Ridgefield Park High School

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Ridgefield Park High School is a six-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in seventh through twelfth grade from Ridgefield Park, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, as part of the Ridgefield Park Public Schools.

1 Athletics
2 Awards and recognition
3 History
4 Popular culture
5 Notable alumni
6 Administration
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Athletics

The Ridgefield Park High School Scarlets compete in the Bergen County Scholastic League (BCSL) American Conference, comprised of private and public high schools located in Bergen County and Hudson County.

[edit] Awards and recognition

For the 2005-06 school year, Ridgefield Park High School was one of only 22 schools statewide selected as Governor's School of Excellence Winners, an award given to schools that have demonstrated significant academic improvement over the previous two academic years.^[1]

A team of students was one of five finalists in the 2004 New Jersey Business Idea Competition Winners at Fairleigh Dickinson University representing the Northern Region, which covers Bergen, Essex, Morris, Passaic, Sussex and Warren Counties. Three other RPHS teams were semi-finalists.^[2]

[edit] History

In 1916, Ridgefield Park High School was the subject of a groundbreaking ruling by the New Jersey Commissioner of Education, who ruled that teachers could remove their jackets while in class. A principal and teacher at the high school had been removed from his duties, based on charges against him that included "conduct unbecoming a teacher" related to the removal of his coat while teaching one day. The charges were dismissed and the teacher was reinstated.^[3]

In March 2006, alumnus Gregory Olsen (RPHS '62), an entrepreneur who paid $20 million to become the world's third paying space tourist visited his alma mater to share his experiences in space.^[4]

[edit] Popular culture

13 of the 17 students featured in the 1987 documentary film Scared Straight! were from Ridgefield Park High School. Over 300 students, nearly a quarter of the school's enrollment, had voluntarily participated in the program at Rahway State Prison (now formally known as East Jersey State Prison), in which the students were given a hard look at the "physical and psychological brutality of prison life." The program was credited with contributing to a sharp drop in teen-aged crime in Ridgefield Park from 1976 to 1978.^[5]

[edit] Notable alumni

Ozzie Nelson, band leader and TV star.^[6]
Gregory Olsen, entrepreneur and scientist who in October 2005 became the third private citizen to make a paid trip into space with Space Adventures, Ltd.^[4]