High Point Regional High School
High Point Regional High School is a comprehensive four-year public high school and school district, which educates students in ninth through twelfth grades from municipalities in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States, specifically the constituent districts of Branchville Borough, Frankford Township, Lafayette Township, Sussex Borough and Wantage Township, with students from Montague Township attending as part of a sending/receiving relationship. The high school was established in 1963 and is located in Wantage Township. The school is accredited by the New Jersey Department of Education.
As of the 2017–18 school year, the school had an enrollment of 917 students and 84.3 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 10.9:1. There were 103 students eligible for free lunch and 39 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "DE", the fifth-highest of eight groupings. District Factor Groups organize districts statewide to allow comparison by common socioeconomic characteristics of the local districts. From lowest socioeconomic status to highest, the categories are A, B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J.
Starting in September 2014, high school students from Montague Township began attending High Point Regional High School, as part of a sending/receiving relationship under which incoming ninth graders will attend the High Point district while existing students attended high school in Port Jervis, New York until they graduate.
History
Created in 1963 as a district, the school opened in September 1966. Students from Branchville, Frankford and Lafayette had attended Newton High School as part of sending/receiving relationships, while those from Sussex and Wantage had attended Sussex High School.Awards, recognition and rankings
For the 1997-98 school year, High Point Regional High School received the National Blue Ribbon Award from the United States Department of Education, the highest honor that an American school can achieve.The school was the 142nd-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 88th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 125th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 157th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 151st in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state. The school was recently ranked first of 53 schools in the state in the "DE" District Factor Group by The Star-Ledger and second in the DFG by New Jersey Monthly magazine.
Schooldigger.com ranked the school 124th out of 389 public high schools statewide in its 2012 rankings which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics and language arts literacy components of the High School Proficiency Assessment.
From the New Jersey Department of Education's "Violence, Vandalism, and Substance Abuse in the Schools" report for 2012-2013, Patch released a list of the "9 Most Violent School Districts in New Jersey", with High Point Regional High School ranking number 5, preceded by Camden County Vocational School. These numbers brought much surprise to both students and parents in the district, considering the school's strong efforts to combat bullying with the "Students Against Being Bullied" organization founded by one of High Point's own students.
Curriculum and achievement
The graduating class of 2011 had SAT scores on par with state and national averages, including an average SAT Critical Reading score of 498, an average Math score of 520, and an average Writing score of 500.In the 2013-14 school year, High Point Regional High School ranked sixth in Sussex County out of nine other public high schools in SAT scores.
High Point Regional High School offers classes including music, theater, media, technology, art, graphic design, web design, computer applications, retail marketing, sales, engineering, and architecture.
Athletics
The High Point Wildcats compete in the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference a high school athletic conference that includes schools in Sussex County, Morris County and Warren County, which operates under the auspices of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, the statewide organization for high school sports. With 744 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as North I, Group II for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 495 to 761 students in that grade range. Until the NJSIAA's 2009 realignment, the school had participated in the Sussex County Interscholastic League, which was made up of public and private high schools located in Sussex County and northern Morris County.The school is the host school / lead agency for cooperative sports teams in ice hockey and boys' / girls' swimming with Wallkill Valley Regional High School, under an agreement that runs through 2017-18.
The wrestling team won the North I Group III state sectional championship in 1986-1997, 2001-2003, 2005–2008, 2010 and 2011, and the North II Group II title in 2012-2014; the 24 sectional titles won by the program is the third-most of any school in the state. The team won the Group III state title in 2008 and 2011, and the Group II title in 2013 and 2014. The wrestling team won the Group III state wrestling championship in 2008 against Sayreville War Memorial High School, marking the school's second team state championship overall in all sports and its first ever in wrestling. They had won the SCIL League numerous times, including the last year of its existence in 2009. In 2009, the wrestling team was ruled ineligible to participate in the NJSIAA state tournament, as 65% of its matches had been against teams from New Jersey schools, less than the required 70% threshold. High Point captured its first back-to-back Group II championship wins in 2013 and 2014. High Point found themselves down 21-6 after seven bouts in 2013 against Long Branch High School and won the title with a four-bout pinning spree before holding on to win by a 33-30 margin. The 2014 team defeated Hanover Park High School with four consecutive pins to win the Group II title, after trailing 33-10 with four bouts left in the match.
The field hockey team won the North I Group III state sectional title in 1988, 1996, 1997, 2000 and 2002; the team won the Group III state championship in 1988, defeating Red Bank Regional High School in the championship game. The team won the North I Group III sectional title in 2002 with a 4-0 shutout against West Morris Central High School in the tournament final.
In 2012, the softball team defeated Kingsway Regional High School to win the Group III state championship by a score of 1-0 in 11 innings.
Arts
High Point offers a variety of different classes that are involved in the arts, including but not limited to: Choral, Concert Choir, Concert Band, Piano Lab, and Theatre. Each class offers different levels, depending on how many years the student has been enrolled in that particular class. These classes present their findings of the course through concerts, which are open to the public twice a year, once in the Winter and again in the Spring. This department also offers extra curricular activities such as: Chambers Choir, Fall Dramas, Spring Musicals, and Marching Band. The Marching Band as well as the Chambers Choir has been known to compete in several different competitions.Notable alumni
- Nick Boyle, tight end for the Baltimore Ravens
- Nicholas D'Agostino, motivational speaker
- Members of the band Folly
Administration