Lacey Township High School


Lacey Township High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades, located in Lacey Township, in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States, which operates as part of the Lacey Township School District.

The school is overseen by the New Jersey Department of Education and has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 1983.
As of the 2017–18 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,204 students and 102.5 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 11.7:1. There were 240 students eligible for free lunch and 77 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
Its mascot is a lion, the symbol is a paw, for the "Lacey Lions." The school's colors are navy blue, silver, and cardinal
Lacey Township High School has implemented a random drug testing policy. Students participating in any extracurricular activities including after school sports, clubs or any school event must sign a waiver that allows them to be drug tested randomly. The first offense includes suspension from all after school activities for 10 days.

History

The school opened its doors in September 1981. Residents of Lacey Township previously attended Central Regional High School in neighboring Berkeley Township. A new west wing was added onto the school in 2003, which offers upgraded classrooms.

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 210th-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 257th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 225th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 238th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 201st in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school as tied for 211th out of 376 public high schools statewide in its 2010 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.
Maurice Grillon III was recognized by Princeton University as one of four outstanding New Jersey secondary school teachers, honored at its June 1, 2004 Commencement. Through Grillon's efforts, the school's German language program was expanded to 210 students.
Math teacher Mark Geiger was recognized in April 2011 as a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, in recognition of his efforts to identify "for new and innovative ways to teach mathematics in order to make it relevant and to connect to each of his students." In 2014, Mark Geiger was selected as the first American soccer referee to officiate in the FIFA World Cup since 2002.
In 2018, the school was sued by the ACLU for suspending two students for posting photos of themselves at a gun range, in their own free time and not on school property. One of the students, Cody Conroy, was vocal about the situation.
"Sharing our completely legal weekend activities on Snapchat should not result in three days of in-school suspensions," Conroy said.

Advanced Placement courses

Lacey Township High School offers Advanced Placement courses to students including AP Biology, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP Computer Science A, AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Environmental Science, AP French Language and Culture, AP German Language and Culture, AP Physics 1, AP Psychology, AP Spanish Language and Culture, AP Statistics, AP Studio Art, and AP United States History.

Athletics

The Lacey Township High School Lions compete in the Shore Conference, an athletic conference made up of private and public high schools centered at the Northern Jersey Shore. All schools in this conference are located within Monmouth County and Ocean County. The league operates under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 950 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as South Jersey, Group III for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 794 to 1,076 students in that grade range.
Sports offered by the high school include:
Fall SportsWinter SportsSpring Sports
Boys Cross CountryWrestlingBaseball
Girls Cross CountryBowlingGolf
Field HockeyBoys BasketballGirls Lacrosse
FootballGirls BasketballSoftball
Girls GymnasticsBoys SwimmingBoys Spring Track
Boys SoccerBoys Winter TrackGirls Spring Track
Girls SoccerGirls Winter TrackBoys Tennis
Girls TennisGirls SwimmingBoys Lacrosse
Girls VolleyballIce HockeyBoys Volleyball

The football team won the South Jersey Group III state sectional titles in 1988-89, 2006 and 2010. On December 2, 2006, the Lacey Lions football team beat Seneca High School 12-0 becoming the NJSIAA Champions South Group III state champions. This is only the second time that the Lions went undefeated. It is the third state championship under Coach Lou Vircillo, the only head football coach the school has had since it opened in 1981. In 2010, the Lions football team reached the NJSIAA Champions South Group III state championship game and defeated Delsea Regional High School 56-7, finishing a perfect 12-0 season, earning the fourth state championship under Coach Lou Vircillo, and marking the third team in school history to go undefeated. The Lions football team also reached the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III state championship game in both 2005 and 2007, but were defeated by Delsea Regional High School and Shawnee High School, respectively.
The field hockey team won the South Jersey Group III state sectional title in 1993, 1994 and 1995. The team won the Group III state championship in 1993 and 1994.

Administration

Core members of the school's administration are: