Herricks High School is a four-year

comprehensive public high school Comprehensive high schools are the most popular form of public high schools around the world, designed to provide a well-rounded education to its students, as opposed to the practice in some places in which examinations are used to sort students i ...

with 1450 students accredited by the New York State Board of Regents and the

Middle States Association The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (Middle States Association or MSA) was a voluntary, peer-based, non-profit association that performed peer evaluation and regional accreditation of public and private schools in the Mid-Atla ...

. The school is located in

Searingtown, New York Searingtown is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. It is considered part of the Greater Roslyn area, which is anchored by the Village of Roslyn. ...

, 20 miles east of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. Dr. Tony Sinanis is the

superintendent Superintendent may refer to: *Superintendent (police), Superintendent of Police (SP), or Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), a police rank *Prison warden or Superintendent, a prison administrator *Superintendent (ecclesiastical), a church exec ...

Herricks Union Free School District The Herricks Union Free School District (also known as Union Free School District No. 9) is an American public school district located in western Nassau County on Long Island, in New York. The district lies within the Greater New Hyde Park ...

. He succeeded Dr. Fino Celano after the 2021-2022 school year. This school was involved in one of the major Supreme Court rulings affecting prayer in public schools in 1959. This school also received the

National Blue Ribbon The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...

school distinction in 2017. As of the 2014–15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,373 students and 94.2 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a

student–teacher ratio Student–teacher ratio or student–faculty ratio is the number of students who attend a school or university divided by the number of teachers in the institution. For example, a student–teacher ratio of 10:1 indicates that there are 10 students ...

of 14.6:1. There were 61 students (4.4% of enrollment) eligible for

free lunch A free lunch is the providing of a meal at no cost, usually as a sales enticement to attract customers and increase revenues from other business. It was once a common tradition in saloons and taverns in many places in the United States, with th ...

and 29 (2.1% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.School data for Herricks High School

National Center for Education Statistics The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance ...

. Accessed December 12, 2016.

History

Herricks High School stands on Watermelon Hill. The land near the area was a burial ground for the Pearsall family starting in the 17th century, but the burial grounds were later removed. The high school opened in September 1958 and had its first graduating class in 1960. Known for the "Herricks Prayer Case,

Engel v. Vitale ''Engel v. Vitale'', 370 U.S. 421 (1962), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that it is unconstitutional for state officials to compose an official school prayer and encourage its recitation in public school ...

," the Herricks School District (a.k.a. Union Free School District #9) was sued by five district property owners in 1959. "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country" was recited as a daily procedure on the recommendation of the NY State Board of Regents. This case was decided by the U. S. Supreme Court, which ruled the prayer unconstitutional in 1962. In 2013, Herricks High School celebrated the Herricks School District's 200th anniversary. In the late 2010s, the cafeterias received major renovations, creating a more inviting and open atmosphere.

Music and theater

The music department is home to ten different performing ensembles, including several advanced groups: Jazz Band, Wind Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra, and Chamber Choir. Herricks is also home to Chapter 1975 of the

Tri-M Tri-M Music Honor Society, formerly known as Modern Music Masters, is an American high school and middle school music honor society. A program of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), it is designed to recognize students for their ...

Music Honor Society.

Sports

Herricks High School offers the following sports:

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

, Winter Track and Field,

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

, cross country,

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, s ...

, and

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

Television

Herricks High School has a television channel called HTN (Herricks Television Network) that goes with their TV Studio classes. The morning announcements air on HTN at around 9:30 AM Monday-Friday. HTN airs locally on Channel 47 on Verizon Fios, Channel 75 on Altice, and Channel 65 on

Antenna TV Antenna TV is an American digital television network owned by Nexstar Media Group. The network's programming consists of classic television series, primarily sitcoms, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Antenna TV's programming and advertising operati ...

Publications

Publications include the ''Highlander'' newspaper and the ''OPUS'' literary magazine.

Notable alumni

Cliff Asness Clifford Scott Asness (; born October 17, 1966) is an American hedge fund manager and the co-founder of AQR Capital Management. Early life and early education Asness was born to a Jewish family, in Queens, New York, the son of Carol, who ran a ...

, hedge fund manager * Krishna Das, musician * Nadine Faustin-Parker, three-time Olympian for the Republic of Haiti (2000, 2004, 2008) *

Alyssa A. Goodman Alyssa Ann Goodman (born July 1, 1962) is the Robert Wheeler Willson Professor of Applied Astronomy at Harvard University, co-Director for Science at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institution, a ...

, Class of 1980, Professor of Astronomy at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Alex Katz (baseball) Alexander Benjamin Katz (born October 12, 1994) is an American-Israeli professional baseball left-handed pitcher who is a free agent. He has played internationally for Team Israel. Katz pitched for the St. John's Red Storm, and was part of the ...

, baseball player in the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

organization *

Liam McHugh Liam McHugh (born ) is an American television sportscaster. He is a studio host for Turner Sports coverage of the NHL. He previously worked on NBC Sports coverage of the NHL as well as Notre Dame Fighting Irish football and '' NBC Sunday N ...

, sports journalist
Kara Krebs Downey
physical therapist and Herricks Hall of Fame Athlete *

Eric J. Nestler Eric J. Nestler is the Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience, Director of the Friedman Brain Institute, and Dean for Academic Affairs at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Chief Scientific Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System. His ...

, Chair of Neuroscience at

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City. It is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, which manages eig ...

* David Quinn, actor and co-founder of Allrecipes.com *

Joe Roth Joseph Emanuel Roth is an American film executive, producer and director. He co-founded Morgan Creek Productions in 1988 and was chairman of 20th Century Fox (1989–1993), Caravan Pictures (1993–1994), and Walt Disney Studios (1994–200 ...

- film executive, producer and film director *

Matthew Senreich Matthew Ian Senreich (; born June 17, 1974) is an American screenwriter, television producer, director, and voice actor best known for his work with animated television series '' Robot Chicken'', which he co-created with business partner and clos ...

, screenwriter, producer & director *

Robert Sitkoff Robert H. Sitkoff (born 1974) is the Austin Wakeman Scott Professor of Law and the John L. Gray Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he specializes in trusts and estates. He previously served as professor of law at New York University Sch ...

, Professor at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

Larry Teng Larry Teng (born June 12, 1977) is an American television director and producer. Education In 1999, Teng graduated with a degree in film from Ithaca College. Career Teng has directed and produced for the television series ''Medium'' from 20 ...

, director of multiple television series * Jai Wolf (Sajeeb Saha), electronic music producer *

Richard Zimler Richard Zimler (born 1 January 1956 in Roslyn Heights, New York) is a best-selling author. His books, which have earned him a 1994 National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Fiction and the 1998 Herodotus Award, have been published in many c ...

, novelist

References

External links

* {{authority control Public high schools in New York (state) Schools in Nassau County, New York