Westfield High School (New Jersey)


Westfield Senior High School is a comprehensive public high school located in Westfield, in Union County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the Westfield Public Schools. It was established in the early 1900s at its original location on Elm Street until 1951 when it was moved to its current location on Dorian Road. The new wing designated for biology, chemistry, physics, and other sciences, along with English as a Second Language was completed in 2002. Westfield High School is overseen by the New Jersey Department of Education. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 1928.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,865 students and 152.4 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 12.2:1. There were 41 students eligible for free lunch and 14 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.

History

The first high school in Westfield was the old brick academy on Mountain Avenue opposite the Presbyterian Church, a town landmark. The minister of the church was the supervisor of it and all the schools in Westfield.
The history of the high school began in 1869 with the opening of the old Prospect School which, at that time, had a staff of five teachers. For the few students who were preparing for college, the school principal taught Latin, Greek, higher mathematics and science. The other teachers taught the elementary subjects. On March 2, 1880, the Board of Education, in its formal minutes, made the first direct reference to a high school in Westfield. When the Lincoln School on Academy Place was erected in 1890, classes of high school level were transferred to it.
In 1900, the high school department was transferred to the newly opened Washington School on Elm Street. Shortly afterward, a regular full four-year high school program, which received state approval, was organized. The high school became an independent unit in January 1916, when it moved to the Elm Street building. The program, chiefly college preparatory, was offered to 306 students by 11 teachers. That year there were 39 students in the graduating class.
In 1923 when the present Roosevelt Intermediate School was opened, Westfield adopted the 6-3-3 plan and designated the Elm Street building, now containing grades 10, 11 and 12, as Westfield High School. Frank N. Neubauer was designated principal, and he remained in that office until his death in 1947.
During this time a library was established, a program in athletics and physical education was developed, and opportunities for outstanding experiences in art, industrial arts, music, speech, and dramatics were expanded. It was in this period that guidance services became an integral part of the program, and pupil activities grew to include publications, clubs, social events and student government. In 1947 Robert L. Foose became the second principal of the high school.
By the late 1940s the Elm Street building had become much too small for the ever-growing student body. Students were being housed in the Elm Street building, the old Washington School as an annex, and two temporary structures on Walnut Street. To maintain and expand Westfield's high educational standards and experiences, a new high school building became imperative.
The present building on Dorian Road was opened on February 4, 1952. The staff, consisting of 42 teachers, taught 725 students in three curricula: business education, college preparatory, and general. In the first commencement from the new building, 203 students were graduated.
Rapid growth in student enrollment necessitated further expansion. In September 1960, the high school gained an addition consisting of 17 new classrooms, two gymnasiums and a cafeteria. In the 1970s, four additional classrooms were added by the acquisition of the two portable buildings on Trinity Place. In 1962 Westfield instituted its first summer school program which was approved by the State Department of Education.
With the retirement of Dr. Foose in 1969, Albert R. Bobal became the school's third principal. During the 1970s, each academic department opened its resource center where students could work independently or seek tutorial assistance from teachers. The Department of Special Services opened resource rooms at the high school so that specially trained teachers could help special needs youngsters to succeed. In 1979 Project 79, an alternative school-within-a-school, was created for at-risk students of average or above average ability.
In 1980, Dr. Robert G. Petix was named the fourth principal of Westfield High School, a position which he maintained until his retirement in June 2006, making him Westfield High School's longest-serving principal. During the 1980s and 1990s, several new additions to the facility and grounds were made, including renovated playing fields outdoors, updated science labs, a new and expanded library/media center, several state-of-the-art computer labs, and a technological infrastructure of approximately 300 networked computers with Internet access. With the opening of the 1988–89 academic year, Westfield High School welcomed ninth graders to its halls for the first time.
The last decade of the 20th century was marked by substantial increases in enrollment in the elementary schools that necessitated the construction of additions to all but one of the district's six elementary school buildings. During the first year of the new millennium Westfield taxpayers approved a $22 million referendum bond to accommodate the arrival of these enrollment increases at Westfield High School.
Construction at the high school began during the summer of 2001 with the replacement of all windows and the conversion of two former shop classrooms into four large classrooms for use during the 2001–02 school year. By the spring of 2002, the "portable" classrooms on Trinity Place had been razed in preparation for the construction of a three-story Science wing which began following a ground breaking ceremony in April 2002. At the same time, construction also began inside the existing building. By the end of the summer, a new Student Center and an Art studio classroom had been created by extending the building into the main courtyard, and a renovated Foods Lab was ready to greet students. Work on the expansion of athletic storage facilities and the creation of new teacher work and preparation areas was also finished.
With construction of the new Science wing completed in the spring of 2003, classes in the existing science classrooms and labs in the main building were moved to their new location in the new wing. During the summer of 2003, work was completed on the renovation and air-conditioning of the former science classrooms for use as general purpose classrooms, as well as on other aspects of the referendum construction project, including the creation of a Counseling Suite for the departments of Guidance and Special Education, the expansion of administrative offices, and the renovation of the varsity gymnasium floor and replacement of bleachers.
In July 2008, Westfield High School welcomed its fifth principal, Peter Renwick.. Renwick retired in 2017, and was replaced by Dr. Derrick Nelson, the sixth principal of the high school. On April 8, 2019, school officials announced that Dr. Nelson had died on April 7 after donating bone marrow.
Mary Asfendis is now the seventh Westfield high school principal.

Awards, recognition and rankings

In 1928, Westfield High School was accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools in the first group of high schools to be accredited by this association. It was also, at this time, established as a center for the College Entrance Examination Board. Westfield High School is one of the few schools in the nation to hold over 80 consecutive years of accreditation by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.
For the 1994–95 school year, Westfield High School was named as a "Star School" by the New Jersey Department of Education, the highest honor that a New Jersey school can achieve.
The school was the 21st-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. The school had been ranked 49th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being the 49th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 328 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's 2012 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", after being ranked 41st in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 27th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 22nd in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state.
Schooldigger.com ranked the school tied for 55th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics and language arts literacy components of the High School Proficiency Assessment.
In its listing of "America's Best High Schools 2016", the school was ranked 67th out of 500 best high schools in the country; it was ranked 14th among all high schools in New Jersey and second among the state's non-magnet schools.
In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 356th in the nation among participating public high schools and 30th among schools in New Jersey.
In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 25th in New Jersey and 865th nationwide.
Westfield was listed in 29th place nationwide in Newsweek's 2014 listing of the Top High Schools in America, after finishing in 691st place nationwide in Newsweek 's May 8, 2006, issue, listing the Top 1,200 High Schools in the United States.
The school has an award-winning Theatre Department. In 2014, New Jersey Insider ranked Westfield High School #1 in Union County for Academics and the Arts.

Courses

Westfield High School offers a comprehensive program of some 165 different courses and 17 Advanced Placement classes. Some of these classes include business, fine arts, music, and practical arts. Advanced Placement classes are available in AP English Literature and Composition, AP English Language and Composition, AP Spanish Literature, AP French Language, AP Latin Literature, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Computer Science AB, AP Statistics, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Physics I, AP United States History, AP United States Government and Politics, AP European History, and AP Psychology.

Extracurricular activities

80% of the students participate in co-curricular activities, including 60 different co-curricular activities and 27 varsity athletic teams.
The school's marching band won the USBands Group V A national championship in 2015 with their program The Caged Bird Sings.

Student publications

The Westfield High School students produce a number of different publications, including the weekly Hi's Eye student newspaper which is run by three tri-editors and an editor for the monthly Iris arts and entertainment issue. The newspaper maintains its independence through subscriptions, community sponsors, independent fundraising and advertising. Since 1983, Westfield High School students have operated a public-access television cable TV station producing award-winning live and single-camera productions. In addition, the literary magazine Folio, the Weather Vane yearbook, and original theatre scripts are also produced by the students.

Varsity sports

The Westfield High School Blue Devils compete in the Union County Interscholastic Athletic Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 1,398 students in grades 10–12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015–16 school year as North II, Group IV for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 1,114 to 4,800 students in that grade range. Prior to the NJSIAA's 2010 realignment, the school had participated in the Watchung Conference, a high school sports association which consisted of public high schools covering Essex County, Hudson County and Union County.
Westfield High School has 27 varsity interscholastic athletic teams, including baseball, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls cross-country, field hockey, football, gymnastics, golf, ice hockey, boys and girls lacrosse, boys and girls soccer, boys and girls swimming, boys and girls tennis, softball, spring track and field, volleyball, wrestling, cheerleading and winter track, among others. Their main rival in sports are the Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School Raiders, while Cranford and Plainfield both consider Westfield its biggest rival as well.
The school was recognized by the NJSIAA as the Group IV winner of the Seventh Annual ShopRite Cup in 2009–10, based on the overall performances of the school's athletic teams which included first-place finishes in girls' tennis, boys' cross country, girls' swimming and boys' tennis; second place in girls' soccer and tied for third in football, plus bonus points for having no disqualifications for the winter and spring seasons.
The boys' track team won the indoor relay championships in Group IV in 1969, 1972 and 1973.
The football team won the North II Group IV state sectional championships in 1976 and 1977. In 2015, under head Coach Jim DeSarno, the Blue Devils went 12–0 and won the North II Group V state championship with a 10–7 win against Bridgewater-Raritan High School in the tournament final at MetLife Stadium. The team repeated as North II, Group V state sectional champion with a 15–13 win against Bridgewater-Raritan in 2016 in the tournament final, to extend their winning streak to 25 games, then the longest in the state. The team repeated as North II, Group V sectional champion, finishing the season with a 12–0 record and extending their state-longest active winning streak to 37 consecutive games in 2017 with their third straight win against third-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan by a score of 20–7 in the playoff final played at MetLife Stadium.
The boys' lacrosse team won the overall state championship in 1986 and 1987 and won the Group IV state title in 2014.
The boys' bowling team won the overall state championship in 1994 and the Group IV title in 2008.
The boys' tennis team won the 2007 North II, Group IV state sectional championship with three successive 5–0 wins over Phillipsburg High School, J. P. Stevens High School and ultimately Bridgewater-Raritan High School in the tournament final. The team won the 2007 NJSIAA Group IV state championship, defeating West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South 3-2 in the final match. The team moved on to win the Tournament of Champions, defeating Tenafly High School and Newark Academy 4–1 each in the semifinals and finals, respectively. The win gave the team its fifth Tournament of Champions victory, with previous wins in 1957, 1978, 1986 and 1987. In 2008 and 2009, the tennis team reached the Tournament of Champions finals, losing to Delbarton School and Newark Academy, respectively 3-2 each.
Westfield is a traditional powerhouse in boys and girls swimming. The boys' team won the Public title in 1958 and 1959, the Boys A championship from 1961 to 1970, 1975 and 1992, and won the Public A title in 1995–1997, 2001, 2003–2005, 2008–2010, 2012–14 and 2016; the girls' team won the Division A title in 1978, 1980–1982, 1985, 1987–1989, and the Public B championship in 1999, and the Public A title in 2007, 2008, 2010–2013. The girls have won 15 state championships – the most of any public school in New Jersey – and 17 Union County Titles, while the boys have won 26 state championships, the most of any team in the state, along with 52 Union County titles; the ten consecutive titles won by the team from 1961 through 1970 are the longest streak for a public school program. The girls' swimming team won the 2007 NJSIAA Group IV state championship over West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South. They were beaten by the South Pirates 90-80 in 2009 having lost many top swimmers. The boys' swimming team won the 2007 North II - A state sectional championship, topping Bridgewater-Raritan High School 93-77 in the tournament final. The girls' swim team duplicated the feat with a 113–57 win over Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School. In 2008, for the first time in school history, both teams won the NJSIAA Public A state championships in the same year, with the boys defeating Cherry Hill High School West by a score of 91-79 and the girls defeating West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South for the second year in a row, 106–64. The boys' swim team won the 2009 Public A state championship with a 101–69 victory over Morristown High School, giving the program its record tying 22nd state championship and the top ranking in the state by The Star-Ledger.
The 2004 softball team won the North II, Group IV state sectional championship with a 1–0 victory over J. P. Stevens High School in the tournament final.
The Westfield wrestling program has also seen success. Christian Barber received the 152-lb state title for Westfield in 2011, becoming Westfield's 12th individual state wrestling champion in program history.

Clubs and organizations

The school has numerous clubs and organizations, including: Project 79, Academic Challenge Team, Anime Club, Art Club, Asian Awareness Club, Astronomy Club, Awareness Club, Chess Club, Christian Awareness Club, Cooking Club, Community Service Club, Crafty Creations, Creative Writing Group, Crohn's and Colitis Club, Debate Club, Drama Club, Environmental Club, Euterpe, Fed Challenge Team, Fire Safety Club, French Club, Future Business Leaders of America, Wall Street Society, Game Development Club, Gay/Straight Alliance, German Club, Girls Learn International, Habitat for Humanity, Health and Fitness Club, Historical Miniature Gaming Club, Homeless Pet Advocacy Club, Iraq Survey Group, Italian Club, Junior Optimist Club, Key Club, Knitting Club, Knowledge Master Team, Latin Club, Latino Heat Dance Team, Living Poets Society, Math League, Mock Trial Team, Model United Nations, Music Service Club, Objectivist Club, Photography Club, Physics Club, Psychology Club, RadioWHS, Roller Hockey Club, Rotary Interact Club, Science Olympiad Team, Spanish Club, Stage Design Club, Student Council, Video Club, Tolkien Order, Transition Project, Triathlon Club, Ultimate Club, Variety Show Club, Weather Club, Young Democrats, Young Republicans, Troupe, Marching Band, Jazz Band and Youth and Government Club.

Blue Devil Television

Blue Devil Television broadcasts 4 days a week on Channel 36. Blue Devil TV operates out of room 135 at the high school and provides Westfield school-related programming including: Board of Education meetings and informational programs, high school sports and concerts, original student projects from Westfield High's TV Production classes, and other programs from the school district.

Administration

Core members of the school's administration are: