Midland Park High School

Midland Park Jr./Sr. High School is a six-year comprehensive public high school for students in seventh through twelfth grades in Midland Park, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. Opened in 1957, it is a junior-senior high school operating as the lone secondary school of the Midland Park School District.

Midland Park Jr./Sr. High School
Address
250 Prospect Street

Midland Park
,
Bergen County
,
New Jersey
07432

United States
Coordinates41.000118°N 74.138713°W / 41.000118; -74.138713
Information
TypePublic high school
Established1957
School districtMidland Park School District
NCES School ID3410140[1]
PrincipalNicholas Capuano
Faculty45.3 FTEs[1]
Grades7-12
Enrollment398 (as of 2018–19)[1]
Student to teacher ratio8.8:1[1]
Color(s)  Green
  white[2]
Athletics conferenceNorth Jersey Interscholastic Conference
Team namePanthers[2]
Websitemphs.mpsnj.org

As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 398 students and 45.3 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 8.8:1. There were 23 students (5.8% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 6 (1.5% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[1]

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 78th-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.[3] The school had been ranked 68th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 116th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.[4] The magazine ranked the school 44th in 2008 out of 316 schools.[5] The school was ranked 66th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state.[6] Schooldigger.com ranked the school tied for 76th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (an increase of 55 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (89.7%) and language arts literacy (96.2%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).[7]

History

Students from Midland Park attended Ridgewood High School until 1935, after which they started attending Pompton Lakes High School. Due to limitations on space, the Pompton Lakes School District mandated that the district's high school could not accommodate students from Midland Park after the end of the 1956-57 school year. Midland Park's voters approved a referendum in 1955 that led to the construction of a $1.4 million Midland Park High School that opened in September 1957.[8]

A 1973 plan to have students from Ho-Ho-Kus attend Midland Park High School as part of a regional agreement never came to fruition, despite official approval and encouragement by the New Jersey State Board of Education. Ridgewood had been hosting students in grades 9 to 12 from Ho-Ho-Kus for 75 years at Ridgewood High School as part of a sending/receiving relationship, though the board of education of the Ridgewood Public Schools decided to end the arrangement in 1973 due to overcrowding. A proposed regionalization agreement between Ho-Ho-Kus and Ridgewood had been rejected by voters from both communities in 1969. The state had recommended the formation of a regionalization agreement between Ho-Ho-Kus and Midland Park, though the choices of funding the combined district based on either property values or on the number of students would mean that one borough would shoulder higher costs than the other, regardless of which method was selected.[9] Students from Ho-Ho-Kus attended the school through the 1990s, when the choice was made to shift students to Northern Highlands Regional High School.[10]

Athletics

The Midland Park High School Panthers[2] participate in the Patriot Division of the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference, which is comprised of small-enrollment schools in Bergen, Hudson, Morris and Passaic counties, and was created following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).[11][12][13] With 227 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Group I for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 75 to 476 students in that grade range.[14] Prior to the realignment that took effect in the fall of 2010, Midland Park was a member of the smaller Bergen-Passaic Scholastic League (BPSL).[15] The school's co-op football program was classified by the NJSIAA as Group II North for football for 2018–2020.[16]

The school participates in joint cooperative football and wrestling teams with Waldwick High School as the host school / lead agency. These co-op programs operate under agreements scheduled to expire at the end of the 2023–24 school year.[17][18]

On November 9, 2007, the boys' soccer team defeated number 1 seed Wallington High School to claim the North I, Group I state sectional championship. The game was tied 1-1 at the end of regulation and was decided on penalty kicks by a 5-4 margin.[19][20]

On November 10, 2007, the girls' volleyball team lost to Bogota High School in the title match of the 27-team Group I tournament at William Paterson University by scores of 22-25, 25-18 and 25-13.[21]

In 2010, Junior javelin thrower Kaleb Zuidema set the New Jersey record with a throw of 224 feet 1 inch (68.30 m).[22] Zuidema also went on to win the 2010 Penn Relays and won the High School Javelin National Championship.[23]

In fall 2010, the boys' soccer team lost in the finals of the North I Group I championship to Wallington High School by a score of 2-1. In the Bergen Record, the North Jersey Boys' Soccer Top 25 placed Midland Park at number 7 when the season had come to an end. That season the team also won the NJIC Patriot B Soccer Title.

Administration

The school's principal is Nicholas Capuano. His core administration team includes the vice principal and athletic director.[24]

Notable alumni

Alumni of the high school include:

References
  1. School data for Midland Park Jr./Sr. High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed April 1, 2020.
  2. Midland Park High School, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  3. Staff. "Top Schools Alphabetical List 2014", New Jersey Monthly, September 2, 2014. Accessed September 5, 2014.
  4. Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed December 2, 2012.
  5. Staff. "2010 Top High Schools", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2010. Accessed March 25, 2011.
  6. "Top New Jersey High Schools 2008: By Rank", New Jersey Monthly, September 2008, posted August 7, 2008. Accessed August 19, 2008.
  7. New Jersey High School Rankings: 11th Grade HSPA Language Arts Literacy & HSPA Math 2010-2011, Schooldigger.com. Accessed February 27, 2012.
  8. Abma, Rebecca K. "The History of School Referendums in Midland Park", Midland Park Press, January 28, 2013. Accessed September 29, 2015. "But in 1954, Pompton Lakes school officials announced it would no longer have room for Midland Park students after 1957, which lead Midland Park to explore a high school of its own. On June 2, 1955, voters approved a $1.4 million bond referendum to construct the Midland Park Junior-Senior High School on 22.2 acres of the Blom's Dairy property. The school opened September 1957 with 32 classrooms, a library, gymnasium, three guidance offices, administrative space, music and industrial rooms, homemaking rooms and a double cafeteria."
  9. Staff. "High-School Merger in Doubt", The New York Times, April 29, 1973. Accessed August 22, 2011.
  10. Peterson, Iver. "Taxes May Fuse School Districts; Rising Expenses Test New Jerseyans' Love of Local Control", The New York Times, April 29, 1994. Accessed August 22, 2011. "The proposed district would send Ho-Ho-Kus ninth graders to Northern Highlands Regional High School in Allendale. Northern Highlands High is nationally known for quality, but it is operating at just over half capacity and desperately seeking ties to other districts. Now, Ho-Ho-Kus children go to Midland Park High School after eighth grade."
  11. Mattura, Greg. "Small-school NJIC may debut its own league championship", The Record, January 9, 2017. Accessed August 30, 2020. "The small-school North Jersey Interscholastic Conference may debut its own boys basketball tournament this season, one season after introducing its girls hoops championship. The NJIC is comprised of schools from Bergen, Passaic and Hudson counties and the event offered to the 36 boys teams would serve as an alternative to likely competing against larger programs in a county tournament."
  12. Member Schools, North Jersey Interscholastic Conference. Accessed August 30, 2020.
  13. League & Conference Officers/Affiliated Schools 2020-2021, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  14. NJSIAA General Public School Classifications 2019–2020, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed November 20, 2020.
  15. New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association League Memberships – 2009-2010, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, backed up by the Internet Archive as of July 24, 2011. Accessed November 20, 2014.
  16. NJSIAA Football Public School Classifications 2018–2020, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, finalized August 2019. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  17. NJSIAA Fall Cooperative Sports Programs, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed December 1, 2020.
  18. NJSIAA Winter Cooperative Sports Programs, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed December 1, 2020.
  19. 2007 Boys' Soccer - North I, Group I, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed November 10, 2007.
  20. Martin, Kimberley A. "Celebrating a penalty -- Weaver gives Midland Park big upset on game's final kick", The Record, November 10, 2007. Accessed May 30, 2016. "The massive group hug near the 12-yard line was the senior's reward for nailing the game-winning shot Friday as seventh-seeded Midland Park upset top-seeded Wallington, 2-1 (5-4 in penalty kicks), in the North 1, Group 1 final."
  21. 2007 Girls' Volleyball - Group I, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed July 30, 2008.
  22. Schwartz, Paul. "Kaleb Zuidema named boys track Player of the Year", The Record, June 18, 2010. Accessed December 28, 2016. "Zuidema dominated New Jersey from the beginning of the season, throwing a State record-216-6 to win the Penn Relays and extending the record to 224-1 at the final B-PSL meet 10 days later."
  23. Bevensee, Rich. "Midland Park's Kaleb Zuidema wins boys' javelin at nationals", The Star-Ledger, June 18, 2010. Accessed July 17, 2012. "Zuidema, inspired by trailing in a javelin event for the first time this season, unleashed a 211-10 to win the championship on his final throw."
  24. Principal, Midland Park High School. Accessed March 26, 2020.
  25. Farrell, Warren; and Gray, John. The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It, p. 67. BenBella Books, 2018. ISBN 9781946885807. Accessed March 26, 2020. "Al and I did battle on the Midland Park High School track team in New Jersey virtually every spring school day."
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