Park Ridge High School


Park Ridge High School is a six-year comprehensive community public high school with an integrated two-year middle school located in the borough of Park Ridge in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in seventh through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the Park Ridge Public Schools. The school is accredited by the New Jersey Department of Education. The school is located on the corner of Park Avenue and Pascack Road in the center of Park Ridge. The school is one of the three public schools in the town of Park Ridge, along with East Brook Elementary School and West Ridge Elementary School, which both serve grades K-6.
Park Ridge High School's building has two sections: the "main" building of three floors and the "A-wing" of two. The main building contains a multipurpose venue known as the "little theater," which hosts arts events such as the annual Middle School Variety Show, including seasonal theatrical productions. The A-wing branches off into two gymnasiums through its lower floor.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 549 students and 59.4 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 9.2:1. There were 30 students eligible for free lunch and 0 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
Park Ridge offers several Advanced Placement classes, run by the College Board. Average SAT scores for the class of 2013-14 were 528 in Critical reading, 559 in Mathematics and 546 on the Writing component for a composite score of 1633, compared to statewide averages of 496 / 521 / 497 respectively, and a composite score of 1514. There were 59.0% of students who met the standard of a 1550 composite score on the SAT, which College Board research shows to be indicative of college success, vs. 44.6% statewide.

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 37th-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 14th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 18th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 31st in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 40th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school tied for 167th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 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.

Athletics

Park Ridge High School Owls compete in the Patriot Division B of the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 298 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as North I, Group I for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 187 to 490 students in that grade range. Prior to realignment that took effect in the fall of 2010, Park Ridge was a member of the Bergen County Scholastic League.
Park Ridge High School hosts several sports in statewide competition, including football, soccer, track and field, basketball, baseball, and many others. Park Ridge has done very well athletically in past years, especially with girls' sports, wrestling, and the track & field program. The school's athletic complex consists of several acres of open fields and a full sized high school football infield, surrounded by a recently constructed running track. The official fight song of the Owls is "Ridgers".
Park Ridge is the host school / lead agency for cooperative programs in boys' and girls' cross country, boys' and girls' golf, bowling and boys' lacrosse with Emerson Jr./Sr. High School, all expiring in 2016-17; The school participates in cooperative girls' lacrosse and wrestling programs with Emerson as the host school / lead agency, under an agreement that expires at the end of the 2016-17 school year;.
The boys' basketball team won the Group I state championship in 1966, defeating Williamstown High School in the tournament final.
The baseball team won the Group I state title in 1977 and 2009. The team won the 2009 Group I state championships, defeating County Prep High School 10-0 in the semi-final round, and taking the title with a 4-2 win over David Brearley High School in the championship game.
The football team won the NJSIAA North I Group I state sectional championship in 1995. In 2019, the Owls finished the season with a 10-1 record after defeating Hasbrouck Heights High School in the tournament final to win the NJSIAA North II Group I state sectional championship by a score of 21-14, marking their first championship in 24 years.
In 2006, Park Ridge boys' spring track went undefeated on their way to a BCSL Olympic championship, their first in 30 years. The girls' team lost only once, and also proceeded to win a championship.
In 2007, the girls' soccer team won the North I, Group I state sectional championship with a 2-0 win over Pompton Lakes High School in the tournament final, marking the first sectional title in team history.
In 2008, the boys' winter track team won their first state sectional meet.
Wrestling coach Stan Woods set a New Jersey record with his 602nd win in 2011 in a meet against Nutley High School.

Administration

The school's principal is Troy Lederman. His core administration team includes the assistant principal.

Noted alumni