Noble Street Charter High School
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Noble Street College Prep is a public charter high school located at 1010 Noble Street in Chicago, Illinois, serving approximately 470 students. The school is overseen by the Chicago Public Schools.
The school was cofounded by Principal Michael Milkie and Dean of Students Tonya Hernandez Milkie in 1999. As of 2005, its principal is William Olsen. Prospective students are chosen through blind lottery. In order to receive an application, prospective students are required to come to the open house in order to get a feel for the school before deciding to register if accepted.
The official name of the original campus was changed in 2006 from "Noble Street Charter High School" to "Noble Street College Prep" as part of an expansion to offer more opportunities for Chicago public school students to enroll. Noble Street College Prep is the original campus, also referred to as the "OC" by students and faculty, in the Noble Network of Charter Schools. The Noble Network currently has 9 campuses open: Noble Street College Prep (Original Campus), Rauner College Prep, Pritzker College Prep, Golder College Prep, Rowe-Clark Math and Science Academy, UIC College Prep, Gary Comer College Prep, Muchin College Prep, and Chicago Bulls College Prep. The Noble Street Campus has graduated seven senior classes ('03, '04, '05, '06, '07, '08, '09). Come the 2009-2010 school year, it will graduate its eighth senior class while Pritzker and Rauner will be graduating their first senior classes.
The faculty of Noble Street enjoys praising its students through their four years of high school, especially seniors. Seniors receive "senior shirts" which contain a picture usually designed by a student and a slogan that defines the senior class as a whole. For example, the senior shirts of the class of 2009 contained '09 in bubble letters with a tiger. The slogan for the class of '09 was "The Last of the First" because they are the last class to graduate by themselves from the original campus since two other campuses will have seniors as well the following school year. At the end of the year, the seniors, senior advisers, and several members of the faculty take the seniors to a "senior retreat" or "senior camp". The students spend about three days at camp participating in different outdoor activities. This time is used as the students last chance to enjoy each other before graduation.
Noble Street College Prep is a college prep high school that has a focused curriculum in reading, math, science, and English. It incorporates the use of computers and word processing into all of its academics using the third floor computer lab to conduct technology classes that all students take as freshmen.
All students are required to wear a uniform. The uniform consists of white, maroon, and navy polo shirts that have the school name on the left breast side. Juniors and seniors are permitted to wear gold polo shirts. Seniors are allowed to wear their “Senior Shirts" every first Friday of the month. Students in National Honors Society (NHS) are permitted to wear black polo shirts on Fridays. All shirts must be tucked in to the pants. Black belts must be worn with khaki pants. Black dress shoes are required. Noble Street keeps a strict dress code policy in order to enforce professionalism and eliminate distractions within the school. Demerits are issued for any infractions of the dress code.
Mayor Daley has designated money to build more small high-performing schools (including charter schools, contract schools, and performance schools) by 2010 [1]. He made it official when he visited the Noble Street in 2006. This has allowed Noble to expand into the Noble Network of Charter Schools. The network opened two additional campuses--Rauner and Pritzker College Prep--in August 2006, and two more campuses in the fall of 2007 making a total of five schools.
The only foreign language taught at Noble Street is Russian. Students take Russian during their Junior and Senior year. Every month the Russian Club organizes an event in which students can attend and learn more about the Russian Culture while also receiving extra credit.
Noble has had lots of visitors from around the country. Representatives of Bill Gates' Gates Foundation are among the many visitors. Visitors are welcomed to classrooms by the "greeter system." When students hear a knock on the door during class, an assigned student greeter gets up from his/her seat and welcomes the visitor to Noble Street while the class that is in session is not disrupted. This has made quite an impression on visitors, many of whom have become current teachers.
Noble Street's Drama consists entirely of Noble Students. Every year, the students with the help of teachers write a play and perform it. The title of 2008's play was "Time After Time" which revolved around the conflict between super heroes and super villains. Just recently (February 27, 2009) the drama club opened their new production entitled "The End of the World". The production was divided into two parts. Part 1 showed events in everyday life that are figuratively referred to as the end of the world. Part two took a literal turn and showed the characters as they spend their last 92 minutes on earth. The show is also run by Theater Tech Club, an after school class for students.
Noble Street also offers 4 year electives which students can take to earn enrichment credits. Electives offered include Community Building, Art, MJROTC, Choir, Psychology, Technical Theater, and more. As of the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year, Band class is no longer offered as an elective option. Now, if a student wishes to be in a Band class, he/she must commit to the after school Band class that is being offered.
Noble Street's year round running program is one of the best in the city of Chicago and involves appriximately 25% of its students annually. In the fall of 2008, its boys team, coached by David Biele since its inception in 2000, reached a new pinnacle of success by winning the IHSA Chicago Lake View Regional Championship, and in 2009, its girls team, coached since 2008 by Jason Krumwiede, came in the top 5 at this meet, qualifying for the IHSA Jones Sectional meet for the first time since 2005. Starting each November, its "Winter Warriors," 5K training program founded by Biele in 2001 and co-coached by Biele and Krumwiede since 2008, offers twice weekly winter conditioning for Noble's male and female runners. When Chicago's winter weather begins to thaw in March, Noble's Road Runners running club, which Biele founded in 2002, and co-lead by Biele and Krumwiede since 2008, offers Noble's runners the opportunity to train for and compete in some of Chicago's premier springtime running events, including the Shamrock Shuffle, Ravenswood Run, and Soldier Field 10 Mile. The club begins each season with a weekend spring training running camp in Lake Delevan, Wisconsin, and concludes with the Noble Classic 5K, the network wide race Biele began in 2003 and held each May in Humboldt Park. In addition to the Chicago races, the Road Runners have competed in events in Wisconsin (Lake Geneva 5K/10K) and will add Indiana to the list in May 2010 when they participate in the Indianapolis Half Marathon.
In addition to these programs, Noble Street College prep offers a debate program that participates in the Chicago Urban Debate League tournament. The debate team has won countless awards and even won the school a grant at the city championships.All this has transpired on the 2007-2008 school year, which happens to be the programs first year. Truly, Noble Street Charter's Debate team is looking to dominate the competition in the years to come. The Debate program has also been in cooperation with Jenner & Block, a Chicago Law firm, to better their debaters. Through this cooperation Noble Street has been able to send its debaters to all important debate camps including the UTNIF debate camps over the 2008 summer.
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