75 Years of Excellence
Glenbrook High School District 225 is celebrating 75 Years of Excellence through our alumni and faculty.
It was on April 12, 1947, when voters in Northfield Township approved the establishment of District 225. The approval came after District 29 in Northfield voted to remain a part of New Trier High School District 203. Prior to District 225’s establishment students in the community were attending other area high schools such as Deerfield-Shields in Highland Park, New Trier in Winnetka, Niles, Maine High School, Carl Schurz, and Northbrook High School.
In honor of the 75th anniversary, District 225 is asking its alumni to share stories about their time in District 225. Please submit a video and or image with a quote about a favorite memory, an experience that impacted your life today, etc. You can find stories of the District’s alumni throughout the school year here and on social media.
District 225 First Superintendent Dr. Norman E. Watson said, “We do not wish, in the Northfield Township High School, to copy any of our neighbors entirely. We are surrounded by many superior high schools which constitute a challenge to our planning. At the same time, however, we do not deem it wise to copy a plan. We should be grateful for those splendid ideas developed in all of them, but we do hope on our own initiative to develop a school which will best serve the people of Northfield Township.”
History of District 225
1947
Northfield Township approves high school district (No. 225).
1949
Four high school site elections held with no resolution.
1950
Suit claims Glenbrook High School should be in Glenview.
1952
Groundbreaking for Glenbrook High School in Northbrook.
1953
Glenbrook High School opens.
1959
Voters approve land purchase for Glenbrook South High School.
1962
Glenbrook South High School opens and Glenbrook High is renamed to Glenbrook North.
1964
District 225's first Superintendent Dr. Norman E. Watson retires.
1984
Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South receives national 'Excellence in Education' award.
1997
President Bill Clinton visits District 225.
2003
Glenbrook North celebrates its golden anniversary (50 years).
2012
Glenbrook South celebrates its golden anniversary (50 years).
Glenbrook South’s first principal Dr. Sydney Salt said, “Glenbrook South is more than the name for an 80-acre cornfield I visited in early 1961. It means ‘community team’ in my reflection. Students, parents, elected officials, citizens with or without children, educators, and all others - yes even our planned rivals at Glenbrook North - were an open-minded team, helpful in defining the ‘School of the Future.’”
Did You Know...
Walter Payton and the Chicago Bears competed against Glenbrook South faculty in a fundraising basketball game after the Bears won the Super Bowl in 1986.
The Glenbrook Peer Group Program started in 1974.
Parts of the 1980s movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off was filmed at Glenbrook North High School.
GBS won a Grammy Award back in 2008 when the Grammy Foundation recognized the music program as the best in the nation and was named the 'National Grammy Signature School.'
Glenbrook North 1974 graduate Ed McNally said, “It’s this really unique place different from Winnetka, different from Wheeling, its own special thing. The number of people from this high school who conquered the world in so many different fields in so many different parts of the country is absolutely astonishing.”
Alumni Stories
