West Orange High School (New Jersey)


West Orange High School is a comprehensive four-year community public high school, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from West Orange in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. WOHS is currently the only secondary school serving the West Orange Public Schools. West Orange High School has been accredited by the New Jersey Department of Education and by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 1928.
As of the 2015–16 school year, the school had an enrollment of 2,084 students and 184.1 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 11.3:1. There were 838 students eligible for free lunch and 180 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.

Faculty and academics

A faculty of 200 includes administration and supervisory personnel, as well as Guidance Staff, two full-time Library Media Specialists, two nurses, a Student Assistance Counselor, and a full-time Child Study Team. The majority of the professional staff members have earned master's degrees, and seven have earned doctorates.
West Orange High School has a comprehensive program with a wide variety of course offerings. Graduation requirements are based on study in grades nine through twelve. Students must satisfy the state and local requirements for graduation and take additional courses to total a minimum of 135 credits. In addition to the basic academic courses offered at multiple ability levels, there are Honors and Advanced Placement courses in most disciplines. Programs in business education, technical and industrial education, computer education, performing and fine arts, and English as a Second Language are also offered. Now, West Orange High School offers block scheduling, which operates on a rotation that switches out 2 courses per day.
The Cooperative Education Program provides students with the opportunity to study academics as well as receive on-the-job training. Students can also choose from a wide variety of electives.

History

The high school was built in 1898 on Gaston Street in West Orange and burned down in 1913. It was rebuilt and then moved to a new building on Northfield Avenue in 1922. The old building became Gaston Street Junior High School and was torn down in 1972. The current facility was built in 1960 as Mountain High School. In 1984, the building constructed in 1922 was sold to become Seton Hall Preparatory School, a private Catholic school. Mountain High School and the adjoined Abraham Lincoln Junior High School were converted into the existing facility. In 2004, a new building was added, doubling the size of the school. The current athletic complex includes a football field, two soccer fields, five tennis courts and a baseball field.

Awards, recognition and rankings

In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 44th in New Jersey and 1,379th nationwide.
The school was the 170th-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 136th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 128th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 114th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 98th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.
For the 1998–99 school year, West Orange High School was named a "Star School" by the New Jersey Department of Education, the highest honor that a New Jersey school can achieve.
West Orange High School applied for, and was awarded, a Dodge Grant for the 2004–05 academic year through Montclair State University. The focus of the grant is to explore how to develop a Conflict Resolution program responsive to the needs of West Orange High School. The Dodge Grant Team spent a year researching and developing a potential Conflict Resolution Model for West Orange High School.

Athletics

The West Orange High School Mountaineers compete in the Super Essex Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 1,581 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as North I, Group IV for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 1,090 to 2,568 students in that grade range. Before the NJSIAA's 2010 realignment, the school had competed in the Northern Hills Conference an athletic conference made up of private and public high schools located in Essex, Morris and Passaic counties.
The boys' basketball team won the Group III state championship in 1936 and won the Group IV title in 1949.
The boys' swimming team won the Division B state championship in 1963.
The boys' baseball team won the North II Group III state championship in 1967 and won the Group III state title in 1971.
The girls' tennis team won the Group IV state championship in 1984, 1985 and 1986 ; the team lost to Red Bank Catholic High School in the finals of the Tournament of Champions in both 1984 and 1985.
The 2006 boys' soccer team finished the season with a 24-1 record; the team was ranked 4th in the nation at the beginning of the 2006 season and finished 17th in the NSCAA/Adidas National Rankings. The 2006 team won the Group IV state championship with a 4-1 win over Bridgewater-Raritan High School in the semifinals and a 3-0 win against Manalapan High School in the finals.
The school's marching band, the Marching Mountaineers, are three-year United States Scholastic Band Association Group V Open State Champs, USSBA Group V Open Northern State Champs, and ninth in the northeastern region as of 2007 BOA. In addition, their Color Guard is nationally known for their "globe-tossing" performance.
The boys' soccer team won the Group IV title in 2006 against Manalapan High School and won the Group IV state championshipin 2013 with a 1-0 win over Clearview Regional High School.
The school hosted a match in 2007 between a team representing the New York Athletic Club and teams from Russia and Romania. The NYAC team beat Russia 14-11 in free style and Romania 14-12 in Greco-Roman matches.
The boys' wrestling team won the North I Group IV state sectional championship in 2012.

Administration

The school's principal is Hayden N. Moore.

Notable alumni

Notable alumni of West Orange High School and West Orange Mountain High School include:
A fifth-season episode of the HBO series The Sopranos titled "The Test Dream" shows Tony Soprano in a dream scene with his high school football coach, Mr. Molinero. The school letters "W.O.H.S." are shown on a jacket in the coach's office.

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