Bayonne High School


Bayonne High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey, operated by the Bayonne Board of Education. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 2,534 students and 180.0 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 14.1:1. There were 1,310 students eligible for free lunch and 165 eligible for reduced-cost lunch. As of the 2018–19 school year, the school's reported racial/ethnic make-up was 44% White, 35% Hispanic, 13% Black, 7% Asian, and 1% Multiracial.

Awards, recognition and rankings

For the 1995-96 school year, Bayonne High School was named a "Star School" by the New Jersey Department of Education, the highest honor that a New Jersey school can achieve.
The school was the 263rd-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 339 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2014 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", using a new ranking methodology. The school had been ranked 317th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 242nd in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 248th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 273rd in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school 219th out of 367 public high schools statewide in its 2009-10 rankings which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the language arts literacy and mathematics components of the High School Proficiency Assessment.

Academic offerings

courses are offered in AP Biology, AP Calculus AB, AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP European History, AP Music Theory, AP Psychology, AP Statistics, AP Studio Art, AP United States Government and Politics and AP United States History. College credit can be earned through articulation agreements with New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, Saint Peter's University and Seton Hall University.

History

The school was created in 1936, when the Sweeney Senior High School and the Pulaski Vocational / Technical School were established. The technical school occupied what is now the vocational wing of BHS. The two schools were officially amalgamated in 1953. In 1973, the school was reorganized into six houses.
After an incident in 1997 in which two students were stabbed, one fatally wounded, the school instituted wide-ranging measures to reduce violence, from discussion groups to metal detectors. In 2000, it was reported to be known as a model of school safety.

Campus

Bayonne High School is divided into six houses. The school is also home to an ice rink, and is the only public high school in the state to have an on-site ice rink for its hockey team. Located in the ice rink building are a gymnasium, offices, bathrooms, indoor track, and workout/ meeting rooms. The campus also has three gymnasiums, a planetarium, an in-house biological conservatory, a 600-seat auditorium, four tennis courts, a football stadium, and one baseball field. It borders the Newark Bay. The high school is sized for approximately 3,000 students.

Athletics

The Bayonne High School Bees compete in the Hudson County Interscholastic League, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 1,895 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as North II, Group IV for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 1,114 to 4,800 students in that grade range.
Sports offered include:
The boys track and field team won the 2002-03 HCIAA and HCTCA Indoor championships. Later that year the team went on to win the HCTCA outdoor championships.
The school's football team won the 2002 North I Group IV state championship, defeating Hackensack High School 25-23 in the championship game, for the school's first and only state championship to date in football.
The boys tennis team has been in the HCIAA championship for 19 consecutive years, from 1993 to 2011. The team had won four consecutive titles from 1996 to 1999, and again from 2001 to 2004, and won their fifth consecutive county championship in 2011 with a 3-2 win over Secaucus High School in the tournament finals.
The ice hockey team won the 1999-2000 public school state championship, with a 6-3 win over Summit High School at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, before falling by a score of 4-2 to Hudson Catholic Regional High School for the overall championship.
The boys volleyball team has been ranked in the top 10 in the state and won four straight HCIAA championships from 2006 to 2009 over their county rival St. Peter's Preparatory School, a streak broken by St. Peter's in 2010's final. In 2007 they reached the state final four before losing in the North Sectional to St. Peter's Prep. In 2008 they lost in the elite eight of the state tournament to Vernon Township High School in three games, despite being ranked #1 in the North. In 2009 they reached the state final four once again, only to be defeated by St. Peter's Prep again in the North final, 25-15, 25-23.
In 2011, the girls' basketball team won their third consecutive Hudson County title with a 48-32 win over North Bergen High School.

In popular culture

Core members of the school's administration are: