MONTGOMERY HIGH SCHOOL (NEW JERSEY)

'Montgomery High School' is a four-year public high school located in the Skillman area of Montgomery Township, in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States, as part of the Montgomery Township School District. A new building opened in the fall of 2005 and is currently the home of over 1,600 high school students.

Contents

Awards and recognition

Graduation Requirements

Extracurricular activities

SAT Scores

Science Olympiad

FIRST Robotics

Alma Mater

Administration

Environmental concerns

References

External links

Awards and recognition

For the 1992-93 school year, Montgomery High School was awarded the Blue Ribbon School Award of Excellence by the United States Department of Education^[1], the highest award an American school can receive.^[2][3]
In ''Newsweek's'' May 22, 2007 issue, ranking the country's top high schools, Montgomery High School was listed in 656th place, the 13th-highest ranked school in New Jersey.^[4]
The school was the 4th ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 316 schools statewide, in ''New Jersey Monthly'' magazine's September 2006 cover story on the state's ''Top Public High Schools''.^[5]

Graduation Requirements

New Jersey State law requires that every student pass the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) and successfully complete the following courses:

'Subject'	'Years'	'Credits'
English	4	20
Health and Physical Education	4	16-20
U.S. History	2	10
World Studies	1	5
Math	3	15
Science	3	15-18
Career Exploration/Consumer Family and Life Skills	1	5
Performing or Visual Arts	1	5

In addition, students are required to take swimming in gym for both their Freshman and years. Freshmen take swimming for half of a marking period (2 days a week) while Sophomores take it for half of a marking period (1 day a week).
Students are required to schedule a minimum of 35 credits for grades 9, 10, 11 and 30 credits for grade 12.In order to graduate from MHS, students in the Class of 2008 must successfully complete 110 credits. Beginning with the Class of 2009, students must successfully complete 125 credits for graduation. Students in the classes of 2009 and onward will no longer qualify for early dismissal senior year.

Extracurricular activities

There are many extracurricular activities offered at Montgomery High School. Sports include cross country running, baseball, football, hockey basketball, lacrosse, softball, swimming, and track. Montgomery is a member of the Skyland Conference, which is comprised of eighteen public and parochial high schools covering Hunterdon County, Somerset County and Warren County in west central New Jersey, and operates under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). A wrestling team has recently been added to Montgomery.
Other activities go into the arts and sciences. For example, in science, there is Science Olympiad, science league, science bowl, and FIRST Robotics. The band program also offers several extracurricular activities, including a marching band which plays at every varsity football game and at various area competitions, a jazz band, and a lower-level jazz group called the "stage band." All musical ensembles are non-competitive, and only attend competitions in exhibition.
The girls' softball team won the 2004 NJSIAA Group III State Championship.^[6]
The boys lacrosse team won the 2007 Group III State Championship with a 10-8 win over Randolph High School.^[7]
The boys baseball team won the 2005 North II Group III State Championship with a 3-1 win over Millburn High School.^[8]
Montgomery High School made it to the 2006 New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Public School Ice Hockey State Champions, falling to Randolph High School in the finals of the 64-team tournament.^[9]

SAT Scores

In 2004-05, Montgomery High School achieved a 1244 average SAT score, the seventh-highest in the state and the highest for any non-magnet, general admission high school.^[10] In 2005-06, Montgomery averaged a 1760 combined SAT score, 15th-highest statewide, and ranked 7th among all non-magnet, general admission public high schools.^[11]

Science Olympiad

Science Olympiad in Montgomery is run by the teachers in the Science department. For many of the previous years the team was led by Mr. Pendleton with the other coaches including Mr. Sullivan, Mrs. Henn and Mr. Grieco. However, after they lost the hoped "Decade of Dominance" (referring to what would have been 10 consecutive state titles) at the 2006 State Championship, the team was forced to rethink and restrategize their plan of action for the next Science Olympiad Year. In June 2006 ,the coaches held a prospective team meeting and announced the team would be under new leadership. Mrs. Henn would be the new head coach and Mr. Grieco and Mr. Pendleton following. New coaches were added to the team, all of them being Montgomery High School science teachers. In addition, the first Montgomery High School Science Olympiad Competition was announced which would be a simulated school competition used to choose the next year's team. On January 9th the team competed in the C-Regional NJ Competition and placed 3rd overall. After receiving a regional trophy for the first time in many years, the team came in 4th place.

FIRST Robotics

Montgomery High School competes in FIRST Robotics, a competition sponsored by FIRST. Team 1403, Cougar Robotics was founded in 2003 by a student from Team 75, the RoboRaiders, and as of 2006 has grown to over 95 students. The team has been successful in competition and recently held an off-season event at the school called Monty Madness. Over 36 FIRST Robotics and Vex teams showed up for the event at Montgomery High School, Gregory Olsen, a Montgomery Resident and Space Tourist was a keynote speaker.

Alma Mater

The Alma Mater of Montgomery High School was revised in 1985 by Hunter/D'Amico. It is sung exactly one time every year, at graduation. The words are:
:With pride and joy we sing you praises
:Dear Montgomery High.
:With all the memories
:In our hearts you will never die.
:In you our spirit lies.
:We sing your praises, Montgomery!
:Hail to Montgomery!
:Living on and on,
:in our hearts you will never die!
:Wherever we may wander
:Memories we'll hold.
:We never will forget the colors
:White, Green and Gold!

Administration

★ 'James Misek' - Principal

★ 'Chip Clymer' - Vice Principal

★ 'Margaret DeLuca' - Vice Principal

★ 'Paul Popadiuk' - Vice Principal

★ 'Tina Renga' - Supervisor of Guidance

Environmental concerns

The building sits adjacent to a New Jersey Department of Corrections extension facility. It is also across the street from a tract known as the North Princeton Development Center, a 200-acre campus that, up until the late 1990s, served as a psychiatric facility for severely affected patients. The site contains more than 100 abandoned buildings, many of which are dilapidated, boarded up and vandalized. One of the township's elementary schools, the Village School, sits amidst the ruins.
The township is planning to transform the Development Center property into a town center, replete with residences, businesses and civic centers. However, there is widespread concern in the township over known (and possibly unknown) environmental hazards and contaminants on the property -- including those in close proximity to the schools. The fear is that construction activities on the property will disturb those contaminants and endanger the students and staff at both schools.

References

1. Blue Ribbon Schools Program: Schools Recognized 1982-1983 through 1999-2002 (PDF), United States Department of Education. Accessed May 11, 2006.
2. CIBA cited as one of the best by Education Department, ''Journal Inquirer'', November 16, 2006. "The Blue Ribbon award is given only to schools that reach the top 90 percent of their state's testing scores over several years or show significant gains in student achievement. 'It is considered the highest honor a school can achieve'."
3. Viers Mill School Wins Blue Ribbon; School Scored High on Statewide Test; ''The Washington Post''. September 29, 2005 '"For their accomplishments, all three schools this month earned the status of Blue Ribbon School, the highest honor the U.S. Education Department can bestow upon a school."'
4. "The Top of the Class: The complete list of the 1,200 top U.S. schools", ''Newsweek'', May 22, 2007. Accessed May 24, 2007.
5. Top Public High Schools in New Jersey, ''New Jersey Monthly'', September 2006.
6. 2004 Softball - Public Semis/Finals, NJSIAA, accessed April 25, 2007.
7. 2007 Boys Lacrosse - Group III, NJSIAA. Accessed June 5, 2007.
8. 2005 Baseball - North II, Group III, NJSIAA. Accessed June 12, 2007.
9. 2006 Ice hockey - Public, NJSIAA, accessed August 12, 2006.
10. New Jersey's Highest Average SAT Scores, Mission, Officers, Staff, New Jersey Council of County Vocational-Technical Schools data gathered from 2005 New Jersey School Report Cards, February 1, 2006.
11. 2005-06 School Test Score Rankings, ''The Star-Ledger''. Accessed June 19, 2007.

External links

★ Montgomery High School

★ Montgomery Township School District

★

★ National Center for Education Statistics data for the Montgomery Township School District

★ Courier News Article on North Princeton Development Center