Watchung Hills Regional High School is a regional comprehensive public high school and school district serving students in portions of Somerset and Morris Counties in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Students from Warren Township and from the neighboring communities of Watchung, and Green Brook in Somerset County and Long Hill Township in Morris County attend the school. The high school is located in Warren Township on Stirling Road and is the only facility of the Warren Hills Regional High School District. In 2022, U.S. News & World Report ranked the school 107th of the 445 high schools in New Jersey and 2,643rd in the country, with 54% of students participating in Advanced Placement exams.

History

Constructed using $1,650,000 in bond funding (equivalent to $ million in ), the school included 38 classrooms designed to handle an enrollment of 750 students on a site in Warren Township covering 39 acres. The school opened in September 1957 with 615 students in attendance. Prior to the opening of the regional school, students from Warren Township and Watchung had attended an increasingly overcrowded North Plainfield High School, while students from Long Hill Township attended Bernards High School on an interim basis, after a previous relationship with Morristown High School had been ended. In 2016, an episode of Dance Moms, Season 5, Episode 3 entitled "JoJo with a Bow Bow", was filmed at the school. The school hosted the In10sity Dance Invitational on October 25, 2014, which was the subject of the episode. On November 5, 2019, the school's superintendent announced the condemnation of a photograph involving two students in blackface during an off-campus Halloween party, declaring that "hate has no place on our campus". In 2020, it was revealed that students from the school's special education program had been omitted from the 2020 yearbook. In 2021, the school announced that it would retain its Warriors team name, but updated its logo and branding to remove any images of Native American symbols and to help represent unity in the district. The retired logo had featured a Native American headdress. In 2022, the day after the Robb Elementary School shooting, the school entered a lockdown after a false active shooter threat was made.

Demographics

As of the 2022–23 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,741 students and 150.8 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.5:1. There were 31 students (1.8% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 16 (0.9% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch. The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "I", the second-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.

Awards, recognition and rankings

Watchung Hills Regional High School received the National Blue Ribbon Award of Excellence from the United States Department of Education in 1994-95, the highest honor that an American school can achieve. In 2021 Watchung Hills Regional High School was awarded the New Jersey Lighthouse award for its work towards Equity - specifically efforts toward recruiting and retaining a diverse staff. In its listing of "America's Best High Schools 2016", the school was ranked 131st out of 500 best high schools in the country; it was ranked 24th among all high schools in New Jersey and 11th among the state's non-magnet schools. In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 514th in the nation among participating public high schools and 42nd among schools in New Jersey. In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 34th in New Jersey and 1,160th nationwide. In 2008, Newsweek ranked the school as 919th in the nation. In Newsweek's May 22, 2007 issue, ranking the country's top high schools, Watchung Hills High School was listed in 999th place, the 31st-highest ranked school in New Jersey. In the magazine's 2006 survey, the school was ranked as 745th nationwide. In their 2004 survey, Newsweek ranked WHRHS as the 583rd best high school in the nation. The school was the 50th-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 44th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 48th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 49th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 38th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school 96th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (a decrease of 276 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 (97.6%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).

Athletics

The Watchung Hills Regional High School Warriors compete in the Skyland Conference, which is comprised of public and private high schools in Hunterdon, Somerset and Warren counties and operates under the auspices of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). With 1,469 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Group IV for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 1,060 to 5,049 students in that grade range. The football team competes in Division 5A of the Big Central Football Conference, which includes 60 public and private high schools in Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset, Union and Warren counties, which are broken down into 10 divisions by size and location. The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Group IV North for football for 2024–2026, which included schools with 893 to 1,315 students. The school's interscholastic sports team separated into three seasons include: The men's cross country team won the 1974 Group IV state championship. This was the first WHRHS team to have won a state championship. The girls' tennis team won the Group IV state championship in 1976 and 1978 (vs. Ridgewood High School both years), 1981 (vs. Cherry Hill East High School), and won the Group III state championship in 1982 (vs. Millburn High School), 1983, 1985 (vs. Mainland Regional High School), 2000 (vs. Tenafly High School) and 2001 (vs. Northern Highlands Regional High School). The team won the Tournament of Champions in 1981 (vs. Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School), 1982 and 1983 (vs. Red Bank Catholic High School both years). The eight group titles are tied for seventh-most in the state and the three Tournament of Champions titles are tied for third most. The team finished 21-0 in 1976 after defeating Ridgewood 3-2 in come-from-behind fashion in the playoff finals. The girls swimming team won the Division B state championship in 1985-1987, 1989 and 1992. The baseball team won the 2005 North II, Group IV state sectional championship with an 11-0 win over Hunterdon Central Regional High School. The team has won the Somerset County Tournament in 1975, 1982, 1983, 1993 and 2009; the program's five titles (through 2018) are the fourth-most in the tournament's history since it was established in 1973. The ice hockey team won the Monsignor Kelly Cup in 2005. The team made it to the NJSIAA Public A State Finals vs. Ridge High School in 2008, falling by a score of 5-0; the most successful season for the six-year-old program. The girls' softball team won the Group IV state championships in 2016, defeating Egg Harbor Township High School by a score of 4-0 in the tournament final. The girls' softball team won the Group IV state championships in 2022, a rematch of the 2016 championship, with a 2-1 defeat of Egg Harbor Township High School in the final game of the tournament. The boys' lacrosse team had their most successful season in 2018. They finished the season with a 20-3 record, in which two of those losses came in overtime, and their final loss came in the semifinals of the Tournament of Champions to the eventual winner, Delbarton. They made it to the county final, won the program’s first ever North Group IV sectional championship and won the Group IV state title, with a 10-3win against Lenape High School in the championship game. Head Coach Jamie Lovejoy won NJ.com Coach of the Year and four players earned U.S. All-American honors (two of those players being Academic All-Americans), with five players going on to play college lacrosse. They were ranked fifth in the state of New Jersey by NJ.com and the 18th team in the country by MaxPreps. The girls spring track team was Group IV co-champion in 2018. The wrestling team won the North II Group V state sectional champion in 2018-2020. The school has had four state champions: Michael Gatti (2003), Alex Caruso (2006), Brendan Ard (2008 and 2009) and Michael Magaldo (2012). The fencing team was the sabre team winner in 2020. In 2022, the men's track team won the county title for the first time since 1966.

Co-curricular

Clubs are categorized as Academic, Academic-Honor Societies, Academic-Diversified Interest, Diversified Interest, Student Government, Performing Arts, Public Service, Social Justice, and Recreation. The school also offers an innovative academy program that allows students to specialize in a particular area of interest. The district acknowledges the following co-curricular organizations. Each organization requires an advisor, a constitution and board of education recognition.

Co-curricular awards and achievements

In 2022, the robotics team qualified for the World Championships in Houston, making it to the semi-finals of the Roebling Division.

Academic

Academic - Honor Societies

Academic - Diversified Interest

Diversified interest

Student government

Performing Arts

Public Service

Social Justice

Recreation

Administration

Core members of the school administration are:

Board of education

The district's board of education, comprised of 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 (since 2012) as part of the November general election. The board appoints a superintendent to oversee the district's day-to-day operations and a business administrator to supervise the business functions of the district. The seats on the board are allocated based on the population of the constituent districts. Of the nine elected seats, four are allocated to Warren Township, three to Long Hill Township and two to Watchung; One seat is appointed for a one-year term by the Green Brook School District. , the board members are:

Notable alumni