North Community High School

North Community High School, or simply Minneapolis North, is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The school has existed for over 120 years in several buildings all located on the city's northside. Minneapolis North once had a predominantly Jewish student body but by 1982, the school and the neighborhood it is located in had become mostly African American. Desegregation efforts, such as magnet school programs, have attempted to attract students from throughout Minneapolis and nearby suburbs. KBEM-FM, established by Minneapolis Public Schools in 1970, is operated partially by North students and has been located at the school since 1985. History North has occupied four buildings. The first housed three grades when North opened in 1888. Three years later the first class graduated. The school outgrew the building and a new facility was built at a new site, opening in 1896. On June 18, 1913, a fire burned down most of the school. A new building was built over the destroyed structure and was completed in 1914. Additions were made in 1921, 1923, and 1939. In 1963 it was determined that if the building was "to be retained as a secondary educational facility over a long period of time by the Minneapolis Public School system, it needs extensive rehabilitation and modernization to meet present day health, safety and educational adequacy.". Instead of improving the building, a new school was built on a new site and funded as part of a 1964 $18 million bond referendum that also funded improvements to other Minneapolis public schools. The new — and current — North opened in 1973. The building was described as "resembling a giant bunker with few windows, double doors that are often locked from outside during the day to keep out unwanted visitors and painted-over graffiti on outside walls." Another description calls it a "series of brick boxes arranged around a courtyard" that "doesn't allow it to connect well with the community". North used to house adult education classes, a school for teenage mothers and a separate charter school, Dunwoody Academy. All of these programs have relocated to other buildings. As the North Side neighborhood has changed, so has North High. During the 1920s and 1930s, the North Side was the center of Minneapolis' Jewish population. In 1936, almost half of the students were Jewish. The North Side has since transitioned into a diverse working-class neighborhood.