page_title: New Trier High School
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: New Trier High School / History
caption_attribution_description: English: New Trier High School, Winnetka campus
context_page_description: New Trier High School is a public four-year high school, with its main campus for sophomores through seniors located in Winnetka, Illinois, United States, and a freshman campus in Northfield, Illinois, with freshman classes and district administration. Founded in 1901, the school serves the Chicago suburbs of Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, and Northfield as well as portions of Northbrook, Glenview, and unincorporated Cook County. New Trier's logo depicts the Porta Nigra, a symbol of Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The athletic teams are known as the Trevians, an archaic demonym for the people of Trier.
context_section_description: New Trier High School opened its doors for the first time on February 4, 1901, welcoming 76 students.  In 1912, it became one of the first American high schools with an indoor swimming pool.  In 1920, the inaugural edition of The New Trier News was published.  In 1934, the track and field team won the school's first IHSA state championship (as of 2017, New Trier leads all Illinois high schools in the number of athletic state championships).  In 1965, the New Trier West Campus (which, as of 2017, serves the school's freshman students) was opened in the village of Northfield.
  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 boomer student body, voters approved a referendum for New Trier to purchase forty-six acres of land 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.
  The 1987-88 New Trier School Board proposed selling the New Trier West Campus in Northfield to facilitate a $10–12 million renovation project at the East Campus. Their decision to sell the property was based on a demographers report and a reluctance to raise property taxes to cover the NT East revamp. The demographer, however, expressed caution about relying on predictions that exceeded a 10-year span stating in part that ". . .after 10 years, greater risk emerges of unanticipated events invalidating even the most scientifically-based projection methods." Concerned about another spike in (school) population and the need to retain the 42.5 acre Campus for future generations, local citizen advocates formed "The Coalition for the Future of New Trier". In March 1988 the Coalition forced the issue to referendum which, backed by broad community support, resulted in a successful ratification of the Coalition's position. The Campus was retained and subsequently rented to various entities until it was again needed as additional space for a growing NT student population. According to research it took less than two decades for the combined New Trier enrollment to exceed 4,000 students. The Coali
caption: Winnetka campus
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