Watchung Hills Regional High School

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Watchung Hills Regional High School
Location
108 Stirling Road
Warren Township, NJ 07059
Information
School district Watchung Hills Regional School district
Principal Dr. Thomas DiGanci
Enrollment

1,921 (as of 2005-06)[1]
Faculty 151.0 (on FTE basis)[1]
Student:teacher ratio 12.7[1]
Type Public high school
Grades 9 - 12
Athletics conference Skyland Conference
Nickname Warriors
Information 908-647-4800
Homepage http://www.whrhs.org

Watchung Hills Regional High School is a regional public high school and regional school district serving students in portions of Somerset and Morris Counties in New Jersey, United States. The high school is located at 108 Stirling Road, next to Woodland School, in Warren Township, New Jersey, United States.

Students from Warren Township and from the neighboring communities of Watchung, and Green Brook in Somerset County and Long Hill Township in Morris County attend the school.[2] The High School serves students in grades nine through twelve and as of the 2005-06 school year, there were 1,921 students enrolled and 151.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis) for a student-teacher ratio of 12.7.[1] Watchung Hills also offers an adult school that operates at night in the facilities. Its mascot is the warrior and its school colors are brown and gold.

Watching Hills Regional High School participates in Project Graduation, a school-sponsored party thrown for the students right after graduation to provide a substance free way to celebrate. Watchung Hills has been participating in Project Graduation for 15 years. This year Project Graduation will be held at Rutgers University. There will be a DJ, magicians, palm/tarot readers, casino night, rock climbing wall, and other activities.

Contents

[edit] Awards and recognition

Watchung Hills Regional High School received the Blue Ribbon Award from the United States Department of Education in 1994-1995, the highest honor that an American school can achieve.[3][4]

In Newsweek's May 22, 2007 issue, ranking the country's top high schools, Watchung Hills High School was listed in 999th place, the 31st-highest ranked school in New Jersey.[5] In the magazine's 2006 survey, the school was ranked as 745th nationwide.[6] In their 2004 survey, Newsweek ranked WHRHS as the 583rd best high school in the nation.[7]

Watchung Hills Regional High School was the 38th-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.[8]

[edit] Facilities

WHRHS was recently under renovation. An extensive addition has been constructed and all classrooms have been renovated. The addition included many new classrooms including a four-tier band room. The addition also included a brand new theatre with rising orchestra pit and catwalk. This state-of-the-art theater includes a programmable lighting system, movable sound shell and a balcony. All classrooms have been renovated and the old theater is currently being renovated. The TV studio is still under construction but will be ready for next year. There is also a new "FieldTurf" football field along with numerous base/softball fields.

[edit] Theatre

The brand new, state-of-the-art theatre includes 2 catwalks with a spotlight booth. The lighting system which has 301 dimmers is housed in the dimmer room located on the stage left side of the catwalks. The dimmer room contains three dimmer racks, an emergency power switch and a server that runs ETC's Emphasis server software. The server was recently moved (as of 9/8/07) down to the control booth so that it's offline capabilities may be utilized. The lighting console is an ETC Express 24/48 and is usually in the lighting booth located under the balcony. On stage, you'll find a movable orchestra pit, movable sound shell and 41 linesets. The lineset system includes 6 electrics and 3 ceiling panels for the sound shell. The fly rail is accessible from the ladder located in the stage left wing. The sound shell is moved using a cart with a lift system on it. When not in use, the shell is stored stage right, 2 to 3 deep.

[edit] Technology

The school has eight dedicated Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Servers and one NFuse server. The system allows students who don't have programs such as Microsoft Office to use Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and other applications.

WHRHS has 24 Dell servers that serve as everything from domain controllers to web servers. These servers are housed in the IDF room, located next to the library. There are approximately 15 laptop carts (each with 24 laptops) that are designated to different areas of the school. All teachers have either Dell D500, D600 or D610 laptops. There are four computer labs with Dell Optiplex desktops. The school has Cisco access-points in almost every classroom. The mail server is slowly dying.

[edit] Athletics

The Watching Hills Regional High School Warriors compete in the Skyland Conference.

Some of WHRHS's most successful sports teams are:

The baseball team won the 2005 North II, Group IV state sectional championship with an 11-0 win over Hunterdon Central Regional High School.[9]

The ice hockey team made it to the NJSIAA Public A State Finals vs. local rival Ridge High School in 2008, falling by a score of 5-0; the most successful season for the six-year old program.[10]

[edit] Activities

Watchung Hills offers students many extracurricular activities to participate in. These clubs and organizations are directed towards community service, academics, and other special interests. A few of the more popular ones are Stop Genocide, Habitat for Humanity, AWARE, JSA Debate Club, Mock Trial, Academic Team, Script and Cue, Students Against Drunk Driving, NIKE club, Model United Nations, Lenape Yearbook, Gay-Straight Alliance, Geocaching Club and the Diversity Club.

[edit] Administration

  • Dr. Frances Stromsland - Superintendent
  • Robert Rader - School Business Administrator/ Board Secretary
  • Dr. Thomas DiGanci - Principal
  • Nicholas Serritella - Vice Principal/Director of Athletics & Co-Curricular
  • Terrence P. MacConnell - Vice Principal
  • Michael Waluk - Vice Principal
  • Steven Searfoss- Vice Principal

[edit] Notable students

  • Robert Tsai - Played Lawrence in the movie School of Rock.[citation needed]
  • Alex Zelenty - Commercial actor, famous for his line "Your friends are hot!" in a 2007 T-Mobile commercial.

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Data for Watchung Hills Regional High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed October 21, 2007.
  2. ^ Somerset County School Districts-Sending/Receiving/Regional, Somerset County Superintendent of Schools. Accessed April 27, 2008.
  3. ^ "If You're Thinking. of Living In/ Watchung, N.J.; Stunning Vistas, but Entry Is Not Cheap And there is the matter of dealing with 80 deer per acre.", The New York Times, March 11, 2001. p. RE5
  4. ^ Blue Ribbon Schools Program: Schools Recognized 1982-1983 through 1999-2002 (PDF), accessed August 22, 2006.
  5. ^ "The Top of the Class: The complete list of the 1,200 top U.S. schools", Newsweek, May 22, 2007. Accessed May 24, 2007.
  6. ^ The Complete List: 1,200 Top U.S. Schools, Newsweek, May 23, 2006.
  7. ^ The Complete List of the 1,000 Top U.S. Schools (2004), Newsweek, May 16, 2004.
  8. ^ "Top Public High Schools in New Jersey", New Jersey Monthly, September 2006, backed up by Internet Archive as of April 29, 2007. Accessed March 5, 2008.
  9. ^ 2005 Baseball - North II, Group IV, NJSIAA. Accessed June 4, 2007.
  10. ^ 2008 Ice Hockey Tournament - Public A, NJSIAA. Accessed May 26, 2008.
  11. ^ "FLASHBACK Finishing kick:Ard enjoyed Packer days", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel by Rob Reischel, September 16, 2004. "Ard hasn't totally gotten football out of his system, though. He coaches the freshman team at Watchung Hills Regional High School, his alma mater."
  12. ^ Irene Arranga
  13. ^ Tom Glassic player profile, databaseFootball.com. Accessed June 30, 2007.
  14. ^ " 'That '70s' gal grows up on 'October Road'", New York Daily News by Marisa Guthrie, March 13, 2007. "Prepon, who is the youngest of five children, went to Watchung Hills High in New Jersey. Her mother still lives there (her father passed away when she was 14)."
  15. ^ Ball, Ryan. "Student Academy Award Winners", Animation Magazine, June 21, 2007. Accessed February 29, 2008.

[edit] External links