James I. O'Neill High School is a public high school in

Highland Falls, New York Highland Falls, formerly named Buttermilk Falls, is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 3,900 at the 2010 census. The village was founded in 1906. It is part of the Poughkeepsie– Newburgh– Middletow ...

and a part of the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District.

History

James I. O'Neill High School opened in 1971, replacing the existing Highland Falls High School on Mountain Avenue in Highland Falls. In 2019, contracts were awarded for the first major improvements to the school since its original building, including new playing fields, tennis courts, and classroom improvements. In September 2004 O'Neill was still taking students from Saint Basil Academy who were not from families resident in New York State. At the time the academy was embroiled in a controversy over where it should send its students to school, as the academy no longer had its own in-house school, and whether it needed to pay for the tuition. In 2021, 190 children living on-post at

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

(USMA) in West Point attended O'Neill. In 2021 the agency at West Point announced that the bid to educate West Point High School students would be competitive, In March 2022 the O'Neill contract was renewed.

Service area

The Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery district, of which O'Neill is the sole comprehensive high school, includes most of the town of

Highlands Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Albania * Dukagjin Highlands Armenia * Armenian Highlands Australia *Sou ...

and portions of the town of

Woodbury Woodbury may refer to: Geography Antarctica *Woodbury Glacier, a glacier on Graham Land, British Antarctic Territory Australia * Woodbury, Tasmania, a locality in Australia England * Woodbury, Bournemouth, an area in Dorset *Woodbury, East Devo ...

. It includes the village of Highland Falls and the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

of Fort Montgomery and

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

. O'Neill is one of two high schools taking students from the territory of the Garrison Union Free School District (GUFSD), as that district only educates up to 8th grade and pays to send its students elsewhere for high school. GUFSD includes sections of Philipstown and Putnam Valley towns, with the former portion including Garrison hamlet. Additionally, USMA sends high school aged students who are dependents of on-base military personnel to O'Neill under contract.

Notable alumni

* Fred Wilson - venture capitalist and blogger *

Mike Doughty Michael Ross Doughty ( ; born June 10, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and author. He founded the band Soul Coughing in 1992, and as of '' The Heart Watches While the Brain Burns'' (2016), has released 18 studio albums, live albums, and ...

- musician * Johnson Wagner - professional golfer * Jacob Hard - AT&T student athlete of the year SUNY Binghamton 2020 *

Paul Rieckhoff Paul (P.J.) Rieckhoff is an American writer, social entrepreneur, activist and veteran of the United States Army and the Iraq War. He is the president oRighteous Media Incand the host of thIndependent Americans podcast Prior to that, he was the ...

- writer, social entrepreneur and

veteran A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military. A military veteran that h ...

of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

Charles Durning Charles Edward Durning (February 28, 1923 – December 24, 2012) was an American actor who appeared in over 200 movies, television shows and plays.Schudel, Matt (December 26, 2012) "''In real life and on the screen, he played countless role ...

- actor * Carson Kreitzer - playwright *

Guinevere Turner Guinevere Jane Turner is an American actress, screenwriter, and film director. She has written such films as ''American Psycho'' and '' The Notorious Bettie Page'' and played the lead role of the dominatrix Tanya Cheex in '' Preaching to the Per ...

- film director

References

External links

*
JROTC
Public high schools in New York (state) Highlands, New York Schools in Orange County, New York {{NewYork-school-stub