North Reading High School

Description

North Reading High School is the public high school serving students in grades 9–12 from the town of North Reading, Massachusetts. It has an enrollment of 755 students as of the 2013–2014 school year with a pupil-teacher ratio of about 12:1. The school has 62 full- and part-time faculty and staff, several of whom are NRHS graduates. The current principal is Anthony J. Loprete; the current assistant principal is Michael Downs.NRHS was voted one of the top 50 public high schools in Massachusetts in 2013 and 2015 by U.S. News & World Report. It failed to make the same publication's rankings in 2014.ConstructionIn 2012, the secondary schools building committee and the citizens of North Reading, in overwhelming support, voted to begin the creation of a combined high school/middle school facility. With the help of state and local funding, construction began on the new school in the fall of the same year.The structure began to take shape just above and behind the 1955 high school building. In fall 2014, the first phase of construction was complete: the new high school building went into use while the old high school building, down the hill, received one final year as a temporary home for middle school students. The 2014-2015 school year saw the overhaul renovation of the old middle school building next to the newly completed high school.In fall 2015, the building project was considered to be complete. Students in grades 6-12 entered permanent classrooms in the middle school, the high school and the shared common area. By winter 2015, the 1955 high school was completely demolished and final work began on the creation of athletic fields in its place.The new facility consists of a completely new high school, a completely renovated middle school, and a shared common area linking those two institutions. This common area includes a two-court gymnasium, cafeteria, state-of-the-art theatre and television studio. New tennis courts and softball fields complete the project.