Buena Regional High School


Buena Regional High School is a comprehensive regional public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from communities in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary school of the Buena Regional School District. Municipalities served by the district are Buena Borough and Buena Vista Township. The school opened in September 1971.
Students from both Estell Manor and Weymouth Township, attend Buena Regional High School as part of sending/receiving relationships with the respective school districts.
Students from Newfield, a non-operating school district, had attended the district's high school until the 2010-11 school year, after the New Jersey Department of Education approved a plan in 2009 under which students from Newfield would start attending Delsea Regional High School, with those still at Buena attending until they graduate.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 565 students and 52.0 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 10.9:1. There were 235 students eligible for free lunch and 64 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
An addition completed in 1999 added six new classrooms and two state-of-the-art science labs.

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 296th-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 316th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 297th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 286th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 289th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.

Curriculum

The curriculum offerings include Advanced Placement courses in AP Calculus, AP United States History, AP English Literature and Composition, AP European History, AP Biology and AP Chemistry.

Athletics

The Buena Regional High School Chiefs compete in the National Division of the Cape-Atlantic League an athletic conference consisting of both parochial and public high schools located in Atlantic County, Cape May County, Cumberland County, and Gloucester County, and operates under the aegis of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 508 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as South Jersey, Group II for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 496 to 778 students in that grade range. The football team competes in the United Division of the 95-team West Jersey Football League superconference and was classified by the NJSIAA as South Jersey Group I for football for 2018-20.
Buena Regional High School's athletic department offers interscholastic programs in boys and girls basketball, tennis, and soccer, as well as baseball and softball, girls' field hockey, boys' wrestling, boys and girls spring and winter track, cross country and football. There are cheerleading squads for Varsity and Junior Varsity basketball and football. The baseball team has won or shared 15 league, conference, or division titles in 34 years. The baseball team won a South Jersey Group II State title in 2008 under Coach George West. A co-ed swim team was formed for the 2008-09 season. The girls cross country team under Michael Falciani has won two consecutive Atlantic County championships, and has been undefeated for four years in their conference.
The football team won the South Jersey Group II state championship in 1988 as well as reaching the state championship game in 2002, only to lose to West Deptford High School in overtime by a score of 21-20 on a controversial goal-line stand on a two-point conversion that was stopped inches from the goal line in a game described by sportswriter Phil Anastasia as what "might be the greatest ending to a football game I ever saw."
The boys' cross country team won the Group II title, the school's only state championship, in 1988.
The baseball team became the first title-winning team from the Cape Atlantic League when it won the Group II state championship in 2014 under coach Harry Grose with a 4-1 win in the tournament final against Bernards High School.

Arts

The band and choir of Buena Regional have competed extensively throughout the years, with the choir winning a Grand Championship in a national competition in 1992.
The marching band has been under the direction of Keith Littleton since 2015. They have competed in the Cavalcade of Bands circuit. The band has steadily improved every year in organization, leadership, and structure, and has won awards in percussion and auxiliary. They won "Most Improved" at the Cavalcade Championships in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
The Buena Regional High School drama club began in 2001 with a production of Oklahoma! Since then, the drama club has put on an annual musical. The program has sustained itself financially and had originally been under the guidance of the former choral music director for almost a decade. The 2010 production of Beauty and the Beast was followed by the 2011 production of Into the Woods and Pirates of Penzance, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, Once on this Island, and 9 to 5, the Musical. The productions began to become more extensive with , Disney's Aida, and Seussical, which featured students from every school in the district.

Administration

The school's principal is Moses White.