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 3,684 at the 2020 census. The village was founded in 1906. It is part of the Kiryas Joel– Poughkeepsie– Newbu ...

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 Highland Falls, formerly named Buttermilk Falls, is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 3,684 at the 2020 census. The village was founded in 1906. It is part of the Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie– Newbur ...

. 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), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

(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 Africa * Highlands, Johannesburg, South Africa * Highlands, Harare, Zimbab ...

and portions of the town of Woodbury. It includes the village of

and the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

of Fort Montgomery and

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

. 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 A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters. A garrison is usually in a city ...

hamlet. Additionally, USMA sends high school aged students who are dependents of on-base military personnel to O'Neill under contract.

Notable alumni

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 *

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 *

Ben Greenspan Ben Greenspan is an American college baseball coach and former player. Greenspan is the head coach for the Northwestern Wildcats baseball team, serving since 2023. College career Greenspan attended James I. O'Neill High School in West Point, N ...

–

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

coach * Jacob Hard – AT&T student athlete of the year SUNY Binghamton 2020 *

Carson Kreitzer Carson Kreitzer is an American playwright currently based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale University in 1991 with a B.A. in theatre and literature and an M.F.A. from the Michener Center for Writers at the Univers ...

– playwright *

Paul Rieckhoff Paul Rieckhoff is an American writer, social entrepreneur, activist and veteran of the United States Army and the Iraq War. He is the president of Righteous Media Inc and the host of the Independent Americans podcast. Prior to that, he was the f ...

– writer, social entrepreneur and

veteran A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in an job, occupation or Craft, field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in the military, armed forces. A topic o ...

of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

Guinevere Turner Guinevere Jane Turner (born May 23, 1968) is an American actress, screenwriter, and film director. She wrote the films ''American Psycho'' and '' The Notorious Bettie Page'' and played the lead role of the dominatrix Tanya Cheex in '' Preachin ...

– film director *

Johnson Wagner Montford Johnson Wagner (born March 23, 1980) is an American professional golfer and golf analyst who played on the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour between 2003 and 2022. Early years and amateur career Wagner was born in Amarillo, Texas and grew up ...

– professional golfer * Fred Wilson – venture capitalist and blogger

References

External links

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