Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School


The Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School is a regional, four-year comprehensive public high school and school district, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from the suburban communities of Fair Haven and Rumson, which are situated on a peninsula bounded by the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers and the Atlantic Ocean, in northern Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 1940.
Rumson-Fair Haven High School receives students from two middle schools, Forrestdale Middle School of the Rumson School District and Knollwood School of the Fair Haven Public Schools, as well as from private schools, including Rumson Country Day School and Holy Cross School.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 983 students and 84.8 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 11.6:1. There were 3 students eligible for free lunch and 1 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "J", the highest of eight groupings. District Factor Groups organize districts statewide to allow comparison by common socioeconomic characteristics of the local districts. From lowest socioeconomic status to highest, the categories are A, B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J.

History

The facility, constructed with aid from the Works Progress Administration and completed in 1936, is located in Rumson. Students from Fair Haven began attending as soon as the new school opened and the regional district was established in 1956. Since its original construction, the school facility has had three significant additions.
In the fall of 2004, information about Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School and several other U.S. schools was recovered from a CD found on the body of a dead Iraqi insurgent killed in Baghdad. It was discovered from the body of an Iraqi physicist, the son of a member of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party. The man's father had a strong connection to the al-Qaeda terrorist network. The information pertaining to RFH did not include floor plans, but did contain information about the school's vandalism and bullying policies. The CD also contained information about radon and depleted uranium. The recent Beslan school hostage crisis in which 385 people were killed, half of them students, was compared to the school because RFH, like the Russian school, had construction under way. Police patrols around the school were increased in response to the potential threat.

Awards, recognition and rankings

In 2011, Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School was one of 14 schools in the state, and one of two public high schools, selected by the United States Department of Education with recognition with the National Blue Ribbon School Award of Excellence.
The school was the 10th-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 also been ranked 10th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 31st in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 30th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 33rd in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school tied for 49th 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 its listing of "America's Best High Schools 2016", the school was ranked 144th out of 500 best high schools in the country; it was ranked 26th among all high schools in New Jersey and 13th among the state's non-magnet schools.
In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 269th in the nation among participating public high schools and 21st among schools in New Jersey.
In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 51st in New Jersey and 1,606th nationwide. The school was ranked in 1,181st place, the 40th-highest in New Jersey, in Newsweek magazine's 2010 rankings of America's Best High Schools. In Newsweek's May 22, 2007 issue, ranking the country's top high schools, Rumson-Fair Haven High School was listed in 1108th place, the 35th-highest ranked school in New Jersey.
The school was the winner of the National Fed Challenge in 2004, and had done well in subsequent years, making it to the District Finals in 2005 and 2008. In 2008, Rumson-Fair Haven was defeated by Marlboro High School, although, the team put up a stellar performance.
In 2008, the school was the national winner of the Euro Challenge, an economics competition sponsored by the European Delegation to the United States and the Moody's Foundation.

Athletics

The Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School Bulldogs compete in the Shore Conference, an athletic conference made up of private and public high schools centered at the Northern Jersey Shore. All schools in this conference are located within Monmouth County and Ocean County, and the league operates under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 750 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as Central Jersey, Group II for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 498 to 750 students in that grade range.
The girls' basketball team won the Group I title in 1996, and won the Group II state championship in 2002, 2006 and 2007 and 2009. The 2001 team also took the sectional title, defeating Voorhees High School, 46-29. The 2002 team won the Central Jersey Group II championship, edging Raritan High School 46-44, and then edged Newton High School by a score of 44-42 in the championship game to win the Group II state title. The 2006 team won the sectional championship over Abraham Clark High School, 41-32, then defeated River Dell by a score of 49-42 to earn the Group II state championship. The 2007 team won the Central Jersey Group II sectional championship, defeating Somerville High School, 38-30 in the final game. The team then moved on the Group II championship, facing River Dell for the second consecutive year and winning by a score of 44-23, before falling to Trenton Central High School, 48-37 in the first round of the Tournament of Champions.
The girls' cross country team won the Group I state championship in 1999 and won the Group II title in 2011, 2013 and 2015; the boys' cross country team also won the Group I title in 1999.
The boys' tennis team won the 2003 Central Jersey Group II championship, defeating Montgomery High School 3-2 in the final match. The 2005 team won the sectional championship by a 4-1 score over Shore Regional High School in the final. The 2007 team won the Central Group II title with a series of 5-0 wins over Somerville High School, New Providence High School, and ultimately Governor Livingston High School in the tournament final. The team won the Group II state championship in 2008, defeating Pascack Hills High School in the final round of the tournament.
The girls' tennis team won the Central Jersey Group I tournament in 1999, beating Middlesex High School 5-0. The team came back to the sectional championship in 2004, knocking off Shore Regional High School by 4-1.
The girls' swim team won the 2002 Public Central B Sectionals, topping Red Bank Regional High School by 111-59.
The girls' soccer team won the Central Jersey Group II title in 2002 over Burlington Township High School by a final score of 3-2. The 2007 team, seeded fourth, won the Central, Group II sectional title with a 1-0 overtime win over second-seed Somerville High School in the tournament final. The girls' soccer team beat Delaware Valley to win the 2008 Central Jersey Group II sectional title, the first time RFH has ever won back-to-back girls' soccer titles. They went on to beat Haddonfield High School and Hasbrouck Heights High School to win the first girls' Group II state championship title in school history. The team won the 2013 Group II title, defeating Bernards High School in the tournament final.
In 2006, the girls' field hockey team won its first ever state title, beating Delran High School 2-1 to win the Central Jersey Group II state sectional championship. In both 2012 and 2013, the team won the North II Group II sectional title. In 2014, the field hockey team won its first-ever Shore Conference Tournament title, beating Shore Regional High School by a score of 2-0, snapping Shore's 15-year reign as Shore Conference champions. The 2014 team went on to finish 24-1-2, winning the Central Jersey, Group II championship by 8-0 against Robbinsville High School as well as the Group II state championship, the program's first group title. In 2015, Rumson-Fair Haven won its second straight Shore Conference Tournament title, beating Shore Regional 1-0 in the tournament final.
The football team has won the Central Jersey Group II state championships in 2010, 2013, 2014, and 2015. It won its first state championship in 2010 when it defeated Matawan High School by a score of 13-7 in the Central Jersey Group II state sectional championship, finishing the season with a 9-3 record. The 2013 football team finished with an 11-1 record and won the Central Jersey Group II state sectional championship over previously undefeated Weequahic High School by a 14-6 score. In 2014, Rumson-Fair Haven defeated Delaware Valley Regional High School by a score of 21-0 to claim their third title in five years. Rumson-Fair Haven won its third straight sectional championship in 2015, when it shut out Red Bank Regional High School 21-0 to win the Central Jersey Group III title. In 2016, the team won its fourth consecutive title, winning the Central Jersey Group III state sectional championship with a 27-22 win against South Plainfield High School in the tournament final.
The boys' swim team won its first state sectional title in 2015, winning all 11 events and beating top-seeded Lawrence High School 95-75 in the Central Jersey Public C finals.
The boys' basketball team won the 2015 Shore Conference Tournament championship, defeating Christian Brothers Academy 50-24. Tied 19-19 at halftime against top-seeded CBA, eleventh-seeded Rumson-Fair Haven exploded in the second half to outscore their opponent 31-5 and take home the title. Brendan Barry scored 27 points in the contest, en route to winning Shore Conference Player of the Year. The game has been called the "Greatest upset in Shore Conference Tournament Finals History".

Coronavirus aid fundraising event

On April 26, 2020, two RFH students, teamed up by and raising money for Jersey Shore University Medical Center while one student was running a marathon on his treadmill, which he completed at 5 hours 21 minutes and 35 seconds, his partner, as described by many media outlets, acted as the "hype man" and "entertainer" throughout the near six-hour live stream. Within 3 days of the live stream ending, Governor Phil Murphy gave the two RFH students shout outs during his own daily live stream. Later that day, WNBC 4 New York heard the story and the segment was aired on April 29, 2020. The students decided to take the negative experience of the pandemic outbreak and make it into a positive with the live stream and as of April 30, 2020, the duo has raised over $6,000.
Additionally, in April of 2020 toward the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, ten Rumson Fair Haven students began collecting food donations to help families in the Monmouth County area who had lost their jobs or had been unable to receive food due to the pandemic. After a few weeks of food donations they turned their mission into a non-profit organization called Companeros de Comida which as of June, 2020 they have raised over $30,000, served over 20,000 meals, and helped seven families achieve food security.

Administration

Core members of the school's administration are:
The district's board of education, with nine members, sets policy and oversees the fiscal and educational operation of the district through its administration. As a Type II school district, the board's trustees are elected directly by voters to serve three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with three seats up for election each year held as part of the November general election. Seats on the board of education are allocated based on the population of the constituent municipalities, with five seats assigned to Rumson and four to Fair Haven.

Notable alumni