Ocean Township High School


Ocean Township High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Ocean Township, in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary school the Ocean Township School District. OTHS serves residents of all neighborhoods within Ocean Township, including Oakhurst, Wanamassa, Wayside and West Allenhurst.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,070 students and 108.6 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 9.9:1. There were 247 students eligible for free lunch and 47 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
As of the 2013-14 school year there were 18 Advanced Placement courses offered. In conjunction with Monmouth University, Ocean Township High School offers a dual credit program called MODEL to AP students. The school's average graduation rate for the past two years is 99% and 97% of students go on to post secondary education.
The school's Family and Consumer Science kitchens, for culinary instruction, were remodeled in 2005. Over 93% of Ocean's teachers are at or above intermediate skill levels in the use of technology.

History

The school opened in 1965, serving grades 7-11. The Ocean Township seniors completed their final year at Asbury Park High School, which all Ocean Township public school students attended prior to the construction of OTHS. Thus OTHS graduated its first class in 1967. Gradually, the 7th and 8th grade students were moved to other schools. Beginning in the 1975-76 school year, with the opening of the then 7-9 Ocean Township Intermediate School, the school only served 10-12, with the freshman class returning to OTHS for the 1978-79 school year.
At the end of the 2016-17 school year, Loch Arbour left the Ocean Township district after getting approval from the New Jersey Department of Education and following the overwhelming passage of a referendum. With 14 public school students and school property taxes of $2 million, Loch Arbour had been paying an average of $143,000 per pupil, while Ocean Township taxpayers only paid approximately $16,000 per pupil. The Loch Arbour cost per student was significantly reduced under new sending/receiving relationships established with the West Long Branch Public Schools for PreK-8 and Shore Regional High School for 9-12, under which Loch Arbour pays tuition to each district based on the number of students. Ocean Township opposed the changes as the subsidy funded approximately 20 staff positions.

Awards, recognition and rankings

In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 55th in New Jersey and 1,637th nationwide. In Newsweek's May 22, 2007 issue, ranking the country's top high schools, Ocean Township High School was listed in 838th place, the 21st-highest ranked school in New Jersey.
In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 856th in the nation among participating public high schools and 64th among schools in New Jersey.
The school was the 84th-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 95th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 64th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 97th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 69th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school tied for 148th 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.

Extracurricular activities

The school's extra-curricular programs provide invaluable learning experiences and life-lessons for students. A heavy emphasis on sportsmanship and scholarship is a primary focus at OTHS with students and teachers working together to further student's interest. Many clubs also provide public service projects.
Many clubs and sports are offered to students, allowing them to look further into what interests them most.

Athletics

The Ocean Township High School Spartans compete in the Shore Conference, an athletic conference made up of private and public high schools centered at the Northern Jersey Shore, in Monmouth County and Ocean County, and operates under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 906 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as Central Jersey, Group III for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 822 to 1,068 students in that grade range.
The school participates as the host school / lead agency in a joint ice hockey program with Shore Regional High School, under an agreement that expires at the end of the 2017-18 school year.
The field hockey team won the Central Jersey Group III state sectional championship in 1980, 1985, 1997 and 2001.
The boys' tennis team won the Group III state championship in 1980 vs. Moorestown High School.
The baseball team defeated Montville Township High School in the championship game to win the Group III state title in 1985.
The football team won the Central Jersey Group III state sectional championships in 1993, 2000 and 2005. As the tournament's seventh seed, Ocean Township High School defeated Nottingham High School by a score of 41-20 in the 2005 Central Jersey Group III sectional final.
The boys' soccer team won the Group III state championship in 1996, defeating Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in the tournament final.
The wrestling team won the South Jersey Group III state sectional championship for five consecutive seasons from 2004 to 2008, and again in 2012.
The boys' bowling team won the Group II state championship in 2011.

Administration

The school'a principal is Dawn Kaszuba. Her core administration team includes two assistant principals.

Notable alumni