Type Public Principal Robert Tull | Established 1965 Faculty 144.0 FTEs | |
 | ||
School district Eastern Camden County Regional High School District Vice principals Stephen Young (9th)
Yashanta Holloway-Taluy, (10th)
William Westerby (11th)
Alice Ryan (12th)
Jason Hill (Athletics) | ||
Eastern Regional High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school for students in ninth through twelfth grades from Berlin Borough, Gibbsboro and Voorhees Township, three communities in Camden County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Eastern Camden County Regional High School District. The high school is located in Voorhees Township.
Contents
- Awards recognition and rankings
- Sports
- Field hockey team
- Extracurricular activities
- Administration
- Notable alumni
- References
As of the 2014-15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 2,014 students and 144.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 14.0:1. There were 136 students (6.8% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 82 (4.1% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
The district was established in 1965, with 35 professional staff and 495 students. The school was originally divided into schools on the same site: Eastern Intermediate High School (grades 9-10), completed in 1992, and Eastern Senior High School (grades 11-12). There were over 1,000 students enrolled at Eastern Senior High School. Eastern Intermediate High School had approximately 1,150 enrolled students. In September 2012, the schools merged into one unit with the retirement of Dr. James Talarico in June 2012 and was renamed "Eastern Regional High School" with Mr. Robert Tull serving as the principal of the merged school. The oldest parts of the school, which were constructed in 1965, 1970, and 1975 are now the "11-12 Building", and the 1992 addition is referred to as the "9-10 Building".
Awards, recognition and rankings
Eastern Regional High School was ranked 81st out of 337 High Schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2016 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools" using a new ranking methodology. The school was the 104th-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 117th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 86th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 79th in 2008 out of 316 schools.
Schooldigger.com ranked the school tied for 133rd out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (a decrease of 46 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (86.0%) and language arts literacy (93.1%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).
In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 847th in the nation among participating public high schools and 63rd among schools in New Jersey.
Sports
The Eastern High School Vikings participate in the Olympic Conference, which consists of public and private high schools located in Burlington County and Camden County, and operates under the auspices of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 1,514 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as South Jersey, Group IV for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 1,082 to 1,934 students in that grade range.
Eastern High School has a separate ice hockey club that fields both a varsity and junior varsity teams. In the 2015-16 season, the newly formed pure ice hockey team beat Kingsway in a series of 2-1 to claim the SJHSHL Teir 1-B Championship. They won when senior forward Rory O'Hara scored the overtime winner 7 seconds in. (visit the club's webpage) While not officially affiliated with the school (which is the case with the majority of area high school ice hockey teams), they are a member of the South Jersey High School Ice Hockey League, and compete against other member high schools throughout South Jersey.
The boys wrestling team won the South Jersey Group III state sectional championships in 1983 and 1985.
The girls basketball team won the Group III state championships in 1989 vs. Sparta High School.
The girls volleyball team won the Group IV state championship in 2001, defeating Hunterdon Central Regional High School by 15-7 and 15-11, after losing to Hackensack High School in the Group IV final in 2000.
The boys bowling team won the overall state championship in 2001.
The football team won the NJSIAA South Jersey Group IV state sectional championship in 2003. Eastern has had a very consistent football team winning the South Jersey, Group IV title with a 14-7 win against Washington Township High School in 2003 and competing in the playoffs six out of eight years after winning their first state sectional title.
The girls' varsity soccer team won back-to-back Group IV state championships in 2005 and 2006. In 2005, they won the Group IV South sectional championship over Toms River High School East 1-0. The team then went on to win the state championship game by a score of 2-0 over Roxbury High School. The team repeated in 2006, defeating Washington Township High School 2-0 in the Group IV South sectional championship, and defeating North Hunterdon High School to capture the 2006 Group IV state championship.
Field hockey team
Eastern's field hockey team has the longest consecutive unbeaten streak in the history of the National Federation. The 2003 team won the Group IV state championship with a 1-0 win over Lenape High School in the semifinals and a 6-0 win against Hunterdon Central High School in the tournament's final match. The 2004 team repeated as Group IV champion, again defeating Hunterdon Central High School in the tournament final. On November 19, 2006, Eastern's field hockey team won the 2006 Tournament of Champions, defeating West Essex High School 2-1. In 2007, the field hockey team won the South Jersey, Group IV state sectional championship in commanding fashion with a 10-0 win over Atlantic City High School in the quarterfinals, 8-0 over Cherokee High School in the semis and an 8-0 win over Washington Township High School in the tournament final. The team moved on to win the Group IV state championship with a 10-0 win over Steinert High School in the semis and a 4-0 win against Bridgewater-Raritan High School in the finals. With this win, the team had won nine consecutive Group IV state titles, tying a national record. The team would go on to sweep Group IV and Tournament of Champions titles in 2008 and 2009. The Vikings hold the record for the most state championships (18), the longest streak of state championships in field hockey (17) and is one of only two teams to ever score more than 200 goals in a season.
Eastern's dominance against New Jersey opponents finally came to an end on November 14, 2007, when they lost to Group I Oak Knoll 3-2 in overtime of the Tournament of Champions semifinals. Dating back to 1998, the team had won 208 consecutive games to opponents from New Jersey, but still hold the national record unbeaten streak of 153 games. In all the school years between 2011 and 2015, the Eastern field hockey team was ranked number one in the nation.
This 'Field Hockey Dynasty' was noted in an article in the Sunday edition of The New York Times, including profiles of team members. In 2013, the field-hockey program received a Special Achievement Award from the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association, in recognition of its 14 consecutive New Jersey state field hockey championships and its 2013 victory in the state Tournament of Champions.
Extracurricular activities
Eastern High School has run a very successful Model United Nations team and program. In 2001, the South Jersey Model UN Consortium was started by the former advisor, Janet E. Rabin. The program runs the South Jersey Model United Nations one-day conference every fall and visits college conferences in the fall and spring. The Model UN team has won such awards as Best Small and Large Delegation at Rutgers Model UN, Best Small Delegation at Harvard Model United Nations, in addition to others. The Model UN team has attended conferences at Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, Rutgers University, and Harvard University, consistently winning awards at all of these prestigious schools. The program was recently ranked the 21st best High School Model UN team in the country. The Model Congress team has also had much success at Rutgers Model Congress.
The school's marching band was Tournament of Bands Chapter One Champions in 1976 and 1981 (Group 1), and State Champions in 2011, 2012, and 2014. (Group 2). The marching band was 1981 and 2012 Atlantic Coast Champions in Group 1 and 2014 Atlantic Coast Champions in Group 2.
Eastern conducts an award-winning theater program that includes team theater (New Jersey State Champions 2008-09 and 2nd Place finishers in both 2011-12 and 2012–13), annual Fall Play and Spring Musical, and One-Acts Festival. Eastern's 2010 musical, 'Chicago.' earned Sarah Cheatham a Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star nomination for her lead performance as 'Roxie.' Eastern's 2011 musical, Cats, earned the award for Outstanding High School Musical in the 8-county Philadelphia region by the Greater Philadelphia Cappies, as well as both Best Actor and Best Actress in a Musical. In 2012, for the 2nd year in a row, an Eastern musical was nominated for 'Outstanding Production' in New Jersey by the Rising Star Awards sponsored by the State Theatre of New Jersey, Paper Mill Playhouse. Sarah Cheatham was nominated for Lead Actress for 'Anna' in Eastern's The King and I.
Administration
Core members of the school's administration are: