North Miami Beach Senior High School is a secondary school located at 1247 NE 167 Street in North Miami Beach, Florida, USA; its principal is Raymond L. Fontana. North Miami Beach was built in 1971 as an overcrowding reliever school for North Miami High School to the south at 800 N.E. 137 Street, and Miami Norland High School to the northwest at 1050 N.W. 195 Street.

North Miami Beach Senior High School was a pioneer in school construction, being the first high school in Dade County to be built with no windows, and was, therefore, completely air-conditioned.

History

NMBHS's style of education, with no traditional letter grades, created tension within middle and upper-middle class North Dade (County) families, whose older children had attended and graduated from traditional Dade County schools. They were not happy that their younger children would be placed in an experimental school that eschewed the traditions the parents knew, as the Miami Herald reported at the time. However, by the time the school was four years old, the non-traditional approach had been abandoned.

North Miami Beach also has a Biomedical and Environmental Advancement Magnet program (BEAM) available to any students in the district. The program gives higher education credits to students wishing to pursue a career in medicine or environmental sciences.

In the summer of 2005, the school added a two story building to its campus.

Sport

Until a regional high school football stadium was built in the 1990s at the (northern) Biscayne Bay campus of Florida International University off Biscayne Boulevard and N.E. 151 Street, the NMB Chargers football team played both its home and away games at the northern regional football stadium, Traz Powell Stadium. Located at the then Miami-Dade North Community College campus, now called Miami Dade College, it was more than seven miles away from the NMB campus.

Sports rivalries

NMB's athletic rivals are North Miami Senior High School and Dr. Michael M. Krop High School.

Prior to the opening of Krop, the following schools were the most intense rivals: Men's Soccer- North Miami Senior High School, especially games at the Pioneers' home field, the scene of a historic Ciro Martinez-led last-second Charger win in 1976 that helped fuel the Chargers' run to the Florida state championship.

The Vikings of Miami Norland Senior High School, who inflicted a 1977 loss on the Chargers, knocking them out of the Florida state playoffs at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, and ending the Chargers' hope of winning back-to-back Florida state soccer championships. The Vikings eventually finished as the state runner-up that year.

Women's Gymnastics-

• North Miami Senior High School always proved tough competition when twin sisters Debbie Reiser and Donna Reiser were top-flight All-Dade gymnasts there between 1975-79. Ultimately, NMBs greater depth and all-around ability always won the day by the last event led by Lisa Martin and Karen Ginsburg.
• The toughest competition for the NMB Charger gymnastics team during their undefeated glory days of the late 1970s under head coach Peter Saponaro -himself an All-American and co-captain of an NCAA Championship Men's team at Pennsylvania State University in the 1960s- came against the Trojans of H-ML, Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School, when H-ML dominated the high school sports world of Miami.

Notable alumni

• Perry Farrell (Perry Bernstein), Rockstar - Janes' Addiction, Porno for Pyro's, etc.
• Max Jean-Gilles - Philadelphia Eagles
• Bobby Kemp - former NFL strong safety for Cincinnati Bengals from 1981-86, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1987. Started in Super Bowl as rookie.
• Alfred Spellman - film Producer (Cocaine Cowboys) (Raw Deal: A Question of Consent)
• Brad Meltzer - author
• Garcelle Beauvais - actress (who portrays Attorney Valerie Heywood in the TV program NYPD Blue)
• Jin - rapper
• Eric Garcia - author
• Del. Kirill Reznik (D-39), politician, Member, Maryland State House of Delegates

In popular culture

Awards and achievements

• Men's Soccer: Florida State Champions in 1976 under head coach Victor Cappillo
• Women's Gymnastics: Greater Miami Athletic Conference (County) Champions 1976-1979 and Florida State Champions in 1979 under head coach: Peter Saponaro
• Wrestling: State Champions in 1994
• Robotics Regional Champions in 2003

References

See also

• Miami-Dade County Public Schools
• High school
• Education in the United States

External links

• Miami-Dade County public schools
• North Miami Beach Senior High School