Tenafly High School


Tenafly High School is a four-year comprehensive community public high school in Tenafly in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the Tenafly Public Schools. Students from the neighboring community of Alpine attend the school as part of a sending/receiving relationship with the Alpine Public School.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,226 students and 103.9 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 11.8:1. There were 25 students eligible for free lunch and 12 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.

Awards, recognition and rankings

Tenafly High School was recognized by the National Blue Ribbon School Award by the United States Department of Education at a special assembly to the Tenafly High School community on September 20, 2005. Tenafly was the only high school in New Jersey and one of 38 public high schools in the U.S. to receive the 2005 Blue Ribbon School Award.
The school was the 17th-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 3rd in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 3rd in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school third in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 2nd in the magazine's 2006 rankings out of 316 schools included across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school 68th 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.
In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 19th in New Jersey and 720th nationwide. Tenafly High School was the 2nd-highest ranked school in New Jersey in a 2007 listing by Newsweek magazine of the top 1,200 U.S. high schools.
In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 253rd in the nation among participating public high schools and 20th among schools in New Jersey. The school was ranked 198th in the nation and 16th in New Jersey on the list of "America's Best High Schools 2012" prepared by The Daily Beast / Newsweek, with rankings based primarily on graduation rate, matriculation rate for college and number of Advanced Placement / International Baccalaureate courses taken per student, with lesser factors based on average scores on the SAT / ACT, average AP/IB scores and the number of AP/IB courses available to students.

Extracurricular activities

In 2012, the Tenafly High School Marching Band came in first place for group 3A in the USBands Marching Band Competition in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.
Tenafly is noted for its competitive debate team which has been awarded numerous awards over the years.
In recent years, the debate team came in first in overall standings in 1999–2000, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05, and 2006–07. The team placed second in 2005-06.

Athletics

The Tenafly High School Tigers compete in the Big North Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 867 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as North I, Group III for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 786 to 1,074 students in that grade range. Before the 2010 realignment, Tenafly competed in the Bergen County Scholastic League American Conference, which was made up of private and public high schools located in Bergen County and Hudson County. The school nickname is the Tigers, and its school colors are black and orange, with a nod to those of Princeton University.
The boys' cross country team won the Group III state championship three consecutive years, from 1955-1957.
The boys' track team won both the Group III state indoor relay championship and the State indoor championship in 1966,won the Group I-II title in 1967, 1968 and 1975, and won the Group II title in 1977.
The boys' soccer team was the Group III co-champion with Ewing High School in 1975.
Tenafly is noted for its tennis team. The boys' tennis team won the Group I / II state championship in 1975, and won four consecutive Group II titles in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. They won the 2006 Group II state championship, defeating Rumson-Fair Haven 3-2 in the semifinals and West Essex by 3-2 in the finals to take the title. In 2007, the team won the state sectionals defeating Dwight Morrow High School 5-0 to win the North I, Group II championship, the team's sixth consecutive sectional title. The team moved onto win the 2007 NJSIAA Group II state championship, defeating Rumson-Fair Haven 3-2 in the final match to earn their fourth consecutive Group II state championship.
The girls' tennis team won the Group II state championship in 1976 and in 2007 ; The 2007 team advanced to the finals of the Tournament of Champions, losing to Millburn High School. In 2007, the girls' tennis team took the North I, Group II state sectionals with a string of 5-0 wins over Westwood Regional High School in the quarterfinals, Newton High School in the semis and Pascack Hills High School in the finals. The win was the eighth sectional title in team history. The team took the Group II state championship with a 3½-1½ win over Haddonfield Memorial High School in the semifinals and Manasquan High School in the finals by a 3-2 score.
The Tenafly ice hockey team made the state finals in 2012 but fell to Summit High School by a score of 2-1 in overtime.
In 2014, the boys' soccer team won their first state sectional title in 11 years with a 4-1 win against Wayne Hills High School in the North I, Group III state sectional final. The Tigers were eventually named as the 8th-best public school team in the state of New Jersey at the Soccer Coaches Association of New Jersey annual banquet.

Administration

The school's principal is James O. Morrison. His administration team includes the vice principal.

Notable alumni