In 1955, Pascack Valley Regional High School District opened Pascack Valley High School with an enrollment of 650 students from the boroughs of Hillsdale, Montvale, River Vale, and Woodcliff Lake, having bonded $1,250,000 towards the costs of construction. Previously, students from those municipalities attended other local high schools, including Westwood High School and Park Ridge High School, but with increasing enrollment as the suburbs boomed, the towns, with State approval, formed a regional high school district. During the next several years enrollment increased and so did the faculty and building capacity. Additional classrooms were added and the program of studies was expanded. Increased enrollment in 1963 resulted in double sessions. In September 1964, Pascack Hills High School opened up to students living in Montvale, Woodcliff Lake and a portion of Hillsdale, with a flexible scheduling program that allowed students to select courses using a system run by an analyst from International Telephone and Telegraph using a mainframe computer system. Pascack Valley High School had the balance of Hillsdale students and all of River Vale students. In the early 1990s, western Hillsdale transitioned from sending to Pascack Hills to Pascack Valley. By 1970, the enrollment was again up to capacity and building construction was necessary to house 1,800 students. This expansion of Pascack Valley High School provided additional classrooms, expanded department areas, and other facilities such as gymnasium, a new cafeteria and library. In March 2008, the district announced plans to offer online courses, beginning in the 2008–09 school year, with that school year's seniors being given priority.
Awards and recognition
In the 2000–01 school year, Pascack Valley Regional High School was recognized with the Best Practices Award by the New JerseyDepartment of Education for its "Senior Projects/Senior Alternate Assessment Program".
Pascack Hills High School was the 7th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 339 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2014cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", using a new ranking methodology, after having been ranked 18th in the state out of 328 schools in 2012; Pascack Valley High School was ranked 39th in 2014 and 73rd in 2012.
The Pascack Pi-oneers, a district-wide high school robotics team, has won several regional awards.
Schools
Schools in the district are:
Pascack Hills High School opened in Montvale in 1964 and served 842 students in grades 9-12 from Montvale and Woodcliff Lake.
The district's board of education, with nine members, sets policy and oversees the fiscal and educational operation of the district through its administration. As a Type II school district, the board's trustees are elected directly by voters to serve three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with three seats up for election each year held as part of the November general election. Seats on the board of education are allocated based on the population of the constituent districts, with three assigned to Hillsdale and two each assigned to Montvale, River Vale and Woodcliff Lake.