Appleton North High School

Infobox school
name = Appleton North High School

motto =Rodney knows all
established = 1995
type = no one knows
grades = 9-12
students = 1800
faculty = [http://www.aasd.k12.wi.us/North/staff/abcstaff.htm 100+]
city = Appleton
state = Wisconsin
country = United States
oversight = Appleton Area School District
principal = Mr.Huggins
mascot = Lightning
colors = Gold, Silver, Navy Blue
wiaa conference = Fox Valley Association
yearbook = The Almanack
newspaper = The Noctiluca
website = [http://www.aasd.k12.wi.us/north/ Appleton North High School]

Appleton North High School is a comprehensive secondary school in Appleton, Wisconsin. It is part of the Appleton Area School District. Opened in August 1995, it is the most recently built of the three four-year public schools in the district.

The school has roughly 1800 enrolled students. The school colors are gold, silver and navy blue. The school's nickname is the Appleton North Lightning.

North is led by Principal Robert Huggins, with Associate Principals David Pynenberg and David Mueller.

Students at North and other Appleton Area schools typically perform above the Wisconsin state average on standardized tests. [http://www.aasd.k12.wi.us/About/documents/report_to_comunityforweb.pdf]

North Theatre Department

The theatre department is well-known in the Fox Valley for the musicals that they produce. Some of the musicals the department has done are "Cinderella", "The Sound of Music", "Aida", "Les Misérables", and "The Secret Garden". In march of 2008, they performed "Miss Saigon". The school was the first to introduce two weekends of shows and double casting to the Valley.Fact|date=March 2008 The One-Act Team has won the prestigious Critics Choice Award nine years in a row at the Wisconsin High School Theatre Festival. For the 2006 Festival, the school did a One Act of "Hamlet". The spring drama for the 2006-2007 school year was "The Arabian Nights" and was the 2007-2008 One Act. Ron Parker is the head of the theatre department and director. Since his arrival in 1999, Parker has brought many challenging and successful productions to North's stage. North was one of the first high schools in the country to produce Mary Zimmerman’s Tony Award-winning play "Metamorphoses", complete with an 1800 gallon pool of water on stage. In 2003, North's production of "Les Misérables" featured a rotating stage. In 2008, the production of "Cyrano de Bergerac" was performed in the round with the audience on the stage.

Appleton North High School is also the setting of Appleton's Summer Shakespeare Theatre.

Past Productions:"Cinderella", "The Sound of Music", "Peter Pan", "Les Misérables", "The Secret Garden", "You Can't Take It With You", "Our Town", "A Christmas Carol", "The Arabian Nights", "Schoolhouse Rock", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Romeo and Juliet", "Aida", "Arsenic and Old Lace", "The Fifteen Minute Hamlet", "The Wizard of Oz", "Beauty and the Beast", "Saint Joan", "The Tempest", "Metamorphoses", "Hamlet", "Tartuffe", "Cyrano De Bergerac"

Appleton North Band Department

The Appleton North High School Band, under the direction of Mr. Jim Thaldorf, is one of the best high school bands in the city.Fact|date=March 2008 The students are separated into four bands (increasing in experience and talent of members): Concert Band, Symphonic Band, Wind Symphony, and Honors Band. The music department contains approximately 226 band members that participate in multiple parades, pep band at the home sporting events, the half time show for the homecoming football game, and three concerts a year. Mr. Thaldorf also directs two jazz ensembles, and patrols the lunch room.

Appleton North Choir Department

Appleton North has an outstanding Choral Department, and it has received recognition as one of the best choral departments in the state. The program consists of six choirs, three directed by Craig Aamot and the other three by Ed Baseman. North Choir is the mixed choir for the best singers in the program. There has routinely been widespread support for the choir program not only within the school, but also within the community of Appleton and the Fox Cities. North's "Holiday Classics" is a holiday show put on by the choirs at North during the Christmas season, and features a collection of choral songs, soloists and a play written by Ron Parker. The school sells thousands of tickets for the show annually.

Other Achievements

During the 2006-2007 season, the Appleton North Math Team won the Fox Valley Math League competition for the first time in school history.

During the 2004 football season Appleton North went undefeated.

During the 2008 women's soccer season the varsity team won conference, regionals, sectionals and went to state losing to the eventual state champions.

Appleton North was also home to Elliot Krause, the top highschool distance runner in the state of wisconsin. In 2007, he won the state cross country meet (5K), and in 2008, he won the 3200 meter run in the state meet. He will be attending UW Madison for the 2008-2009 school year as a freshman.

References

External links

* [http://www.aasd.k12.wi.us/North/ Appleton North High School]
* [http://www.appletonnorththeatre.com Appleton North Theatre Website]
* [http://www.aasd.k12.wi.us/Staff/thaldorfjames/index.htm Appleton North Band Web site]
* [http://www.AASDMusicMan.com All High School production of The Music Man]