Northgate High School

Northgate High School (NHS) is a Walnut Creek, California, United States, public high school located in the suburban Northgate neighborhood. Established in 1974, the most recent of five high schools in the Mount Diablo Unified School District, the school is home to approximately 1,500 students from grades 9-12 from Walnut Creek and Concord, California. Its name derives from its location at Mount Diablo State Park's north entrance.

 

They have been a school renowned for their ability to celebrate their academic, athletic and artistic accomplishments since 1974. Their academic excellence is enabled by an excellent faculty whose work is constantly motivated by their commitment to their students. This professional devotion extends to their athletic programs, where more than two-thirds of their students have discovered how valuable participation can be in the competitive arena. Among those students whose creative expression is continually shared both within and outside the group, this same excitement is also seen. Most notably, maybe, students are actively interested in making the world a better place for all of us.

 

History

To alleviate pressure on nearby Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord, Northgate High School opened in 1974. Students were phased in gradually; in 1976, the school graduated its first class. The last high school to be constructed in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District was Northgate.

 

The school held a debate on Proposition 6 in September 1978, a state proposition that would have made it mandatory for school boards to publicly fire gay and lesbian teachers. The debate was between the sponsor of the proposal, John Briggs, and Harvey Milk, the San Francisco supervisor. Before he was killed, it was the last debate in which Milk participated.

 

A petition was made in December 2007 to transfer Northgate to Acalanes Union High School District. The appeal was both rejected by Mt. Diablo school district board and by the Contra Costa County Office of Education.

 

A new movement to split Northgate High and its feeder elementary and middle schools into a new, separate school system was launched in 2016 by an organization called Northgate CAPS (Community Support for our Public Schools). The Contra Costa County Board of Education held public hearings on the petition on May 2-3, 2017. The county board decided against the request; the proposal could also be taken up by the state board of education but did not do so as of July 2018.

 

Academics

In 2007, Northgate High School was designated a distinguished school. The school employs 60 teachers who are accredited. 21 Advanced Placement courses in the fields of science, mathematics, English, foreign languages, social sciences and art are offered. Around 97 percent of graduates attend colleges and universities for four years or two years. In 2010–2011, the school had a 94 percent graduation rate.

 

Northgate does not have any formal academies, unlike some other schools in the Mt. Diablo area. For freshmen, however, it provides a "pathway" from Global Perspectives. Three "threaded" classes (English 1, World History, and Art Design) are taken by a set framework of students that create ties between the content in all three. Project-based learning is structured to reinforce the concepts taught in the classes.

 

The course catalog also provides students with a particular interest with multiple collections of recommended classes, although these are not collaboratively planned; they include sequences in communication, environmental studies, animation, and engineering. During the fall, each senior must participate in a Mock Congress and must apply for a Senior Project at the end of the school year.