Type Public high school Principal Karen A. Johnson Grades 9-12 Phone +1 973-321-0510 Founded 1926 | Established 1926 Faculty 189 (on FTE basis) Enrollment 1,738 (as of 2009-10) Color Orange | |
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Eastside High School (or EHS) is a four-year public high school in Paterson in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States, that serves the eastern section of Paterson which was built on an old cemetery thus earning the name "Ghosts". EHS, which serves grades students in ninth through twelfth grades, operates as part of the Paterson Public Schools. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 1928.
Contents
- Awards recognition and rankings
- Demographics and achievement
- Athletics
- Popular culture
- Notable alumni
- References
The Eastside campus hosts three separate academy programs that operate independently but share a facility and athletic programs: School of Culinary Arts, Hospitality and Tourism, School of Government and Public Administration and the School of Information Technology.
Eastside High School opened on February 1, 1926. The school mascot is the Ghost.
Awards, recognition and rankings
The school was the 311th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 316 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2008 cover story on the state's Top Public High Schools. The school was ranked 309th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school 370th out of 376 public high schools statewide in its 2009-10 rankings which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the language arts literacy and mathematics components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).
Demographics and achievement
As of the 2008-09 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,731 students and 295.4 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 5.9:1.
EHS is 55% Hispanic of various Latin American nationalities, 43% Black, 2% White. 37% of the school speaks Spanish in their homes while another 32% speaks another language that isn't English at home. There are also limited English proficiency students or LEPs who compose 12% of the school. Limited English Proficient students cannot speak, read, or write in English and are placed in "bilingual" classes. 45% of the students participate in the free or reduced price lunch program.
The average class size is 39 students, excluding special education. The school's ratio of students to computers is 9 to 1, with the state average being 4 to 1.
On the Language Arts section of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA), 51% scored proficient and 46% scored partial. On the Math section of the test, 39% scored proficient and 57% scored partial. The average SAT score is 736 out of 1600. The Advanced Placement Program (AP) participation is 2%. The average attendance rate is 87%. As of the 2004-05 school year, EHS had a suspension rate of 10%. 60% of Eastside High School seniors graduated. 71% of the school graduated via the SRA process and 10% graduated through the LEP SRA process. Roughly 38% of the graduating seniors go on to four-year colleges and another 34% of the graduating seniors go on to two-year college.
The faculty gets paid $46,500 a year while the state average is $52,563. The administrators get paid $105,000, the state average is $102,755.
Since the school is in a "special needs" or one of the Abbott Districts, the district receives almost 85% of its budget from the state.
Athletics
The Eastside High School Ghosts compete in the Big North Conference, a super conference of about 40 public and private high schools in Bergen County and Passaic County that operates under the supervision of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). With 2,193 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as North I, Group IV for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 1,090 to 2,568 students in that grade range. For the 2009-10 season, the school competed in the North Jersey Tri-County Conference, an interim conference established to facilitate the forthcoming realignment. Until the NJSIAA's 2009 realignment, the school had participated in Division B of the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League, which was made up of high schools located in Bergen County, Essex County and Passaic County, and was separated into three divisions based on NJSIAA size classification.
Eastside plays an annual Thanksgiving Day football game against Kennedy High School. In 2011, Eastside won the 87th annual match-up between the two schools by a score of 17-12, ending the series at 40 wins, 40 losses and 7 ties.
The boys' bowling team won the overall state championship in 1960.
Popular culture
Paterson Eastside High is famous for its renaissance in the mid-1980s under the leadership of Joe Clark as principal. The school was depicted in the 1989 film Lean on Me, starring Morgan Freeman.