Niles West High School
Encyclopedia
Niles West High School, or NWHS, is a public four-year high school
located in Skokie, Illinois
, a suburb of Chicago
, in the United States
. It is part of Niles Township Community High School District 219
, which also includes Niles North High School
. Its school teams were originally the Indians, but this was later changed in 2001 to the Wolves. Its feeder middle schools are Lincoln Junior High School (located in Skokie
), Fairview South School (located in Skokie
), Lincoln Hall Middle School (located in Lincolnwood
), Culver Middle School (located in Niles
), and Park View School (located in Morton Grove
).
closed, most of the students attending that school moved to Niles West.
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 with similar results.
score of 22.3, and graduated 93.4% of its senior class. The average class size is 19.2. Niles West was on academic watch status as of 2007.
Niles West has recently been honored with the following:
with nine 42-minute classes, and the possibility of taking select classes in the 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 Dance Marathon
/School Chest raised over $83,000 for Children's Oncology Services, Inc. Niles West DM in partnership with Niles North High School have raised over a hundred-and-fifty thousand dollars for numerous charities in the past.
In summer 2010, the Niles West High School Theatre Department performed at the 2010 American High School Theatre Festival in Scotland.
and Illinois High School Association
(IHSA). Teams are stylized as the Wolves.
Until June 2000, at the end of the 1999-2000 school year, the sports teams were known as Niles West Indians, a name which was changed to the Wolves so as not to offend Native Americans. The school colors are still red and white, although wolf murals and symbolism appear throughout the school.
Niles West sponsors interscholastic athletic teams for men and women in basketball
, cross country
, golf
, gymnastics
, soccer, swimming & diving
, tennis
, track & field, and volleyball
. Men may also compete in baseball
, Water polo
, football
, and wrestling
. Women may compete in cheerleading
and softball
. While not sponsored by the IHSA, the school also sponsors a Poms
team for women.
The following teams have finished in the top 4 of their respective IHSA state championship tournaments: http://www.ihsa.org/school/records/sum1922.htm IHSA Season Summaries for Niles West HS; accessed 11 April 2009]
The baseball team has won two IHSA state championships (1971-72 and 74-75). The girl's basketball team won the IHSA state championship in 1978-79.
The central athletic stadium, used by football, soccer, and track & field is Mike Basrak Field named in honor of a long-time football coach/teacher.
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....
located in Skokie, Illinois
Skokie, Illinois
Skokie is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Its name comes from a Native American word for "fire". A Chicago suburb, for many years Skokie promoted itself as "The World's Largest Village". Its population, per the 2000 census, was 63,348...
, a suburb of 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...
, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is part of Niles Township Community High School District 219
Niles Township Community High School District 219
Niles Township Community High School District 219 is a public secondary school district in Illinois.The district serves Lincolnwood and parts of Morton Grove, Niles, and Skokie in Niles Township, which is located in Northern Cook County, Illinois....
, which also includes Niles North High School
Niles North High School
Niles North High School, or NNHS, is a public four-year high school located in Skokie, Illinois, a North Shore suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Niles Township Community High School District 219, which also includes Niles West High School. It is also home to several...
. Its school teams were originally the Indians, but this was later changed in 2001 to the Wolves. Its feeder middle schools are Lincoln Junior High School (located in Skokie
Skokie, Illinois
Skokie is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Its name comes from a Native American word for "fire". A Chicago suburb, for many years Skokie promoted itself as "The World's Largest Village". Its population, per the 2000 census, was 63,348...
), Fairview South School (located in Skokie
Skokie, Illinois
Skokie is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Its name comes from a Native American word for "fire". A Chicago suburb, for many years Skokie promoted itself as "The World's Largest Village". Its population, per the 2000 census, was 63,348...
), Lincoln Hall Middle School (located in Lincolnwood
Lincolnwood, Illinois
Lincolnwood is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 12,359 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Lincolnwood is located at ....
), Culver Middle School (located in Niles
Niles, Illinois
Niles is a village in Maine and Niles Townships, Cook County, Illinois, United States. The 2010 population from the U.S. Census Bureau is 29,803.The current mayor of Niles is Robert M. Callero.-History:Niles was first settled in 1827....
), and Park View School (located in Morton Grove
Morton Grove, Illinois
Morton Grove is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 22,451 at the 2000 census.The Village President of Morton Grove since April 27, 2009, is Daniel J...
).
History
Niles West High School is built on a former wet land and its campus sits on over 70 acres (283,280.2 m²) of land. The school opened in 1959. When Niles East High SchoolNiles East High School
Niles East High School was a public secondary school operated by Niles Township High Schools District 219 in Skokie, Illinois between 1938 and 1980. Its sister schools Niles West High School and Niles North High School remain open....
closed, most of the students attending that school moved to Niles West.
In 1996, the Niles Township Federation of Teachers went on a strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
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 with similar results.
Academics
In 2007, Niles West had an average composite ACTACT (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...
score of 22.3, and graduated 93.4% of its senior class. The average class size is 19.2. Niles West was on academic watch status as of 2007.
Niles West has recently been honored with the following:
- Outstanding Biology Teacher of the Year
- Two Illinois History Teachers of the Year
- Four theatrical productions taken to Illinois High School Theatre Festival ("The Grapes of Wrath" in 2002, Mary Zimmerman's "Metamorphoses" in 2004, "The Complete History of America: Abridged" in 2009, and "Xanadu" in 2012.)
Schedule
A change instituted at the start of the 2005-2006 school year included a switch to a schedule similar to that of New Trier High SchoolNew Trier High School
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...
with nine 42-minute classes, and the possibility of taking select classes in the 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.
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 SchoolNiles North High SchoolNiles North High School, or NNHS, is a public four-year high school located in Skokie, Illinois, a North Shore suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Niles Township Community High School District 219, which also includes Niles West High School. It is also home to several...
) - 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
- Free netbooks to students starting from class of 2014
Activities
The "West Word" student newspaper has been awarded first place for seven years running, with special merit twice, by the American Scholastic Press Association Newspaper contest.The Dance Marathon
Dance marathon
A dance marathon is an event in which people stay on their feet for a given length of time. It started as a popular fad in the 1920s and 1930s, when organized dance endurance contests attracted people to compete to achieve fame or win monetary prizes...
/School Chest raised over $83,000 for Children's Oncology Services, Inc. Niles West DM in partnership with Niles North High School have raised over a hundred-and-fifty thousand dollars for numerous charities in the past.
Fine Arts
In March 2009, Niles West's Poetry Slam Team beat out over fifty other high schools and won Young Chicago Authors' citywide Louder than a Bomb competition and went on to compete nationally at the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival that summer.In summer 2010, the Niles West High School Theatre Department performed at the 2010 American High School Theatre Festival in Scotland.
Athletics
Niles West competes in the Central Suburban LeagueCentral 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...
and Illinois High School Association
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...
(IHSA). Teams are stylized as the Wolves.
Until June 2000, at the end of the 1999-2000 school year, the sports teams were known as Niles West Indians, a name which was changed to the Wolves so as not to offend Native Americans. The school colors are still red and white, although wolf murals and symbolism appear throughout the school.
Niles West sponsors interscholastic athletic teams for men and women in 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...
, cross country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
, 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....
, gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
, soccer, swimming & 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...
, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, track & field, and volleyball
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.The complete rules are extensive...
. Men may also compete in baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, Water polo
Water polo
Water polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a...
, football
High school football
High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....
, and wrestling
Scholastic wrestling
Scholastic wrestling, sometimes known in the United States as Folkstyle wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling practised at the high school and middle school levels in the United States. This wrestling style is essentially Collegiate wrestling with some slight modifications. It is currently...
. Women may compete in cheerleading
Cheerleading
Cheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...
and softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
. While not sponsored by the IHSA, the school also sponsors a Poms
Poms
POMS or Poms may refer to:* Pom-pons, a hand-held decoration used in cheerleading or a related sport also called "poms" or "pom-pons"* A slang term for British people...
team for women.
The following teams have finished in the top 4 of their respective IHSA state championship tournaments: http://www.ihsa.org/school/records/sum1922.htm IHSA Season Summaries for Niles West HS; accessed 11 April 2009]
The baseball team has won two IHSA state championships (1971-72 and 74-75). The girl's basketball team won the IHSA state championship in 1978-79.
The central athletic stadium, used by football, soccer, and track & field is Mike Basrak Field named in honor of a long-time football coach/teacher.
Notable alumni
- Bart ConnerBart ConnerBart Wayne Conner is a former American gymnast who, as a member of the gold medal-winning men's gymnastics team at the 1984 Summer Olympic Games won an individual gold on the parallel bars...
(1976) was an Olympic gymnastGymnastGymnasts are people who participate in the sports of either artistic gymnastics, trampolining, or rhythmic gymnastics.See gymnasium for the origin of the word gymnast from gymnastikos.-Female artistic:Australia...
, who won two gold medals in the 1984 Summer Olympics1984 Summer OlympicsThe 1984 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Los Angeles, California, United States in 1984...
. He is currently the owner of a gym in Oklahoma with his wife, Nadia ComăneciNadia ComaneciNadia Elena Comăneci is a Romanian gymnast, winner of three Olympic gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and the first female gymnast ever to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event. She is also the winner of two gold medals at the 1980 Summer...
. - Merrick B. GarlandMerrick B. GarlandMerrick Brian Garland is an American federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...
is a federal judgeFederal judgeFederal judges are judges appointed by a federal level of government as opposed to the state / provincial / local level.-Brazil:In Brazil, federal judges of first instance are chosen exclusively by public contest...
serving on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia CircuitUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia CircuitThe United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit known informally as the D.C. Circuit, is the federal appellate court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Appeals from the D.C. Circuit, as with all the U.S. Courts of Appeals, are heard on a...
. - Jim Hart (American football) was an NFL quarterbackQuarterbackQuarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
(1966–1984), playing most of his career for the St. Louis CardinalsArizona CardinalsThe Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
. He was a 4 time Pro BowlPro BowlIn professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League . Since the merger with the rival American Football League in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference against those...
selection. - George KontosGeorge KontosGeorge Nicholas Kontos is a Major League Baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees.Kontos attended Northwestern University, where he played for the Northwestern Wildcats baseball team. He was selected by the Yankees in the 5th round of the 2006 Major League Baseball Draft...
is a pitcher for the New York YankeesNew York YankeesThe New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division... - Gary KremenGary KremenGary Alan Kremen is an entrepreneur who founded personals site match.com, and registered several premiere domain names in the early days of the internet, including sex.com, jobs.com, , and autos.com...
(1981) is an internet entrepreneur and founder of Match.comMatch.comMatch.com is an online dating company which reportedly has more than 20 million members, made up of a 49/51 male/female ratio, and Web sites serving 25 countries in more than 8 different languages. Its headquarters are in Dallas, Texas and the company also has offices in West Hollywood, Tokyo, Rio,...
and Sex.comSex.comSex.com is an Internet domain name and web portal currently owned by Clover Holdings LTD. The domain name was the focus of one of the most publicized legal actions about ownership of domain names...
. - Rashard MendenhallRashard MendenhallRashard Jamal Mendenhall is an American football running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Steelers 23rd overall in the 2008 NFL Draft. He played college football at Illinois....
is an NFL running backRunning backA running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running...
(2008–present), currently playing for the Pittsburgh SteelersPittsburgh SteelersThe Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...
. Mendenhall participated and scored a touchdown during the 2011 Super Bowl. - Blake SloanBlake SloanBlake Sloan is an American professional ice hockey player currently with Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga . Although he played forward in the NHL, the majority of his career has been played as a defenceman....
is a professional ice hockeyIce hockeyIce hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
player who has played in the NHL, and currently plays in Europe. - Todd SuchermanTodd SuchermanTodd Sucherman is a drummer who is best known for playing with Styx since 1996.Sucherman grew up in a musical family and followed in his father's footsteps by playing the drums. His father, Arnold J. Sucherman, was a doctor by day and a drummer by night, playing in the house band at the famed Chez...
is the current drummer for the rock group StyxStyx (band)Styx is an American rock band that became famous for its albums from the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Chicago band is known for melding the style of prog-rock with the power of hard rock guitar, strong ballads, and elements of American musical theater.... - Azhar UsmanAzhar UsmanAzhar Usman is a Indian American Muslim comedian and actor born in Chicago, Illinois, United States.He is a former lecturer, community activist and lawyer and is often referred to as the 'Ayatollah of Comedy' and 'Bin Laughin'.-Background and education:...
(1993) is a professional comedian.