North Brunswick Township High School

For other schools named Brunswick High School see Brunswick High School (disambiguation).
For the school in North Carolina, see North Brunswick High School
North Brunswick Township High School
Location
98 Raider Road
North Brunswick, NJ 08902
Information
Type Public
Motto "We are North Brunswick"
Established 1973
School district North Brunswick Township Public Schools
Principal Joseph Peter Clark
Faculty 138.8 (on FTE basis)[1]
Grades 9-12
Enrollment 1,761[1] (as of 2012-13)
Student to teacher ratio 12.69:1[1]
Color(s)      Blue
     Gold
Athletics conference Greater Middlesex Conference
Team name Raiders
Website School website

North Brunswick Township High School (NBTHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in North Brunswick Township, in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the North Brunswick Township Public Schools.

North Brunswick had sent students to New Brunswick High School until it completed a high school of its own in 1973 that was constructed at a cost of $10 million and that had been opened to the district's students in grades seven through nine. The New Brunswick Public Schools sought to prevent the shift of 280 students who would have attended high school in New Brunswick from attending the new facility, arguing that the withdrawal of the almost entirely white students from North Brunswick and Milltown would leave the New Brunswick school with an overwhelmingly black student body.[2]

Student body

As of the 2012-13 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,761 students and 138.8 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.69:1. There were 443 students (25.2% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 106 (6.0% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[1]

Nearly 90% of the 1,800 students at NBTHS go on to institutions of higher education, with many choosing to attend Rutgers University, the nearby state university. The school has sent students to the summer programs at the Governor's School of New Jersey summer program and the Johns Hopkins University Center For Talented Youth. The school offers over fifteen Advanced Placement (AP) courses, and had over 20 AP scholars for the 2005-06 school year.

The school is considered to be both economically and ethnically diverse. As of 2005, the student body was 44% White, 23% Black, 17% Asian, and 16% Hispanic. Economically, the school enrolls students who come from high-income to low-income backgrounds.

Awards, recognition and rankings

For the 1999-2000 school year, North Brunswick Township High School was awarded the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program Award of Excellence by the United States Department of Education,[3] the highest award an American school can receive.[4][5]

U.S. News & World Report in 2014 ranked North Brunswick Township High School 42 out of 385 schools in the state for their Best High School Report and #1843 nationally.[6]

The school was the 145th-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.[7] The school had been ranked 158th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 143rd in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.[8] The magazine ranked the school 132nd in 2008 out of 316 schools.[9] The school was ranked 130th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.[10]

Schooldigger.com ranked the school 177th out of 376 public high schools statewide in its 2010 rankings (a decrease of 9 positions from the 2009 rank) 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).[11]

Property and facilities

NBTHS is located on a sprawling 10-acre (40,000 m2) property off of U.S. Route 130 South. The school was first built in 1973 to accommodate the growing student population (which, at the time, attended New Brunswick High School). The school, at the time an architectural marvel, was nicknamed by students from neighboring schools as the “Country Club” in its early years. Due to the growing population of students in North Brunswick, the school has undergone two expansions in 1990 and 2004-2006. During the latter renovation project, it was discovered that the land under the high school had served as a garbage dump prior to the construction of the building. This was a chief cause in the delays of the construction project. Another major cause for delay was multiple budgetary issues that required a public vote by township citizens. Apart from standard classrooms, the school has a fully equipped library, six electronic classrooms, several computer labs with both Microsoft Windows and Macintosh computers, industrial technological rooms, naturally lit art studios, a photography studio with a Darkroom, three gymnasiums, two music rooms, an auditorium with an orchestra pit, television production studios, and a commons area that serves as a link between the school and outside community.

Athletics

The North Brunswick Township High School Raiders compete in the Greater Middlesex Conference (GMC) under the auspices of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).[12] With 1,367 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2014-15 school year as Central Jersey, Group IV for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 1,083 to 2,230 students in that grade range.[13]\

NBTHS has a wide range of athletic facilities, available to both its student body and the North Brunswick community. With over six multipurpose athletic fields, a six-lane track, a football stadium, five tennis courts, a gymnasium that seats over 1,500 people, and three multipurpose baseball/softball diamonds, the school has long been considered one of the premier athletic facilities in the county. Furthermore, the school is one of the only GMC members that has a six-lane indoor swimming pool, and has thus frequently been the host of GMC Championships and state sectional meets. Annually, the school's boys’ soccer and girls’ swimming teams are among the stronger representatives of the school's athletics, with which numerous state championships have been captured over the last decade.The girls swim team was undefeated in the 2007-08 season, in addition to being the GMC champions.The school also fields teams in football, girls’ soccer, boys and girls’ tennis, boys and girls’ basketball, baseball, softball, boys and girls’ lacrosse, boys’ swimming, diving, boys and girls’ winter and spring track and field, cross-country, gymnastics, wrestling, and golf. Volleyball was introduced in the 2005-06 season. The school's main rivals include the New Brunswick High School Zebras, East Brunswick High School Bears and the South Brunswick High School Vikings.

Extracurricular activities

NBTHS offers close to 35 extracurricular activities for its students, many of which are integrated with the school’s academic curriculum. Its DECA program, linked with the school’s marketing coursework, has won championships at the regional, state, and the national levels. The Model United Nations has won honors at a variety of prestigious conferences, including those held at Harvard University, Georgetown University and Princeton University. Daedalus, the product of the school’s yearbook program, has won awards for excellence in yearbook production across New Jersey and at an annual conference held by Columbia University.

The school also serves as the host to a chapter of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), Key Club,[14] as well as honor societies like the National Honor Society, National Art Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society, French Honor Society, German Honor Society, Latin Honor Society, and Italian Honor Society.

To accommodate growth of the school's arts program, the North Brunswick Board of Education approved a $67 million expansion that includes a 1,000 seat auditorium, music practice rooms, and theater and film production studios. The school has a marching band, which competes locally in the United States Scholastic Band Association (USSBA) circuit, along with a full orchestra, choir, a cappella group, jazz band, and winter percussion ensemble, who has been currently six years undefeated.

The school has a full theatre program (The Alchemist Theatre Company), which puts on three performances each year. During the 2010-2011 school year, the Alchemist Theatre Company performed The Laramie Project in the fall, "Theatre Revue 2011" in the winter, and Hairspray in the spring. The 2011-2012 lineup is Love of Three Oranges in the fall, Theatre Revue 2012 in the winter, and Beauty and the Beast (musical) in the spring.

Members of NBTHS also participate in the FIRST Robotics Program. Team 25, Raider Robotix, sponsored by local corporation Bristol-Myers Squibb, won the National Championships in 2000 and 2012, finished as world championship finalists in 2003 and 2006, and finished as world championship semifinalists in 2002 and 2011.[15] The team has also consistently won numerous state regionals all across the country as well and received international recognition for its achievements.

Other organizations include the school newspaper (The Banner), Environmental club, language clubs, Film production club, Care-to-Walk Club, Health Careers Club, Human Psych Club, Chemistry Club, Science League, the Academic Team, Mock Trial, the Debate Team, the LAMBDA Coalition and an award-winning literary magazine, Painted Words.

In the 2008-09 school year the mock trial team earned the titles of Middlesex County Champions, as well as Central Jersey, and ended third in the state. It was the first time in over 30 years that a Middlesex County team advanced to semi-regionals.

Administration

Core members of the school's administration are:[16]

Notable faculty

Notable alumni

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 School Data for North Brunswick Township High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed March 28, 2015.
  2. ↑ Johnston, Richard J. H. "School Showdown Looms In New Brunswick Dispute", The New York Times, September 17, 1973. Accessed August 28, 2012. "A showdown was expected this week over whether 280 10th-graders from predominantly white North Brunswick should continue to attend New Brunswick's racially troubled, overcrowded high school."
  3. ↑ Blue Ribbon Schools Program: Schools Recognized 1982-1983 through 1999-2002 (PDF), National Blue Ribbon Schools Program of the United States Department of Education. Accessed November 25, 2012.
  4. ↑ Staff. "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 10 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."
  5. ↑ "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."
  6. ↑ "North Brunswick High School", U.S. News & World Report. Accessed September 11, 2014.
  7. ↑ Staff. "Top Schools Alphabetical List 2014", New Jersey Monthly, September 2, 2014. Accessed September 5, 2014.
  8. ↑ Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed August 28, 2012.
  9. ↑ Staff. "2010 Top High Schools", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2010. Accessed March 22, 2011.
  10. ↑ "Top New Jersey High Schools 2008: By Rank", New Jersey Monthly, September 2008, posted August 7, 2008. Accessed August 19, 2008.
  11. ↑ New Jersey High School Rankings: 11th Grade HSPA Language Arts Literacy & HSPA Math 2009-2010, Schooldigger.com. Accessed January 9, 2012.
  12. ↑ League Memberships – 2014-2015, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed September 11, 2014.
  13. ↑ 2014-2015 Public Schools Group Classification: ShopRite Cup–Basketball–Baseball–Softball for Central Jersey, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, as of July 8, 2014. Accessed September 11, 2014.
  14. ↑ North Brunswick Township High School - Key Club Website
  15. ↑ Haydon, Tom. "North Brunswick High School wins national contest for creating robot that's got game", The Star-Ledger, May 6, 2012. Accessed August 28, 2012.
  16. ↑ Administration, North Brunswick Township High School. Accessed September 11, 2014.
  17. ↑ Jordan, Chris. "Musician steps out from the shadows", Asbury Park Press, December 20, 2003. Accessed April 14, 2013. "The band is made up of ex-'Keasbey' era Catch 22 members - Kalnoky; Josh Ansley, Old Bridge, bass; and James Egan, trombone, who's also a music teacher of North Brunswick High School..."
  18. ↑ Galarcep, Ives. "Opportunity excites Howard", Herald News, May 12, 2006. Accessed August 27, 2007. "Howard, a North Brunswick High School graduate, who arrived at the U.S. World Cup team's training camp in Cary, N.C., on Wednesday, recalled the frustrations of playing in just six matches after playing in 71 matches during his first two seasons with the club."
  19. ↑ Troncone, Tom. "Opie 'n' Anthony sidekick is awfully entertaining", The Record (Bergen County), January 30, 2005. Accessed August 6, 2008.
  20. ↑ Carpello, Sandi. "Style was always part of area native’s makeup", North Brunswick Sentinel, February 24, 2005. Accessed June 17, 2009.

External links

Coordinates: 40°27′06″N 74°28′04″W / 40.451752°N 74.467813°W / 40.451752; -74.467813

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