Mahwah High School

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 69th-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 55th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 56th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 68th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 46th in the magazine's 2006 rankings. Schooldigger.com ranked the school 79th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (a decrease of 18 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (90.9%) and language arts literacy (94.8%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).

In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 70th in New Jersey and 2,033rd nationwide.

In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 615th in the nation among participating public high schools and 47th among schools in New Jersey.

In its listing of "America's Best High Schools 2016", the school was ranked 366th out of 500 best high schools in the country; it was ranked 42nd among all high schools in New Jersey and 25th among the state's non-magnet schools.

History

Construction on the $3.25 million campus-style facility began in August 1958, with 13 buildings spread out over 20 acres (8.1 ha) of the 62 acre property to accommodate 600 students from Mahwah and Allendale. Delays in starting the work meant that the initial set of classrooms would not be available until November 1958, with completion of the 1,200-student capacity facility due for February 1959. Before the buildings opened, the district rented space from Ramsey High School, with Allendale and Mahwah students who had already started in the Ramsey district remaining there until graduation. With the opening of the high school, the Mahwah district's elementary schools were changed from K-8 to K-6, with the new high school serving students in grades 7-12.

In May 1963, voters in Allendale and Upper Saddle River approved a referendum to create Northern Highlands Regional High School, with the expenditure of $3.65 million to build a facility on a 40-acre site, with plans to complete the building in time to start classes in September 1965. The Northern Highland school building, completed at a cost of $4 million, was dedicated in February 1966. The first all-Mahwah graduating class was in 1967.

The present school building was constructed in 1984 with three floors on the site of the original school, with an addition completed in "March 2005" (along with the expansion of Ramapo Ridge Middle School), according to a plaque in the new wing.

In Fall 2009, the Freshman Advisory, a full year freshman transition program, was implemented. Freshman Advisory is a required course for all freshman students, and it is taught by upperclassmen (juniors and seniors) and supervised by the high school faculty. The following topics are addressed: study and organizational skills, time management, coping skills, peer pressure, Habits of Mind, and college/post-secondary planning.

Advanced Placement offerings

Mahwah High School offers 18 Advanced Placement (AP) courses, which include AP Biology, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP Computer Science, AP Economics (includes one semester of macroeconomics and one semester of microeconomics), AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP European History, AP French, AP Music Theory, AP Physics, AP Psychology, AP Spanish, AP Statistics, AP Studio Art, AP Psychology and AP US History. For the 2013-2014 school year, AP United States Government and Politics will be added to the course offerings as an option for students to enroll in. In the 2009-10 school year, 128 students participated in Mahwah High School's AP course offerings, taking a total of 258 examinations that year of which 87% achieved a grade of 3 or higher.

Athletics

The Mahwah High School Thunderbirds compete in the Big North Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). With 714 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as North I, Group II for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 495 to 761 students in that grade range. Prior to the 2010 realignment, Mahwah was one of the member schools of the North Bergen Interscholastic Athletic League.

Interscholastic sports offered include (thos listed with an asterisk, although they are technically two teams that compete and score separately, usually practice and have their events with each other):

The football team won the NJSIAA North I Group I state sectional championship in 1978, 1979 and 1981. In 2015, the football team finished with a team record 11 wins, defeating Glen Rock High School by a score of 38-13 in the tournament final at MetLife Stadium to win the North I Group II state sectional title. In 2016, the team won its second consecutive North I, Group II state sectional title with a 35-28 win against Westwood Regional High School in the tournament final, the program's fifth title in the playoff era.

The girls' basketball team won the Group II state title in 1993 vs. Delran High School.

In 2010, the boys lacrosse team defeated Bergen Catholic High School in the BCCA Lacrosse Championship 10-6 to win a county title in only its second year of varsity existence.

The girls' soccer team won the Group I state championship in 1985 (defeating Maple Shade High School in the tournament final) and won the Group II title in 2010 (vs. Arthur L. Johnson High School). In 2010, the girls soccer team, ranked 15th in the state by The Star-Ledger, defeated [Arthur L. Johnson High School in the NJSIAA Group II state finals, with a final score of 3-1. The team had made it to the 2009 NJSIAA Group II State Finals, before losing 2-1 in overtime to Haddonfield Memorial High School.

The 2012 baseball team defeated Buena Regional High School by a score of 11-4 to capture the Group II state championship, earning the first baseball state championship in the team's 52 season history.

In 2014, the boy's winter track and field team defeated a field of over 20 teams and won the North I Group II state sectional title.

Extra-curricular activities

Some of the extra-curricular activities offered at Mahwah High School include Ani-Pals, Art Club, Athletes in Action, Audio-Visual Club, Calliope (literary magazine), Current Events Club, Environmental Club, Executive Student Council, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), French National Honor Society, Gay-Straight Alliance, Junior Classical League, Marching band, Mock trial, Model United Nations, Multi-Cultural Club, National Honor Society, Omni Club, Philosophy Club, Reaching Everyone By Exposing Lies (REBEL), Robotics Club FIRST Robotics Competition, Science National Honor Society, Spanish National Honor Society, Stage Crew, Ski Club, Step Dance, Student Council, Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE), Thunderbird (yearbook), Tom-Tom (school paper), Ultimate Frisbee Club, Interact, Wood Tech Club and Young Politicians Club. Additionally, freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior class activities are offered.

Mock Trial

The Mock Trial Team is one of the most successful public schools in the county, winning four Bergen County titles, in 2008, 2011, 2012, and 2014. They also made an appearance in a fourth final, when they lost to Bergen Catholic High School in 2010.

Administration

Core members of the school's administration are:

Notable alumni