Central High School (Newark, New Jersey)


Central High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades in Newark, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Newark Public Schools.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 766 students and 79.0 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 9.7:1. There were 536 students eligible for free lunch and 23 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.

History

Central High School was originally Central Commercial and Manual Training School, housed in what is now the Central King Building on the campus of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. It opened January 31, 1912.
The school provided vocational education, offering a forge and a foundry, a sewing room, a sheet-metal room and a wood shop, as well as an auditorium seating 1,500. The school manufactured tools for itself and the rest of the district.
A smaller school but without a forge, the East Side Commercial & Manual Training High School was built at the same time. The decade was active one for the school district. In 1911, it opened a School for the Feeble Minded and a School for Blind. The city closed its last segregated school in 1909.
The school was renamed Central High School and remained at the original address until 2008. The Central King Building at New Jersey Institute of Technology was renovated to support the university and STEM counselling.
The school moved to its current location at 246 18th Avenue in Newark after its $107 million completion in 2008. The move was completed in 2010.
Ras Baraka served as principal of Central High School from 2007 to 2013 before his election as Mayor of Newark.

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 300th-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 277th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 274th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 278th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 304th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.

Academies

Central is made up of three academic academies. The pre-engineering, the liberal arts academy and the health/dental sciences academy. Students choose their career track once they have enrolled and began the academic year.
Some aspects of the pre-engineering academy curriculum are; Computer-aided drafting, Computer integrated manufacturing, Introduction to engineering design, digital electronics, and Principles of engineering. These courses expose students to the instruments and practices that may be used when they enter the field of engineering.

Project Grad Scholarship

Central students are given the opportunity to earn a scholarship towards their college education, called the Project Grad Newark College Scholarship
. The students and the students' parents read and sign a pledge stating that the student will meet minimum requirements. Some include; maintaining an average GPA of 2.5 or better, completing two college-bound summer institutes, graduating in four years. When the student completes these requirements, they are awarded $6,000 which is paid in installments over the span of four years to the college they plan to attend.

Athletics

The Central High School Blue Devils compete in the Super Essex Conference, which includes public and private high schools in Essex County and operates under the supervision of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 630 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019-20 school year as Group II for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 486 to 758 students in that grade range. For football, the school was classified by the NJSIAA as North Jersey Group II for 2018-20.Before the 2009 realignment, the school had competed in the Mountain Valley Conference, which consisted of public and parochial high schools covering Union County and Essex County in northern New Jersey.
Athletic programs offered at the school include:
The boys track team won the indoor track public school state championship in 1922-1926 and in 1933. The girls team won the Group II championship in 1984.
The school's football team won the 1924 state football championship, defeating Asbury Park High School by a score of 39-0, in a game that was mandated by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association after the two teams ended the regular season tied in the standings.
The boys' basketball team won the Group IV championship in 1947 against Union Hill High School, in both 1963 and 1964 against Hillside High School and in 2001 against Ewing High School.
The girls track team won the Group III indoor relay state championships in 1982 and 1989, and in Group II in 1983.
The boys' basketball team won the 2006 North II, Group II state sectional championship with a 65-48 win over Madison High School.

Administration

The school's principal is Sharnee Brown.

Notable alumni