Highland Park High School (Highland Park, New Jersey)

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**Highland Park High School**
District	Highland Park Public Schools
School type	Public
Opened	September 1926
Location	102 North Fifth Avenue Highland Park, NJ, USA
Enrollment 2005-2006	Approximately 450 students
Grades	9-12
Campus surroundings	Suburban
School Mascot	Owl
Newspaper	Fling
Yearbook	The Albadome
Principal	Frederick Williams
Assistant Principal	Michael J. Lassiter

Highland Park High School (HPHS), is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students from Highland Park, in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA, serving students in grades nine through twelve, as part of the Highland Park Public Schools. The school was established in 1926 as a junior high school, serving up to grade 10. Until 1937, students from Highland Park finished their education at either New Brunswick High School or Metuchen High School, when HPHS became a senior high school.

The school is well known for its high academic standards and achievements, with a few recent students earning high scores on SAT and SAT 2 tests^{[citation needed]}, a couple going on to Ivy League schools^{[citation needed]}, and some receiving recognition for their academic achievements.

The original portion of the building was designed by architect Alexader Merchant and built in the 1920s. Later additions are the Science and Math wing in 1958; the English wing in 1968; the library and arts wing in the 1980s; and the Cafeteria and a connected middle school (grades 7 and 8) in 1996. Student population peaked in the 1960s, with a population in the 900s. The school now has a very diverse student population of about 450.

1 Awards and recognition
2 Extracurricular activities
- 2.1 WVHP-FM
3 Athletics
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Awards and recognition

Highland Park High School was the 31st-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 316 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2006 cover story on the state's Top Public High Schools.^[1]

Highland Park High School in New Jersey

In 2006, HPHS students were recognized for Advanced Placement Awards. One student qualified for the National AP Scholar Award. 16 students qualified for the AP Scholar with Distinction Award. 13 students qualified for the AP Scholar with Honor Award. 15 students qualified for the AP Scholar Award.

In 2005, a team of three HPHS students were recognized as First Place National Finalists in the 13th Annual Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision Awards science competition for their innovative design of a satellite-based earthquake and tsunami detection/prediction system.^[2]^[3]

[edit] Extracurricular activities

Extracurricular programs at HPHS include multiple instrumental music programs, drama club and tech crew, SAGA (The Straight and Gay Alliance), the Highland Fling (the HPHS newspaper), a prestigious Model United Nations and Model Congress Program, and the Albadome (the HPHS yearbook). The HPHS academic teams compete in many all-state competitions such as Science League, Math League, and the News-12 sponsored NJ Challenge. These teams excel, having won top-10 plaques in the past years.

[edit] WVHP-FM

The school at one time had a ten watt FM radio station, that broadcast from 6AM to 8AM and 5PM to 10:30PM Monday thru Friday. Several radio personalities got their start there, among them Ken Friedman (WFMU-FM General Manager), Soterios Johnson (of NPR's Morning Edition) and Bob Sommer (KALW-FM). Jim Axelrod (CBS News) was also on the air at WVHP at one point. Willie Paszamant (actor Willie Garson of Sex and The City) had a morning show at WVHP.

[edit] Athletics

The school's mascot is the Owl, and the colors of HPHS are cardinal and white. Highland Park High School competes in the Greater Middlesex Conference Blue division in all sports (Gold division in football), and its main sports rival is Metuchen High School. HPHS is well known for the performance of its football team, under the leadership of only three coaches during the program's entire history. Starting with Bus Lepine, then Jay Dakelman, the football team is now led by its former all-state quarterback Joe Policastro (class of 1959). L.J. Smith, now with the Philadelphia Eagles, was a star of the HPHS football team in the 1990s. HPHS is also known for its long time success in football, and track and field, and more recent successes in Boys' soccer, Girls' Basketball, Girls' Tennis, and Baseball. HPHS is also home to one of the most competitive Ultimate teams in the nation, the Enforcers, although the Ultimate Frisbee team is not affiliated with the school's varsity sports program.