Northwood High School - Irvine, California/CA

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Northwood High School

4515 Portola Pkwy., Irvine, CA, 92620-2200 -

tel: (949)936-7219
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Definition of Terms

Northwood High School

School Level

High school

Grades Offered

Grades 9 - 12

County

Orange County, CA

Awards

Blue Ribbon School – Selected in 2006

Students & Faculty

Total Students

2163 students

% Male / % Female

49% / 51%

Total Classroom Teachers

81 teachers

Students by Grade

Grade 9 - 547 students

Grade 10 - 591 students

Grade 11 - 523 students

Grade 12 - 502 students

This School

( CA ) School Average

Teacher : Student Ratio

1:27

1:20

Students by Ethnicity

This School

( CA ) School Average

% American Indian	n/a	1%
% Asian	44%	11%
% Hispanic	5%	45%
% Black	1%	7%
% White	48%	33%
% Unknown	2 %	4%

Additional Student Information

This School

( CA ) School Average

% Eligible for Free Lunch

44%

% Eligible for Reduced Lunch

10%

% Migrant Students Enrolled

n/a

( CA ) Statewide Testing Performance

School Statewide Performance

View Education Department Test Scores

School District Name

Irvine Unified School District

This School's Agency

( CA ) District Average

Number of Schools Managed	33	4
Number of Students Managed	25,968 students	1,785 students
District Total Revenue	$241,504,000	$16,194,000
District Expenditure	$203,532,000	$16,545,000
District Revenue / Student	$9,300	$8,848
District Expenditure / Student	$7,838	$8,162
District Graduation Rates	n/a	n/a

Northwood High School is a part of the Irvine Unified School District, in Irvine, California. Opened in 1999, it is the newest high school in the Irvine Unified School District.
Achievements: Every year, dozens of Northwood High students receive major academic awards such as the National Merit Scholarship and the school consistently sends several dozen students to prestigious universities such as UC Berkeley and UCLA. In 2006, Newsweek Magazine labeled Northwood High School as one of the 21 "Public Elite" high schools of the nation due to its strong academic program and fairly high average SAT and ACT scores. The school has also been recently recognized as a California Distinguished School. Many academic teams such as Model United Nations (MUN), Science Olympiad, and the Speech and Debate team are well-acclaimed. The school also has successful athletic teams which include football, basketball, volleyball, soccer, cross country, and softball. In 2005, the Varsity football team made it all the way to the CIF Div.IX finals. The school also has a highly acclaimed video production class, winning such awards as best music video at the 2006 STN convention at the Disneyland hotel in Anaheim, California. In 2006, Northwood was named a Blue Ribbon School. Also in 2006 Northwood Marching Band Has Won 2nd in 5A division at The Huntington Beach High School Surf City Open. They also won the Grand Sweepstakes, best percussion, visual and auxilary in their 5A division. The Northwood Boys Water Polo team also advanced, for the first time, to Division I CIF finals. Northwood Music programs have been nationally recognized by winning the prestigious GRAMMY Signature School music award in 2006. It has recently won nomination as a finalist for the GRAMMY Signature School award in 2007 announced by the Grammy Foundation.
Location and layout: Northwood High School sits in a narrow ravine in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains, and was surrounded by working avocado groves at its founding. Currently, the surrounding land is being graded to prepare for the construction of Orchard Hills, a future residential community extending north from the existing community of Northwood Pointe. Northwood High School's site had been designated for a high school from the very beginning as part of the Irvine Company's master plan, which was drafted in 1960. So, when the school opened in 1999, it had been destined to be in that spot for some 39 years.
The school was one of the last major projects by architect William Blurock. Its spartan, blocky, stucco-covered buildings were most likely inspired by the work of Ricardo Legorreta, architect of the similarly-designed The Market Place shopping complex which is only four blocks from the school. The school is based heavily on 1950s architecture, incorporating such elements of that period as teal-tinted glass, steel louvers over high windows, glass-block panels, and Poul Henningsen-style lighting fixtures. The school was designed in a circular fashion around a central courtyard, in similar fashion as the University of California, Irvine, in an attempt to acclimate students to the layout of a college campus. The shapes and layout of the buildings are strictly conformed to imaginary radial lines emanating from the central court. This courtyard has at its center a very large Coast Live Oak, which was removed and transported from the nearby hills at a reputed cost of $10,000. This tree in effect became the schools "second mascot". The school's theater department, for instance, produces its plays under the name "Oak Tree Productions". The school won numerous awards for its design within the first four years of its existence.
In 2002 the names of the school's first graduating class were inscribed onto bricks and placed in a series of eight radial spokes around the Oak Tree.
Although the school was built without a swimming pool, there was always the intention of building one. The space set aside for a future pool was temporarily occupied by three tennis courts (the school had four others which were meant to be permanent). In 2002, the decision was made to keep the tennis courts, as they saw more use than was expected, and the pool site was moved to the lower half of the parking lot, which was already deemed as too small by most students, and plans were made to annex the flat parcel of orange groves immediately above the property for an expanded parking lot. The pool was built in 2003.
Companies Involved: The Blurock Partnership (Newport Beach, California) - Architect.
Frederick Brown & Associates (Irvine) - Electrical engineering.
Richard Price & Associates (San Juan Capistrano) - Landscape architect.
Douglas E. Barnhart, Inc. - General contractor.
In the school's first year, the central control system for the school's fire alarms was still being worked on, and this resulted in an inordinate amount of unplanned "fire drills" during that year.
In 2001 a truck caught fire in the art storage yard behind the gymnasium. The building was unharmed, but a large area of the concrete pavement was blackened. The ceramics kiln located in that yard was not believed to be responsible for the fire, despite the fact that it leaked gas for some time.
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About This Zip Code (92620)

School Zip (92620)

(CA) State Average

Population (Approximate)

26,415 people

33,137,211 people

% (age 25+) w/College Degree

66%

32%

Population Average Age

36 years old

33.3 years old

Average Household size

2.9 persons

2.9 persons

Median Household Income

$86,467

$49,006

Avg. # of Rooms in Household

6 rooms

4.8 rooms

Median Age of Housing Structure

25 years old

39 years old

View current housing listings in 92620

Median Value of Housing Unit
Zipcode (92620)

What's a Zindex?
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% Owning / % Renting

78% / 22%

58% / 42%

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Nearby Schools:


1. Creekside High School - 194 students - view location
2. Irvine High School - 1828 students - view location
3. Woodbridge High School - 2266 students - view location
4. Century High School - 2611 students - view location
5. Santa Ana Community Day - 75 students - view location
View all schools in: Irvine Town, Orange County, Zip 92620

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Note: Data has been gathered from several government and commercial data sources. School data reflects years 2002-04 statistics (most recent years available). Area and demographic data reflects year 2000 statistics. Public School Review does not ensure the timeliness or accuracy of the information on this site.

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