Normal Community High School

Normal Community High School is a public high school located in Normal, Illinois that was founded in 1905. NCHS serves parts of Normal, Bloomington, and Towanda and is home to over 2,000 students with 150 faculty and staff.HistoryNormal Community High School was founded in 1905.An early NCHS building was built in 1927. It had 14 classrooms, a gymnasium, library, and administrative offices. The average enrollment was 350. By 1954, NCHS had grown to the point where additional classrooms and facilities were needed. This resulted in two additions, one at the north end, housing a cafeteria and music and speech classrooms, and one at the south end, housing a new gymnasium (Arends), physics lab, agriculture lab, metals lab, woodworking lab and electronics lab.Again, in 1967, the growth of the community and increased enrollment resulted in an addition to the NCHS building. This included another new gymnasium (Neuman), a new cafeteria, a new library, new biology and chemistry labs, an automotive lab, new classrooms and office space for the Unit 5 Superintendent. Average student enrollment after this addition was over 1,350 students, peaking at 1,956 in 1974, immediately before the opening of Parkside Junior High School and the movement of 9th grade students to Chiddix and Parkside.The explosive growth of the Unit 5 population base in the 1980s and 1990s, which continues to the present time, led to a need for another high school in Normal, and in 1995, Normal Community West High School, often called simply Normal West, was completed. Some students who would have attended NCHS were transferred to Normal West when the latter opened. Athletic and other rivalries continue to exist between the two schools.