Ward Melville High School
Ward Melville High School is a public high school in the Three Village Central School District of Suffolk County, New York on Long Island, serving grades ten through twelve. It is fed by the two junior high schools in the district: Paul J. Gelinas Junior High School and Robert Cushman Murphy Junior High School, and is named after businessman and philanthropist Ward Melville.
Located sixty miles from Manhattan in the Three Village area, Ward Melville High School is situated in East Setauket, New York. The school serves students from Setauket, East Setauket, South Setauket, Stony Brook, Old Field, Strongs Neck, and Poquott.
As of the 2011–12 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,848 students and 140.0 classroom teachers, for a student-teacher ratio of 13.2.
The building was originally designed to have with capacity for 2,000 students, although it has been expanded several times since. Each of the three grades currently has approximately 600 students.
The district provides for numerous clubs and activities after school, including a musical–theater arts program and many sports teams. The school offers 25 different Advanced Placement courses and another 25 college courses that are offered credit through several colleges and universities.
The school has been expanded several times to accommodate the growing number of students attending Ward Melville High School. In 2002, two extra wings were added to the northeastern and southeastern corners of the school. During the 2009–2010 school year, a new weight training facility was completed in the rear of the school while the music rooms were renovated. In the 2010–2011 school year, an additional wing was built to house the science department while the auditorium and the library was refurbished.
Achievements
Ward Melville High School has been recognized as a School of Excellence by the United States Department of Education and carries this designation on each student's transcript and diploma. It was ranked within the top 500 high schools in America in 2004 by MSNBC Newsweek.The proximity of Ward Melville to Stony Brook University has encouraged the school to house a very strong science research program. This program annually produces many winners in the Intel Science Talent Search, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair and other science competitions. In 1998, Ward Melville had the highest number of Science Talent Search finalists in the United States, and in 2006, it tied for the greatest number of semifinalists.
In 2008, Ward Melville achieved the highest number of Intel Semifinalists in the nation with 13 students. Over the past nine years, 2002–2010, Ward Melville has produced a total of 85 Intel semi-finalists and 11 finalists, the third-most of any secondary school in the United States.
Lacrosse
The school's lacrosse team won the 1999 New York State championship. The team has a healthy rivalry with West Islip High School, against whom the Patriots have matched up in seven of the past eight county championship games. The Patriots captured another state championship and number one national ranking in 2013.Baseball
The Patriots won their first Long Island Championship in the 2013 season.Extracurriculars
Ward Melville high school offers a wide range of extracurricular activities for its students. These include a nationally ranked Science Olympiad team, the "InSTAR" program, which has been very successful in preparing students for the Regeneron Science Talent Search, acclaimed theater and music programs, and others.In 2013, a faith-based club, Students United in Faith, was rejected due to its religious nature. After being faced with legal action by the Liberty Institute, the school superintendent investigated and reversed the decision, stating that the initial reason for rejection was "inaccurately conveyed".
On October 6, 2014, the school was once again faced with legal action by the Liberty Institute for rejecting SUIF's renewal. The club was supposedly unable to maintain a group number of 20 or more, the purported minimum required by the school. The Equal Access Act of 1984, which is cited as a major point in the club's renewal, does not respect local club minimums.
Notable alumni
Notable alumni of Ward Melville High School include:- Aaron Albano aka Ming - Grammy Nominated American record producer, songwriter and DJ
- Marco Beltrami – professional film composer
- Howard S. Berger – avant-garde filmmaker
- Greg Cattrano – MLL goalie for the Baltimore Bayhawks
- Christopher Cantwell - white supremacist
- Frances Conroy – actress
- Eric Corley – Writer, founder of 2600: the hacker quarterly, Director of freedom downtime
- Chris Dieterich – NFL lineman for the Detroit Lions, 1980–86
- Michael R. Douglas – worldwide leading string theorist
- Brooke Ellison – the first person with quadriplegia to graduate from Harvard University
- Michael J. Epstein - filmmaker, musician, and writer
- Mick Foley – professional wrestler and author
- John Fugelsang – host of America's Funniest Home Videos, 1997–2000, CNN Contributor
- Dorothy Gambrell – cartoonist
- Jarrod Gorbel – indie pop singer-songwriter
- Terrance Hobbs - lead guitarist for Suffocation
- Kevin James – comedian/actor.
- Karsh Kale - musician, producer and composer
- Anthony Kay - MLB pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays
- Brian MacDevitt – four-time Tony Award-winning lighting designer
- Steven Matz - MLB pitcher for the New York Mets
- Mark Orton - feature film composer
- R.A. The Rugged Man – hip hop artist and filmmaker
- Burton Rocks, writer and sports agent
- Deepak Sarma – professor and scholar of Hinduism and Indian Philosophy
- Todd Sauerbrun – retired NFL punter who played for the Chicago Bears, Kansas City Chiefs, Carolina Panthers, and then finally the Denver Broncos 1995–2007.
- Andrew Scheps – Grammy winning record producer/engineer
- Joe Silipo – Former professional football player
- Gary Valentine – comedian
- Todd Wider - plastic surgeon and Emmy and Oscar winning documentary producer and director
- Joyce Yang – concert pianist; silver medalist, 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.