North High School

Story

North High School is part of the Phoenix Union High School District. The campus is located at 1101 East Thomas Road north of downtown Phoenix, Arizona, United States. North’s enrollment is 2,530 students. The school predominantly serves students from partner elementary districts Madison, Osborn, Creighton and Phoenix Elementary.North is the home of the local International Baccalaureate Magnet Program.HistoryNorth High School opened its doors to 1,517 students in 1939.Declining enrollment and budget shortfalls in the late 1970s forced the district governing board in 1981 to close North High along with Phoenix Union, East and West high schools. Shortly after that, lawsuits were filed by inner city parents; in its decision in Castro v. Phoenix Union High School District, the U.S. District Court ruled that the district must restore educational opportunities to inner city high school students. The district chose to reopen North High in order to satisfy the court's concerns. In the fall of 1983, after a $1.2 million renovation, North was opened once again, with a freshman class of 595 students drawn from a mix of Hispanic (50%), black (10%), and white (30%) neighborhoods. In addition, a small number of sophomores, juniors, and seniors (some of which had attended North in 1980) chose to transfer to North, to complete their education there. The International Baccalaureate (IB) Program was introduced to North High School in 1985.