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Livingston High School (New Jersey)

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Type
  
Public high school

Principal
  
Mark Stern

Phone
  
+1 973-535-8000

Motto
  
A Tradition of Excellence

Colors
  
White, Green

Established
  
1953

Faculty
  
156.6 FTEs

District
  
Livingston Public Schools

Founded
  
1953

Livingston High School (New Jersey)

School district
  
Livingston Public Schools

Asst. principals
  
Bronawyn O'Leary Gregory Vacca Jennifer Wirt

Address
  
30 Robert Harp Drive, Livingston, NJ 07039, USA

Livingston High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Livingston, in Essex County, New Jersey, operating as part of the Livingston Public Schools. It receives all eighth grade graduates from Heritage Middle School. It is the only high school in the Livingston Township. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 1958.

Contents

Livingston High School offers 28 Advanced Placement (AP) courses within eight department areas. The principal is Mark Stern.

As of the 2014-15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,846 students and 156.6 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.8:1. There were 14 students (0.8% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 15 (0.8% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.

Building and facilities

As of 2011, LHS completed a $50 million renovation and expansion project featuring a new science wing, orchestra room, atrium and a "fitness and wellness center" (Gymnasium with Weight room). The cafeteria, auditorium, digital design room, freshmen locker room, and TV studio was refurbished as part of the multimillion-dollar renovation. All of the new additions feature LEED-certified energy saving fixtures. In addition, existing areas of the building, originally built in 1953, was upgraded with a host of new technology. This includes, but not limited to, a new security system, centralized HVAC, a state of the art fire safety system as well as new audio-visual equipment for every class rooms. Cosmetic changes to the interior include new ceiling tiles, lighting, flooring and paint. The project was paid for with the proceeds of a $51.5 million bond issue approved in a 2005 referendum and included the addition and renovation of more than 160,000 square feet (15,000 m2) of space.

Awards, recognition and rankings

For the 1997–98 school year, Livingston High School was recognized with the National Blue Ribbon Award of Excellence from the United States Department of Education, the highest honor that an American school can achieve.

In its listing of "America's Best High Schools 2016", the school was ranked 383rd out of 500 best high schools in the country; it was ranked 44th among all high schools in New Jersey and 27th among the state's non-magnet schools.

The school was ranked 9th in New Jersey, 3rd among non-magnet schools, and 142nd in the nation in the Newsweek 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools". The school was ranked 153rd in the nation and 13th in New Jersey on the list of "America's Best High Schools 2012" prepared by The Daily Beast / Newsweek, with rankings based primarily on graduation rate, matriculation rate for college and number of Advanced Placement / International Baccalaureate courses taken per student, with lesser factors based on average scores on the SAT / ACT, average AP/IB scores and the number of AP/IB courses available to students. Prior to 2011, Newsweek used a different methodology with calculation derived only from a single factor. In Newsweek's June 8, 2009, issue, ranking the country's top high schools, Livingston High School was listed as the 25th-highest ranked school in New Jersey. The ranking was calculated using one main factor that is the ratio of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests given at a school.

The school was the 16th-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 24th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 22nd in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 20th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 14th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state.

Livingston High School has a history of success in academics and the arts. Recent accomplishments are:

  • Ranked #1 and #2 in the league for the 2012 and 2013 New Jersey Mathematics League contest.
  • As of 2015, the school had been placed 1st overall in the Essex County Math League for the 27th year.
  • Ranked #4 in the state in the combined school scores of 2011 Merck State Science Day
  • One of the top winners at the state-level tournament of New Jersey Science Olympiad in 2003-2005, 2007-2010, 2012 and 2013
  • Livingston High School has produced 6 semifinalists and a finalist for the Intel Science Talent Search between 2008 and 2014
  • A semi-finalist for the Google Science Fair in 2011
  • Robotics team won at 2010-2011 FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship
  • A team competed in Royal Dutch Shell Eco-marathon Americas among other high-school and university teams. Ranked 6th in 2012 and ranked 8th in 2014 among high school teams in the Americas in the Gasoline Powered Prototype category.
  • National Winner in the 2009 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. A regional finalist in 2010.
  • A national finalist at 2012 USA Biology Olympiad
  • National Honors since 2010 in United States National Chemistry Olympiad. Two of the top twenty students in the US in 2012 were from Livingston High School.
  • Regional finalists at the Young Epidemiology Scholars Competition in 2007-08 and 2010-11
  • Winners from 2008 to 2012 at Future Business Leaders of America National Leadership Conference. In 2012, national first place in Economics and Sport Management, and seventh place in Entrepreneurship.
  • Livingston High School received recognition for its AP Program as a 2006–2007 State High School winner of the Siemen's Award for Advanced Placement
  • In 2008, 2010 and 2012, students were selected to be part of the 120-member National High School Honors Orchestra that performs biennially at the American String Teachers Association National Conference.
  • Robotics team won the Think Award for best engineering notebook at the 2015 FIRST Tech Challenge
  • Livingston Model United Nations team won two Outstanding Delegate and two Honorable Mentions at Seton Hall University Model United Nations Conference in 2016.
  • Two national top 16 debaters at the National Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament in Public Forum Debate
  • Qualifiers for the Tournament of Champions in Public Forum Debate
  • Athletics

    The Livingston High School Lancers compete in the Super Essex Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 1,384 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. Prior to the NJSIAA's 2010 realignment, the school had competed as part of the Iron Hills Conference, which was made up of public and private high schools in Essex County, Morris County and Union County.

    The boys' soccer team won the Group IV title in 1972, defeating Brick Township High School in the tournament final.

    The boys' tennis team won the Group IV state championships in 1976 vs. Cherry Hill East High School, in 1977 vs. Watchung Hills Regional High School, in 1989 vs. East Brunswick High School, in 2001 vs. Bridgewater-Raritan High School, in 2002 vs. Cherry Hill East and in 2002 vs. West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, and won the Group III title in 1995 vs. Mainland Regional High School. The team won the overall state championship in 1977, defeating Christian Brothers Academy in the tournament final. In 2011, the Livingston boys' tennis team earned their second overall state title when they won the Tournament of Champions over Delbarton School, completing a perfect 36-0 season.

    The baseball team won the Group IV state championship in 1976 vs. Bridgeton High School and in 1980 vs. Steinert High School.

    The boys' wrestling team won the North II Group IV state sectional championship in 2003.

    The football team won the 2008 North I, Group IV state sectional title, the program's first, with a 28–8 win over Hackensack High School in a game played at Giants Stadium. As of 2016, the football coach is Rob Breschard.

    The girls' soccer team won the North I Group IV state sectional championship in 2013 with a 1-0 win against Randolph High School in the tournament final.

    Notable alumni

    Bold names indicate members of the Livingston Education Foundation's Livingston High School Alumni Hall of Fame

  • Jason Alexander (born 1959, class of 1977; né Jay Scott Greenspan), actor (Seinfeld).
  • Benjamin August (born c. 1979, class of 1997), casting director and screenwriter.
  • Hannah August (class of 2001), press secretary for the First Lady Michelle Obama.
  • Shiva Ayyadurai (born 1963), MIT systems scientist and entrepreneur who developed an email system in 1979 when he was a student at Livingston High School.
  • Bruce Beck (class of 1974), sportscaster on WNBC.
  • Frank Biondi (born 1945, class of 1962), former President and CEO of Viacom, and former Chairman and CEO of Universal Studios.
  • Harlan Coben (born 1962, class of 1980), The New York Times best-selling author of Promise Me, Tell No One and No Second Chance,
  • Chris Christie (born 1962, class of 1980), New Jersey Governor, 2016 Presidential candidate.
  • Lucille Davy, Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education.
  • Robert E. Grady (born 1959, class of 1975), an American venture capitalist and investment banker, and a senior-level public official.
  • Chelsea Handler (born 1975, class of 1993), American stand-up comedian and host of the The Chelsea Handler Show and Chelsea Lately.
  • Nikki M. James (born 1981), Tony-Award-winning actress and singer.
  • Leslie Kritzer (born 1977, class of 1995), Broadway actress.
  • Alan B. Krueger (born 1960, class of 1979), economist nominated to serve on the Council of Economic Advisers.
  • Sophia Lin, film producer.
  • Steve Nisenson (born c. 1953), basketball player who set Hofstra's all-time scoring record and the national collegiate season free throw percentage record.
  • Stephen Oremus (born 1971), music supervisor, music director, orchestrator and vocal arranger who won the Tony Award for Best Orchestrations in 2011 for The Book of Mormon and in 2013 for Kinky Boots.
  • Colleen Patrick-Goudreau (born 1970, class of 1988), American author, speaker, and podcaster.
  • Glenn K. Rieth (born 1957, class of 1976), the Adjutant General of New Jersey.
  • Richard Tanne (born 1985), actor, writer, and producer who appeared in the SyFy Channel original movie Swamp Shark.
  • Roger Y. Tsien (born 1952), co-winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and 1968 national winner of the Westinghouse Talent Search.
  • David Wildstein (born 1961), former mayor of Livingston who served as a senior official in the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey until his resignation in the midst of the scandal involving traffic lanes closures at the George Washington Bridge.
  • References

    Livingston High School (New Jersey) Wikipedia