8,393 graduate and undergra ...

in 1943 and three-time AAU national champion. * MarTay Jenkins (Class of 1993), former NFL wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals. * Robert Ray Scott (Class of 1939),

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

colonel * John Tinker (Class of 1968http://www.ndmhs.com/pages/yearclass1968.html
/ref>), one of the petitioners in the Supreme Court case '' Tinker v. Des Moines Schools''. *

Roger Williams Roger Williams (21 September 1603between 27 January and 15 March 1683) was an English-born New England Puritan minister, theologian, and author who founded Providence Plantations, which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation ...

, pianist made famous for his version of "Autumn Leaves".

References

External links

Des Moines Public Schools Homepage

North High School Homepage

President Barack Obama at North (2015)
* Governor

br>at North High (2015)
{{Central Iowa Metro League , state=autocollapse Schools in Des Moines, Iowa Public high schools in Iowa Iowa High School Athletic Association 1885 establishments in Iowa