The expansion had other ramifications. The school now had extra space and, as a result, increased its enrolment to a new high of 1,366. This meant a lower cutoff in the entrance exam, which led to the school's median ENTER dropping to second in the state. The median only returned to first place again in 2009 (see Academics). After making numerous innovative changes and advancements, Ray Willis died in July 2004 as the school's longest serving principal and the school went into a state of mourning. In January 2005, Jeremy Ludowyke was appointed principal. In 2007 a new Arts Centre began construction and after nearly two years was officially opened by major donator and 'old boy' Lindsay Fox (who was asked to leave during his time as a student). In 2007, Year Ten students were assigned to produce their own 'Citizenship Statement'. The results were collated to create an official 'MHS Citizenship Statement' that details the school's expectations of its students and now appears in the student planner. The school admits that it is primarily seen as an academic school, but it also has a wide range of co-curricular traditions of music, with massed singing, formal assemblies and speech nights, the house sporting competition, house choral competition, Army and Air Force cadet corps, current affairs groups and school sports. During the 2020-21 COVID-19 pandemic, Melbourne High, along with every other school in Victoria, shifted to online learning from week 9 of term 1. While senior school students (years 11 and 12) returned temporarily at the end of term 2, the majority of the school remained in online learning for an unprecedented 16 school weeks. School Assessed Coursework (SACs), required for the VCE was conducted via proctorship and a large portion of unit 4 of all subjects were omitted from the study design to alleviate pressure. All extra-curricular activities, as well as many house events which are critical to school culture, did not run during this period. In November 2020, Tony Mordini was appointed school principal. Academics Enrolment Melbourne High School is the only state school for boys in Victoria which selects students solely on the basis of performance in an entrance examination. Every year, over 1,400 apply to enter Year 9 for 336 places. These placements are based on their raw results in the entrance exam. Those who were within 5 marks of the cut-off-score or did not receive a