The school was founded in 1993 by Barbara MacPhee as a half day school focused on the rigorous instruction of
mathematics and
science. Students from any
New Orleans Public School were able to enroll part-time at NOCSMHS and part-time at their "home" school. From its inception until
Hurricane Katrina, the school was housed on the campus of
Delgado Community College. After Katrina, the school was chartered under the auspices of the
Orleans Parish School Board as a full-day, grades 9-12 high school, offering instruction in all subjects, including
English,
social studies, and foreign language. Due to the damage Delgado received from Katrina, NOCSMHS moved to the building which housed the former Henry W. Allen Elementary School in the
uptown New Orleans neighborhood. In October 2010, the school met its performance growth goal by attaining a School Performance Score over 80.0, giving it a two-star rating. The following year, in October 2011, the school far surpassed its growth goal and earned a "B+" grade—the highest grade given to any open-enrollment school in the New Orleans area. In April 2018 the board for Sci High selected former
Delgado Community College employee Monique Cola as the school's headmaster; she has a PhD from
Tulane University. The groundbreaking for the
Mid-City campus was scheduled for fall 2018. The school relocated there in 2020. It has a 400-seat gymnasium on the second floor. Katherine Hart of the
Mid-City Messenger described it as "the only New Orleans public school built specifically for STEM education." ==Faculty==