Northern Highlands Regional High School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Northern Highlands Regional High School (NHRHS) is a regional public high school and school district in Allendale, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. The high school serves students in grades 9–12 from Allendale, Ho-Ho-Kus, Saddle River, and Upper Saddle River. As of the 2004-05 school year, enrollment was approximately 1,255 with 263 students enrolled in the 12th grade.[1]
Among 264 graduates in 2005, 256 (97%) planned to attend college. Of those attending college, 250 (95%) planned to attend four-year colleges and 6 (2%) to attend two-year colleges.
Northern Highlands Regional High School is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and by the New Jersey Department of Education.
The school newspaper is called The Highland Fling.[2]
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[edit] Awards and recognition
During the 1986-87 school year, Northern Highlands Regional High School was awarded the Blue Ribbon School Award of Excellence by the United States Department of Education,[3] the highest award an American school can receive.[4][5]
Northern Highlands Regional High School was the 7th 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.[6]
[edit] Administration
- Superintendent - Robert M. McGuire, Ed.D.
- Principal - John Keenan
- Vice-Principal - Joseph Occhino
- Dean of Student Activities - Robert Williams
- Student Coordinators - Lorenzo Baratta and Troy Lederman
[edit] Curriculum
Northern Highlands has a four-day rotating schedule; days are lettered with A through D. Students are scheduled for eight courses, six of which meet daily. This schedule provides longer segments of time (57 minute periods) to engage in higher-order thinking and performance-based learning. To receive a Northern Highlands Regional High School diploma, all students must pass the New Jersey High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA), and earn a minimum of 125 credits including: 4 years of English and a freshman writing course for one semester; 1 year of World History / Cultures; 2 years of United States History; 3 years of Mathematics; 3 years of Science; 2 years of World Languages; 2 years of Career Education & Consumer, Family, and Life Skills, one semester of which is Computer Applications; 2 years of Visual and Performing Arts; and a year of Physical Education and/or Health for each year a student is in attendance at Northern Highlands.
Elective offerings in Visual and Performing Arts include: all art and music classes, Acting I, Actors’ Workshop, Creative Writing I and II, Journalism, TV Production I and II, and Film Studies. Semester courses include: Digital Multimedia and Web Page Design, as well as Mass Communications, Introduction to TV and Film, and Public Speaking. Elective offerings in Family and Life Skills include: Business, Computer classes, Industrial Technology, Family and Consumer Sciences, Music and Fine Arts. Semester courses include Digital Multimedia and Web Page Design which may apply EITHER to Visual and Performing Arts requirements OR Family and Life Skills, and Personal Finance and Investment, Entrepreneurship, Financial Management and Accounting, and Sports and Entertainment Marketing. Engineering courses are offered and rapidly growing in popularity.
Presently, there are 37 Honors courses — two of which are Syracuse University Honors Project Advance classes in Forensic Science and Writing Studio I/ Reading Interpretation — and 19 Advanced Placement courses, in AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP United States History, AP European History, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics, AP French Language, AP Spanish Language, AP Latin Literature, AP Macroeconomics, AP Art History, AP Studio Art, AP United States Government and Politics, AP Computer Science and AP Music Theory. AP courses are available to juniors and seniors only. Although very few Highlanders take a study, those students who take two lab sciences must have a study.
The Northern Highlands Regiment, the high school marching band under the direction of Theodora Sotiropoulos, is a top program in the region, having won the New Jersey Division 4A State Championship in 2004. The band often places first or in the top three at local competitions throughout the fall season.
[edit] Athletics
The Northern Highlands Regional High School Highlanders compete in the North Bergen Interscholastic Athletic League, and is categorized by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) in North Jersey 1 Group 3 with schools including Wayne Hills High School and Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan.[7] The school has multiple athletic programs including Football, Basketball, Baseball, Lacrosse, Softball, Field Hockey, Swimming, Wrestling, Volleyball, Fencing, and Track.[2]
Northern Highlands is best known for its Football program. For 19 years, Head Coach Steve Simonetti led the Highlanders to State Championships in 1988, and 1999 through 2001. In Early 2007, Simonetti retired from coaching, the Head Coach job being taken over by Chris Locurto. By the time Simonetti retired, 46 of his football players had gone to play in the NCAA, including Pittsburgh's Kevin Hughes and Johns Hopkins' Tucker Michels.[citation needed]
The Northern Highlands Ice Hockey Team won the NBIL regular season title and the inaugural NBIL Cup in 2007.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ National Center for Education Statistics data for Northern Highlands Regional High School, accessed December 16, 2006
- ^ a b Student Activities Guide 2005-2006, accessed March 17, 2007
- ^ Blue Ribbon Schools Program: Schools Recognized 1982-1983 through 1999-2002 (PDF). Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved on May 11, 2006.
- ^ CIBA cited as one of the best by Education Department, Journal Inquirer, November 16, 2006. "The Blue Ribbon award is given only to schools that reach the top 10 percent of their state's testing scores over several years or show significant gains in student achievement. It is considered the highest honor a school can achieve."
- ^ Viers Mill School Wins Blue Ribbon; School Scored High on Statewide Test; The Washington Post. September 29, 2005 "For their accomplishments, all three schools this month earned the status of Blue Ribbon School, the highest honor the U.S. Education Department can bestow upon a school."
- ^ Top Public High Schools in New Jersey. New Jersey Monthly (September 2006).
- ^ 2006-2007 Public Group Classification, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, dated July 7, 2006
- ^ " Northern Highlands wins initial NBIL Cup", The Record (Bergen County) by Dan Rosen, February 24, 2007. "The Highlanders avenged their lone loss of the season with a 3-2 victory over Fair Lawn in the first NBIL Cup championship game as sophomore left wing Andrew Milanesi scored what proved to be the winner 7:10 into the third period."
[edit] External links
- Northern Highlands Regional High School
- Northern Highlands Regional High School's 2005-06 School Report Card from the New Jersey Department of Education
- National Center for Education Statistics data for Northern Highlands Regional High School
