School type Public secondary Superintendent Karen Sullivan Grades 9–12 Phone +1 630-428-6000 Average ACT scores 25.6 | Opened 1997 Principal Robert McBride Total enrollment 4,005 (2012) Mascot Willie The Wildcat | |
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Similar Waubonsie Valley High School, Metea Valley High School, Naperville Central High Sch, Indian Prairie School Di, Benet Academy Profiles | ||
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Neuqua Valley High School (NVHS) is a public four-year high school located near the corner of Illinois Route 59 and 95th Street in Naperville, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Neuqua Valley is the counterpart to Waubonsie Valley High School and Metea Valley High School, in Indian Prairie School District 204.
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History
The campus consists of two locations. The Birkett Freshman Center building houses freshmen. The Main Campus, the original building, houses sophomores ,juniors ,and seniors.
The original Neuqua Valley campus building was opened in August 1997, and was built to house 3000 students.
The middle school conversion was done for the 2003–2004 academic year in an effort to alleviate overcrowding. The "Frontier Campus" allowed seniors to receive dual credit for classes from the College of DuPage. These students attended class in block sessions with no classes on Friday. It allowed for independence and freedom. Seniors from Waubonsie Valley High School also participated in the program. The Frontier Campus option was closed in 2012.
The lake behind the school is known as "Lake Birkett", in honor of the school's first principal, Kathryn Birkett, who also served as the district's superintendent until 2014.
Neuqua Valley was designed by the architecture firm ATS&R.
Academics
In 2011, Neuqua Valley had an average composite ACT score of 25.2, and graduated 99.1% of its senior class.
In 2013, US News ranked Neuqua Valley 563rd in their annual list of the top American public high schools. However, Neuqua Valley has not met federal education standards under the No Child Left Behind law.
In November 2011, Neuqua Valley High School was ranked 11th in the "Top 50 High Schools in Chicagoland" by Chicago Tribune and the top ranked high school in Naperville, Illinois. The Main Campus, the original building, is divided into five wings, A-E. The A wing contains Neuqua's Fine and Applied Arts, as well as industrial and consumer education classrooms and facilities. The B wing contains History, English and Health classrooms. The C wing contains Science classrooms complete with lab equipment and also television production studios. The D wing contains Math, Computer Science, Foreign Language and Business Classrooms. The E wing contains the cafeteria and Physical Education facilities and the staff room.
First-year classes are held in the Brikett Freshman Campus building. Some classes for seniors were held in a special "Frontier Campus". This building was closed in 2012 and all seniors attend classes at the Main Campus.
Honors
Neuqua Valley has received recognition by the Grammy Association for its music program. The school was named a GRAMMY signature school in 1998, 1999, and 2001, a GRAMMY signature school Gold in 2000, 2003, 2004, and 2009, and the National GRAMMY Signature school "Best in Nation" in 2005 and 2013. The Music Department homepage has a list of other awards.
Controversy
On the first day of the 2015–2016 school year, a student wore a Confederate flag, sparking a mass social media response. Yahoo! Canada published an article regarding the flag and its effect beyond Neuqua Valley High School.
Athletics
Neuqua Valley competes in the DuPage Valley Conference for athletics. The school is also a member of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA), and competes in state tournaments that it sponsors.
The school sponsors interscholastic teams for young men and women in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and water polo. Young men also have teams sponsored in baseball, football, and wrestling. Women may compete in badminton, bowling, gymnastics, cheerleading, and softball.
While not sponsored by the IHSA, the school's athletic department also supports a competitive poms team, a dance team (orchesis), a rugby team, and a team which competes in and works with the Special Olympics. Outside of these teams, the school sponsors a lacrosse club, a sport recognized as an emerging sport by the IHSA. An extensive intramural program is also available, competing in many sports including basketball, bowling, and even ping pong. Each fall, Neuqua also participates in a women's powderpuff football tournament with Waubonsie, Metea, Naperville Central, Naperville North, and Benet Academy in Lisle. Neuqua is also home to a large multi-team Ultimate Frisbee club, which started in 2007. The varsity team placed 3rd in the nation in the 2012 season.
The following teams have placed in the top four of their respective IHSA State Championship:
The boys' cross-country team has placed within the top 15 in the state race in Peoria every year since 2001. In 2007, the boys cross country team won the Nike Team Nationals. The team ran under the name Naperville XC Club to avoid violating IHSA season limitation by-laws. They placed 12th in 2009 and 2010. Most recently, the team finished 5th in the Nation in 2016.
The boys track team has displayed increasing success since the late 2000s including a back to back state championship 4×400 relay in 2008-09 and 2009–10; a feat rarely done in IHSA track and field.
Marching band
The marching band performs at all of the home football games at half time and playing pep songs to rally the crowd during the game. The NVHS dance team dances along to the pep songs at half time after the band's main performance. Also the Marching Wildcats march at the Labor Day parade and the Memorial Day parade in Downtown Naperville. The Marching Wildcats have placed third at the Illinois Marching Band Championships two years in a row.
Facilities
The school's athletic facilities include: One 8-lane 25-yard indoor swimming pool that is 13 feet deep at the start and 9 feet deep at the turn, with a side diving well with two boards, and a small 3-lane 20-yard wading/warm-up pool. The Main Campus has three gymnasiums: two of these have three full-sized basketball courts each, and one is used for gymnastics. The Birkett Freshman Center has 2 gymnasiums, 1 weight room, and 1 rock climbing wall (given as a senior class gift in 2003). There is also a fully equipped weight room, a wrestling room, a football field enclosed by a 400-meter recycled rubber running track and a soccer stadium. The school also has more than 10 sound rooms.
Activities
The school sponsors numerous extracurricular clubs and organizations ranging from arts and academic to cultural and special interest. While an entire list can be found at nvhs.ipsd.org, the following are the most notable in terms of being chapters of a larger national movement: