Cliffside Park High School


Cliffside Park High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grade from Cliffside Park, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary school of the Cliffside Park School District.
Students from Fairview attend the school as part of a sending/receiving relationship with the Fairview Public Schools.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,196 students and 92.7 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 12.9:1. There were 540 students eligible for free lunch and 117 eligible for reduced-cost lunch. In the 2011-12 school year, 36.1% of students at the high school spoke English as their first language at home, while 44.4% spoke Spanish, 4.4% speak Arabic, 3.8% speak Portuguese, 1.9% speak Korean, 1.9% speak Turkish and 7.6% speak other languages. Among the graduates of the Class of 2010, 51.2% planned to attend four-year colleges, while 38.5% planned on attending two-year colleges.

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 297th-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 256th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 235th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 220th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 195th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.

Athletics

The Cliffside Park High School Red Raiders compete in the Big North Conference following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 940 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019-20 school year as Group III for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 761 to 1,058 students in that grade range. For football, the school was classified by the NJSIAA as North Jersey Group IV for 2018-20. Cliffside Park had previously competed in the Bergen County Scholastic League American Conference, which included private and public high schools located in Bergen County and Hudson County.
The boys' basketball team won the Group III state championships in 1941 vs. Bound Brook High School, 1943 vs. Merchantville High School, 1946 vs. Woodrow Wilson High School, 1948 vs. Edison High School, 1954 vs. Linden High School and 1955 vs. Springfield High School, and won the Group II title in 1971 vs. Haddon Heights High School.
The football team won the NJSIAA North I Group III state sectional championships in 1977.
The boys soccer team won the Group II state championship in 2008 and 2010. The 2007 boys soccer team won the North II, Group II state sectional championship with a 1-0 win over Hackettstown High School in the tournament final for the team's second sectional title, the program's only other win coming in 1992 when it won the North I, Group III sectional title. The 2008 team shared the Group II state championship with Delran High School, after a 2-2 tie in which Cliffside Park took a 2-1 lead with a goal with 74 seconds left in regulation but Delran tied the score with a goal nine seconds later. In 2010, the team won its fourth consecutive state sectional title with a 3-1 win against Bernards High School. The 2010 boys soccer team was recognized by The Record as the North Jersey Boys Soccer Team of the Year after winning the Group II state championship with a 1-0 win over Haddon Heights High School, the first sole possession of the state title in the program's history after sharing the Group II title in 2008.

Administration

The school's principal is Lawrence Pinto. His administration team includes two vice principals and the athletic director.

Notable alumni