Hightstown High School is a four-year comprehensive

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

that serves students in

ninth In music, a ninth is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a second. Like the second, the interval of a ninth is classified as a dissonance in common practice tonality. Since a ninth is an octave larger than a second, its ...

through

twelfth grade Twelfth grade, 12th grade, senior year, or grade 12 is the final year of secondary school in most of North America. In other regions, it may also be referred to as class 12 or Year 13. In most countries, students are usually between the ages of 17 ...

s three communities in Mercer County and Monmouth County,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States, operating as part of the

East Windsor Regional School District The East Windsor Regional School District is a comprehensive regional public school district in Mercer County, New Jersey, which serves students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade from East Windsor and Hightstown Borough.

. Students come from East Windsor and

Hightstown Hightstown is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 5,494,Roosevelt Roosevelt may refer to: *Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th U.S. president * Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd U.S. president Businesses and organisations * Roosevelt Hotel (disambiguation) * Roosevelt & Son, a merchant bank * Rooseve ...

(a community in Monmouth County) attend the district's high school as part of a

sending/receiving relationship A sending/receiving relationship is one in which a public school district sends some or all of its students to attend the schools of another district. This is often done to achieve costs savings in smaller districts or continues after districts hav ...

with the

Roosevelt Public School District The Roosevelt Public School District is a community public school district that serves students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade from Roosevelt in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2018–19 school year, the district ...

. The school is approved by the

New Jersey Department of Education The New Jersey Department of Education (NJ DOE) administers state and federal aid programs affecting more than 1.4 million public and non-public elementary and secondary school children in the state of New Jersey. The department is headquartered ...

and is accredited by the

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools 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 educational accreditation, accreditation of public and priva ...

.About Us
Hightstown High School. Accessed December 3, 2019. "Hightstown High School is a comprehensive four-year high school serving the Borough of Hightstown, East Windsor Township and the town of Roosevelt with a student body of approximately 1300 students. The Hightstown High School building was first occupied during the 1965-1966 school year with additions being completed in 1973, 1982 and 2005. The High School is approved by the State of New Jersey and is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools." As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,621 students and 131.3 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 12.3:1. There were 347 students (21.4% 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 the ...

and 127 (7.8% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.School data for Hightstown 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 1, 2022.

History

The inaugural Hightstown High School opened for the 1913-14 school year, before which students in grades 11 and 12 attended

Trenton Central High School Trenton Central High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Trenton, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Trenton Public Schools. As ...

. With rapid growth in the area, the second high school building opened in January 1925. The third and current school building opened during the 1965–66 school year. Additions to the original structure were completed in 1973, 1982 and 2005.

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 126th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 339 schools statewide in ''

New Jersey Monthly ''New Jersey Monthly'' is an American monthly magazine featuring issues of possible interest to residents of New Jersey. The magazine was started in 1976. It is based in Morristown. In addition to articles of general interest, the publication fe ...

'' magazine's September 2014 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", using a new ranking methodology. The school had been ranked 161st in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 180th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 175th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 119th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school 225th out of 376 public high schools statewide in its 2010 rankings (an increase of 4 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 The High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA, pronounced "hess-pah" (/ˈhɛspə/) or sometimes just "H-S-P-A") was a standardized test that was administered by the New Jersey Department of Education to all New Jersey public high school students in ...

(HSPA).

Athletics

The Hightstown High School RamsHightstown High School

New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) is an association of hundreds of New Jersey high schools that regulates high school athletics and holds tournaments and crowns champions in high school sports. State championsh ...

. Accessed October 20, 2020. compete in the

Colonial Valley Conference The Colonial Valley Conference (CVC) is an athletic conference in Central Jersey composed of high schools located primarily in Mercer County, New Jersey, with one member school in Monmouth County (Allentown High School) and one in Middlesex Cou ...

, which is comprised of public and private high schools in Mercer,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

and

Monmouth Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. I ...

counties, operating under the supervision of the

(NJSIAA). With 1,218 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 the Valley Division of the 95-team

West Jersey Football League The West Jersey Football League is a 94-school superconference that stretches from Princeton, New Jersey to Wildwood, New Jersey encompassing schools from the Colonial Valley Conference, the Burlington County Scholastic League, the Olympic Conferenc ...

superconference and was classified by the NJSIAA as Group IV South for football for 2018–2020. Interscholastic sports include cross country,

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 ...

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 ...

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

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 ...

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 ...

indoor track and field Track and field is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of ...

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 ...

, swimming, ice hockey, baseball, softball, tennis, golf, and

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 ...

. The school participates with Ewing High School in a joint ice hockey team in which Lawrence High School is the host school / lead agency. The co-op program operates under agreements scheduled to expire at the end of the 2023–24 school year. The boys' soccer team was awarded the Group I state championship in 1946 (declared as co-champion with Chatham High School), 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951 (won vs.

Harrison High School Harrison High School may refer to: in the United States ''(by state)'' *Harrison High School (Harrison, Arkansas), listed on the National Register of Historic Places * Harrison High School (Colorado Springs) — Colorado Springs, Colorado * Har ...

), 1956, 1957 and 1964 (won vs. Harrison), was awarded the Group II title in 1958 and 1959, and won the Group II title in 1961 (vs. Irvington Tech), 1962 (vs.

West Morris Central High School West Morris Central High School (WMCHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Washington Township, Morris County, New Jersey, United States. It is one of two high schools in ...

) and 1963 (vs. Harrison). The streak of four consecutive titles won from 1961 to 1964 is tied for the third-longest streak in the state. The 1962 team won the Group II title with a 3-1 win against West Morris. The boys track team won the indoor relay championship in Group I/II in 1971 (as co-champion). The girls' field hockey team won the Central Jersey Group IV state sectional championship in 1983. The girls' basketball team won the Group IV state championship in 1987, defeating Bloomfield High School by a score of 59-39 in the tournament final at the

Louis Brown Athletic Center Jersey Mike's Arena, commonly known as the RAC (an initialism for Rutgers Athletic Center, its former official name), is an 8,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Piscataway, New Jersey on Rutgers University's Livingston Campus. The building is shaped ...

. The ice hockey team won the Mercer County Championship in 1987, 1989, 1994, 1999 (as co-champion with

Hopewell Valley Central High School Hopewell Valley Central High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school operating as part of the Hopewell Valley Regional School District that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Hopewell Borough, Hopewell Townshi ...

) and 2002. The softball team finished the season with a 25-4 record in 2019, after winning the Group IV state title with a 9-4 score against runner-up Mount Olive High School in the tournament finals at

Kean University Kean University () is a public university in Union Township, Union County, New Jersey, Union and Hillside, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. Kean University was founded in 1855 in Newark, New Jersey, as th ...

Extracurricular activities

FIRST Robotics Team

Hightstown High School is also home to

FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition. Each year, teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work during a six-week period to build robots capable of competing in that year's game that weig ...

Team #1089, Team Mercury. What makes Team Mercury particularly notable is its transition (since 2016) into a more student-centric method to approaching the competition, in which students independently engineer the robot and self-manage, instead of a more mentor-centric approach, in which adult mentors guide students at every step of the process of building the robot. Since the team's inception in 2003, Team Mercury has received a number of awards, including the prestigious Chairman's Award in 2009. The team also participated in the FIRST Robotics FRC World robotics competition in the 2014, 2015 seasons. Team Mercury is sponsored by

Oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word '' ...

, Holman Enterprises,

Trumpf The TRUMPF Group is a German industrial machine manufacturing company. It is a family-owned company with its head office in Ditzingen near Stuttgart. TRUMPF is one of the world's biggest providers of machine tools. With more than 70 operative su ...

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ma ...

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

Briston-Myers Squibb The Bristol Myers Squibb Company (BMS) is an American multinational pharmaceutical company. Headquartered in New York City, BMS is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and consistently ranks on the ''Fortune'' 500 list of the lar ...

Abbott Laboratories Abbott Laboratories is an American multinational medical devices and health care company with headquarters in Abbott Park, Illinois, United States. The company was founded by Chicago physician Wallace Calvin Abbott in 1888 to formulate known dr ...

and the

. In terms of team structure, the team is divided up into different committees, which are known as Programming & Electronics, Public Relations & Marketing, Award Submissions, Robot Design, Spirit & Imagery, Media Design & Production, Scouting & Strategy, and Web Design. Each committee has one or two Committee Head team members, depending on the sheer size of the committee and its workload, which serve as managers selected by the Head Coach, Mr. Gregory, for their specialty. Within each committee, there are also sub-committees, such as the Scouting App team for Scouting & Strategy, and project managers, which report to the Committee Head oversee more specific tasks with smaller groups from their committee. There is also a smaller 10-member team named FTC 3944 under the same Head Coach, which competes in the

FIRST Tech Challenge FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), formerly known as FIRST Vex Challenge, is a robotics competition for students in grades 7–12 to compete head to head, by designing, building, and programming a robot to compete in an alliance format against other te ...

, builds a smaller robot for a different field, and tracks their progress using an Engineering Notebook. As a community service opportunity, FRC members can volunteer to mentor any of several

FIRST LEGO League The ''FIRST'' LEGO League Challenge (formerly known as ''FIRST'' LEGO League) is an international competition organized by ''FIRST'' for elementary and middle school students (ages 9–14 in the United States and Canada, 9–16 elsewhere). Each y ...

teams, which consist of students in grades 4-8 that want to participate in the designing, building & programming of Lego EV3 robots for competition.

Hightstown Marching Rams

The Marching band competed in the USBands national championships and state championships in Group 3A in 2015 with their field show "España". The band placed 2nd out of 23 in the state championships with a score of 93.663 and placed 3rd out of 27 in the national championships with a score of 96.275 beating Hightstown's record and won the Cadets award for Excellence in Creativity and Overall Effect. In 2016, the Marching Rams competed in the USBands state championships and national championships, with their field show "Pure Imagination". The band won the state championship title, placed 1st out of 22 bands with a score of 93.500 and won the caption for Best Overall Effect. In the 2016 Group III A national championships the band placed 4th out of 26 with a score of 94.738.

Administration

The school's principal is Dennis M. Vinson. His core administration team includes four assistant principals and the athletic director.Staff Contact Information
Hightstown High School. Accessed April 4, 2022.

Notable alumni

Melanie Balcomb Melanie Balcomb (born September 24, 1962) is an American basketball coach. She was previously the head coach for the Vanderbilt University, Vanderbilt women's basketball team in 2016. Career Balcomb attended Hightstown High School, in Hightstown ...

(born 1962), Head Coach of the

Vanderbilt Commodores women's basketball The Vanderbilt Commodores women's basketball team represents Vanderbilt University in the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The Commodores have never won the regular season SEC championship, although they have won six SEC tour ...

team. * Jim Barlow, two-time high school soccer All-American and current head soccer coach at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

. * William R. Forstchen, (born 1950, class of 1968), author and historian. *

Hilly Kristal Hillel Kristal (September 23, 1931August 28, 2007) was an American club owner, manager and musician who was the owner of the iconic New York City club CBGB, which opened in 1973 and closed in 2006 over a rent dispute. Early years Kristal was bor ...

(1931–2007), owner and founder of

CBGB CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for '' Country'', '' BlueGrass'', and '' Blues'', Kri ...

s, graduated from Hightstown in 1949. *

Marlon LeBlanc Marlon LeBlanc (born October 6, 1976) is an American soccer coach who is currently head coach of Philadelphia Union II. Career Raised in East Windsor, New Jersey, LeBlanc played prep soccer at Hightstown High School before playing for the Pen ...

(born 1978), Head Men's Soccer Coach at

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

. *

Doug Mastriano Douglas Vincent Mastriano (born January 2, 1964) is an American far-right politician and retired military officer who has served in the Pennsylvania Senate since 2019, representing the 33rd district. A member of the Republican Party, he was ...

(born 1964, class of 1982), politician who is a retired

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

and the state senator for Pennsylvania's 33rd District. *

Zubin Mehenti Zubin Mehenti is an American sportscaster and radio host. He joined ESPN in 2011 and has served as the anchor for several variations of the channel's flagship program, '' SportsCenter''. Mehenti formerly co-hosted the ESPN Radio morning show ti ...

, sportscaster and radio host who joined

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

in 2011 and has served as the anchor for several variations of the channel's flagship program, ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television show, television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of United States, American cable television, cable and satellite television television network, network ESPN. The show ...

''. * Dakota Mills (born 1997),

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

who plays for the Saint Kitts and Nevis women's national team. *

Randal Pinkett Randal D. Pinkett (born 1971) is an American business consultant who in 2005 was the winner of The Apprentice (U.S. season 4), season four of the reality television show The Apprentice (US TV Series), ''The Apprentice''. Pinkett is the first Afric ...

(born 1971), Chairman and CEO of BCT Partners, Rhodes Scholar, the winner of the reality show, '' The Apprentice 4'', attended and graduated from Hightstown High School.Cheslow, Jerry
"If You're Thinking of Living In/Hightstown; A Borough With Respect for Its Roots"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', February 6, 1994. Accessed February 2, 2011.

References

External links

*
East Windsor Regional School District
*
School Data for the East Windsor Regional School District

Hightstown High School Athletic Hall of Fame
{{Authority control East Windsor, New Jersey Hightstown, New Jersey Roosevelt, New Jersey 1913 establishments in New Jersey Education in Mercer County, New Jersey Educational institutions established in 1913 Public high schools in Mercer County, New Jersey