New Trier High School (; also known as New Trier Township High School or NTHS) is a public four-year high school whose main campus for sophomores through seniors is in Winnetka, Illinois, United States, with a campus in Northfield, Illinois, for first-year classes and district administration. Founded in 1901, the school serves the Chicago suburbs of Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, and Northfield, as well as parts of Northbrook, Glenview, and unincorporated Cook County. New Trier's seal depicts the Porta Nigra, a symbol of Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The athletic teams are known as the Trevians, the demonym for the people of Trier.
Campuses New Trier Township High School has three campuses. The western campus, New Trier Northfield is located in Northfield, Illinois. It serves freshman students. New Trier has an eastern campus near Lake Michigan called the Winnetka Campus in Winnetka, Illinois which serves sophomore through senior students. New Trier opened a third campus in Glencoe, Illinois in 2023 called the Transition Campus which provides students with disabilities "transitional and vocational" training.
History
New Trier High School opened on February 4, 1901, welcoming 76 students. In 1913, it became the first American high school with an indoor swimming pool.
The first edition of The New Trier News was published in 1920. In 1934, the track and field team won the school's first IHSA state championship (as of 2023, New Trier leads all Illinois high schools in athletic state championships). In 1965, the New Trier West Campus (which, as of 2023, serves the school's first-year students) opened in the village of Northfield.
In the 1950s, New Trier became the first U.S. high school with an educational, non-commercial FM broadcast license for a radiated station (WNTH, 88.1 FM). By 1970, New Trier was home to the nation's first public high school-based CCTV instructional station, ITV, which broadcast educational programming to township elementary schools via microwave signals. Students operated WNTH under a faculty advisor, and ITV was run by students under professional television technical and programming staff.
By 1962, student enrollment was more than 4,000. Some 20 "temporary" trailer classrooms lined the rear of the building, which had been designed for 3,000. To accommodate the growing baby boomer student body, voters approved a referendum for New Trier to purchase 46 acres of land in Northfield. Chicago architecture firm Perkins and Will was selected to design a campus of curricular buildings clustered around a central library and administration building. The resulting modernist design was widely noted in secondary education architecture literature and practice and emulated by Winnetka's Carleton Washburne junior high school several years later.
"New Trier West" opened to first- and second-year students in 1965. What had been "New Trier", at 385 Winnetka Avenue in Winnetka, became "New Trier East". In 1967, New Trier West was dedicated as a separate four-year high school. U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare John Gardner keynoted the dedication, which was also attended by U.S. Senator Charles Percy (class of 1937) and Congressman Donald Rumsfeld (class of 1950).
Enrollment reached an all-time peak of 6,558 students in 1972. By 1981, enrollment had dropped significantly. As a result, the school board combined the East and West schools and converted New Trier West into a freshman-only campus. The division of first-year students (at the former New Trier West) from upper-level students (at the former New Trier East) lasted from 1981 to 1985. By then, enrollment had declined enough for the board to bring all students under one roof, close the former New Trier West, and convert the Northfield campus into a community recreation space. The campus later housed a senior center, corporate dormitories, a public swimming pool, and an alternative high school program known as West Center Academy.
The 1987-88 New Trier School Board proposed selling the New Trier West Campus in Northfield to facilitate a $10–12 million renovation project at the East Campus. Their decision to sell the property was based on a demographer's report and a reluctance to raise property taxes to cover the NT East revamp. The demographer, however, expressed caution about relying on predictions that exceeded ten years, stating in part that "... after 10 years, greater risk emerges of unanticipated events invalidating even the most scientifically-based projection methods." Concerned about another spike in (school) population and the need to retain the 42.5 acre Campus for future generations, local citizen advocates formed "The Coalition for the Future of New Trier". In March 1988, the Coalition forced the issue to a referendum, which, backed by broad community support, successfully ratified the Coalition's position. The Campus was retained and subsequently rented to various entities until it was again needed as additional space for a growing NT student population. According to research, the combined New Trier enrollment took less than two decades to exceed 4,000 students. The Coalition has never been acknowledged publicly for its significant role as a catalyst in retaining the 42.5-acre New Trier West Campus.
In 2017, the school neared completion of a $104.9 million renovation and addition project at its East Campus, which replaced three aging buildings on the west side of the campus with the addition of a new student cafeteria, a new library, more than two dozen classrooms for core English, math, social studies, language and business program classes, new art labs, applied arts classroom spaces in the basement for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) programming, space for the school's radio and broadcasting programming, two green roofs, and two new theaters.
In 2023 New Trier opened a new $75 million, state-of-the-art, four-level athletic complex designed to support student-athletes year-round. The building features a quarter-mile, six-lane indoor track surrounding a turf infield with retractable batting cages, modern locker rooms and training spaces, a large competition gym seating 1,800 spectators with a high-tech videoboard, an auxiliary gym, expansive weight and fitness centers, and dedicated spaces for climbing and outdoor education programs. Designed for versatility and high usage, the facility accommodates a wide range of sports and physical education activities while creating an energetic, athlete-centered environment that honors the legacy of the original Gates Gym through preserved architectural and historical elements.
Governance
New Trier's current superintendent is Dr. Peter Tragos, who was selected by the Board of Education in November 2024. Tragos, the school's seventh superintendent since 1931, succeeded Dr. Paul Sally, who served as superintendent from 2017 to 2025. He replaced Dr. Linda L. Yonke, the first woman to hold the position, at the end of June 2017.
New Trier has a seven-member elected school board.
Recent superintendents
Superintendent Years Peter Tragos 2025 – Present Paul Sally 2017 – 2025 Linda Yonke 2006 – 2017 Henry “Hank” Bangser 1990 – 2006
Admissions In the 2021–22 academic year, New Trier had an enrollment of 2,995 students in grades 10-12 and a student-teacher ratio of 11.7 to 1. Most of the students come from middle or upper-class families, with 3% of students from poor households (measured by how many qualify for free/reduced-price lunch).
Most students identify as white (77%), while 10% are Asian, 7% are Hispanic, and 5% are multiracial. Less than one percent of the student body is Black, American Indian, Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.
On the freshman campus, were 894 students enrolled in 2021–22. The student-teacher ratio is somewhat lower, at 10.5 to 1. Demographically, the student body is similar to the main campus: 75% of students are white, 10% are Asian, 9% are Hispanic, and 6% are multiracial, with members of other groups accounting for less than 1 percent. 3% of students come from households with income below the income threshold for subsidized school lunches.
Curriculum New Trier has practiced subject-level grouping since the 1956-1957 school year. In this system, up to four different levels of difficulty are offered for each academic subject. Level 2E is considered a general level. Levels 2, 3 and 4 are college preparatory, honors, and high honors levels, respectively. Level 5 was reserved for Advanced Placement classes and other college-level classes, such as multivariable calculus and linear algebra, but that level was phased out beginning with the class of 2011. (All 5-level courses have since been counted as 4-level.) Students may work at different levels in different subjects. Other levels include 8 and 9. Level 8 classes are counted for elective credit and level 9 classes, a combination of level 2, 3, and 4 students (i.e. 2+3+4=9) are graded as level 3 classes.
New Trier offers unweighted and weighted grade point averages (GPA); plus and minus grades are reported on transcripts. In calculating a weighted GPA, grades in a student's coursework are given different values depending on the level in which the grade is earned. For example, an "A" in a 2-level course is weighted at 4.00, while in levels 3 and 4, the values are 4.67 and 5.33, respectively (an "A" in a 5-level AP class was worth 5.67). In 2009, New Trier announced that for the 2010–2011 school year, the level 5 will be eliminated. A.P. classes will be weighted to level 4.
Awards and recognition In 2006, New Trier spent over $15,000 yearly per student, well above the then-state average of $8,786. It has been included in the "Top Hundred" and "Most Successful" lists of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Parade magazine. The school was identified as "quite possibly the best public school in America" by Town & Country, in a six-page article on New Trier that cited the "rich" and "demanding" curriculum, extensive arts and activities, strong participation in athletics, and faculty of the caliber typically found teaching at good colleges.Maeroff, Gene I. (June, 1986). "Let's Hear it for New Trier". Town and Country Monthly, p. 147. Life also recognized New Trier as one of the best high schools in America with cover stories in 1950 and 1998.
In 2016, Newsweek magazine ranked New Trier as the top open-enrollment high school in Illinois and the 17th best high school in the country.
In the class of 2024, 33 students were National Merit finalists, 36 were National Merit semifinalists, 79 received letters of commendation, and 365 were Illinois State Scholars. For this same class, the average composite ACT score was 27.5. The class of 2018 scored an average 28.0 composite on the ACT, the highest ever for New Trier and the highest in Illinois for open enrollment schools. According to an article by the University of Michigan Department of Psychology, "New Trier students outperform their Illinois classmates on every conceivable measure." The article also points out that 92% of the school's funding comes from the high property taxes of its affluent surroundings. Approximately 98% of the class of 2014 went on to enroll in college.
New Trier ensembles or individuals have received 39 awards in the Downbeat Student Music Awards program. A record-setting seven of these were achieved in 2007 alone. More than 1,100 students participate in the music department. The student-run Soundtraks Club produces all 24 concerts a year, webcast live on the internet at ntjazz.com, on local cable television, and in stereo on WNTH radio.