Mahwah High School


Mahwah High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students from Mahwah, Bergen County, New Jersey, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as the only secondary school of the Mahwah Township Public Schools. The school is accredited by the New Jersey Department of Education and has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 1962.
As of the 2017-18 school year, the school had an enrollment of 901 students and 92.7 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 9.7:1. There were 59 students eligible for free lunch and 23 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 69th-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 55th in state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 56th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 68th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 46th in the magazine's 2006 rankings. Schooldigger.com ranked the school 79th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics and language arts literacy components of the High School Proficiency Assessment.
In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 70th in New Jersey and 2,033rd nationwide.
In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 615th in the nation among participating public high schools and 47th among schools in New Jersey.
In its listing of "America's Best High Schools 2016", the school was ranked 366th out of 500 best high schools in the country; it was ranked 42nd among all high schools in New Jersey and 25th among the state's non-magnet schools.
In Niches 2017 list of the Best Schools in the Nation, Mahwah High School as the 28th school in New Jersey.

History

Construction on the $3.25 million campus-style facility began in August 1958, with 13 buildings spread out over of the 62 acre property to accommodate 600 students from Mahwah and Allendale. Delays in starting the work meant that the initial set of classrooms would not be available until November 1958, with completion of the 1,200-student capacity facility due for February 1959. Before the buildings opened, the district rented space from Ramsey High School, with Allendale and Mahwah students who had already started in the Ramsey district remaining there until graduation. With the opening of the high school, the Mahwah district's elementary schools were changed from K-8 to K-6, with the new high school serving students in grades 7-12.
In May 1963, voters in Allendale and Upper Saddle River approved a referendum to create Northern Highlands Regional High School, with the expenditure of $3.65 million to build a facility on a 40-acre site, with plans to complete the building in time to start classes in September 1965. The Northern Highland school building, completed at a cost of $4 million, was dedicated in February 1966. The first all-Mahwah graduating class was in 1967.
The present school building was constructed in 1984 with three floors on the site of the original school, with an addition completed in "March 2005", according to a plaque in the new wing.
In Fall 2009, the Freshman Advisory, a full year freshman transition program, was implemented. Freshman Advisory is a required course for all freshman students, and it is taught by upperclassmen and supervised by the high school faculty. The following topics are addressed: study and organizational skills, time management, coping skills, peer pressure, Habits of Mind, and college/post-secondary planning.
In Summer of 2018 construction began on a new extension to the high school. Named the STEAM room and also known as The Thunderbird Think Tank and houses new science rooms and computer labs. The extension was completed August, 2019 and opened for students in September, 2019.

Advanced Placement offerings

Mahwah High School offers 20 Advanced Placement courses, which include AP Biology, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP Computer Science, AP Economics, AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP European History, AP French, AP Music Theory, AP Physics, AP Psychology, AP Spanish, AP Statistics, AP Studio Art, AP Psychology AP United States Government and Politics, and AP US History. In the 2009-10 school year, 128 students participated in Mahwah High School's AP course offerings, taking a total of 258 examinations that year of which 87% achieved a grade of 3 or higher.

Athletics

The Mahwah High School Thunderbirds 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 714 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as North I, Group II for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 495 to 761 students in that grade range. Prior to the 2010 realignment, Mahwah was one of the member schools of the North Bergen Interscholastic Athletic League.
Interscholastic sports offered include :
The football team was awarded the sectional championship by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association in 1960. Since the playoff system was introduced in 1974, the team has won the NJSIAA North I Group I state sectional championship in 1978, 1979, 1981 and 2015. In 2015, the football team finished with a team record 11 wins, defeating Glen Rock High School by a score of 38-13 in the tournament final at MetLife Stadium to win the North I Group II state sectional title. In 2016, the team won its second consecutive North I, Group II state sectional title with a 35-28 win against Westwood Regional High School in the tournament final, the program's fifth title in the playoff era.
The girls' basketball team won the Group II state title in 1993 vs. Delran High School.
In 2010, the boys lacrosse team defeated Bergen Catholic High School in the BCCA Lacrosse Championship 10-6 to win a county title in only its second year of varsity existence.
The girls' soccer team won the Group I state championship in 1985 and won the Group II title in 2010.
In 2010, the girls soccer team, ranked 15th in the state by The Star-Ledger, defeated Arthur L. Johnson High School in the NJSIAA Group II state finals, with a final score of 3-1. The team had made it to the 2009 NJSIAA Group II State Finals, before losing 2-1 in overtime to Haddonfield Memorial High School.
The 2012 baseball team defeated Buena Regional High School by a score of 11-4 to capture the Group II state championship, earning the first baseball state championship in the team's 52 season history.
In 2014, the boy's winter track and field team defeated a field of over 20 teams and won the North I Group II state sectional title.

Extra-curricular activities

Some of the extra-curricular activities offered at Mahwah High School include Ani-Pals, Art Club, Athletes in Action, Audio-Visual Club, Calliope, Chinese Honor Society, Current Events Club, Environmental Club, Executive Student Council, Future Business Leaders of America, French National Honor Society, Gay-Straight Alliance, Junior Classical League, Marching band, Mock trial, Model United Nations, Multi-Cultural Club, National Honor Society, Omni Club, Philosophy Club, Reaching Everyone By Exposing Lies, Science National Honor Society, Spanish National Honor Society, Stage Crew, Ski Club, Step Dance, Student Council, Students Against Destructive Decisions, Students Against Violence Everywhere, Thunderbird, Tom-Tom, Ultimate Frisbee Club, Interact, Wood Tech Club and Young Politicians Club. Additionally, freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior class activities are offered.

The Robo T-Birds

One of the older clubs in the school, the Robotics Club Team 1672, was started in 2005. This team assigned #1672, is part of the FIRST Robotics Competition. This club encourages all students with or without knowledge in the STEM field wishing to learn more about mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, as well as running a business. Teams of highschool students around the world compete in yearly competitions. The club continues to participate in FIRST. The current advisors are Ms. Catherine Schwarts and Mr. Joseph Carmelo Montana.

Mock Trial

The Mock Trial Team is one of the most successful public schools in the county, winning four Bergen County titles, in 2008, 2011, 2012, and 2014. They also made an appearance in a fourth final, when they lost to Bergen Catholic High School in 2010.

Administration

The school's principal is John P. Pascale. His administration team includes an assistant principal.

Notable alumni