North Brunswick Township High School

North Brunswick Township High School (NBTHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in North Brunswick, in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the North Brunswick Township Public Schools. The school is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools.[3]

Not to be confused with North Brunswick High School.

North Brunswick Township High School
Address
98 Raider Road

North Brunswick
,
Middlesex County
,
New Jersey
08902

United States
Coordinates40.451752°N 74.467813°W / 40.451752; -74.467813
Information
TypePublic
Motto"We are North Brunswick"
Established1973
School districtNorth Brunswick Township Public Schools
NCES School ID3411490[1]
PrincipalMichael Kneller
Faculty146.5 FTEs[1]
Grades9-12
Enrollment1,842 (as of 2018–19)[1]
Student to teacher ratio12.6:1[1]
Color(s)  Blue
  Gold[2]
Athletics conferenceGreater Middlesex Conference
Team nameRaiders[2]
AccreditationMiddle States Association of Colleges and Schools[3]
Websitenbths.nbtschools.org

North Brunswick had sent students to New Brunswick High School until it completed a high school of its own in 1973 that was constructed at a cost of $10 million and that had been opened to the district's students in grades seven through nine. The New Brunswick Public Schools sought to prevent the shift of 280 students who would have attended high school in New Brunswick from attending the new facility, arguing that the withdrawal of the almost entirely white students from North Brunswick and Milltown would leave the New Brunswick school with an overwhelmingly black student body.[4]

Student body

As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,842 students and 146.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.6:1. There were 705 students (38.3% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 101 (5.5% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[1] The school is both economically and ethnically diverse. As of 2014-15, the student body was 30% Hispanic, 24% White, 24% Asian and 21% Black.[1] Economically, the school enrolls students who come from high-income to low-income backgrounds.

Nearly 90% of the 1,800 students at NBTHS go on to institutions of higher education, with many choosing to attend Rutgers University, the nearby state university. The school has sent students to the summer programs at the Governor's School of New Jersey summer program and the Johns Hopkins University Center For Talented Youth. The school offers over fifteen Advanced Placement (AP) courses, and had over 20 AP scholars for the 2005-06 school year.

Awards, recognition and rankings

For the 1999-2000 school year, North Brunswick Township High School was awarded the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program Award of Excellence by the United States Department of Education,[5] the highest award an American school can receive.[6][7]

U.S. News & World Report in 2014 ranked North Brunswick Township High School 42 out of 385 schools in the state for their Best High School Report and #1843 nationally.[8]

The school was the 145th-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.[9] The school had been ranked 158th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 143rd in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.[10] The magazine ranked the school 132nd in 2008 out of 316 schools.[11] The school was ranked 130th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.[12]

Schooldigger.com ranked the school 177th out of 376 public high schools statewide in its 2010 rankings (a decrease of 9 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 (HSPA).[13]

In the 2018-2019 school year, the school was recognized as a Green Ribbon School by the United States Department of Education for its efforts on sustainability.[14]

Property and facilities

NBTHS is located on a sprawling 10-acre (40,000 m2) property off of U.S. Route 130 South. The school was first built in 1973 to accommodate the growing student population (which, at the time, attended New Brunswick High School). Due to the growing population of students in North Brunswick, the school has undergone two expansions in 1990 and 2004-2006. During the latter renovation project, it was discovered that the land under the high school had served as a garbage dump prior to the construction of the building. This was a chief cause in the delays of the construction project. Another major cause for delay was multiple budgetary issues that required a public vote by township citizens. Apart from standard classrooms, the school has a fully equipped library, six electronic classrooms, several computer labs with both Microsoft Windows and Macintosh computers, industrial technological rooms, naturally lit art studios, a photography studio with a Darkroom, three gymnasiums, two music rooms, an auditorium with an orchestra pit, television production studios, and a commons area that serves as a link between the school and outside community.

Athletics

The North Brunswick Township High School Raiders[2] compete in the Greater Middlesex Conference (GMC) under the auspices of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).[15] With 1,320 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.[16] The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Group V South for football for 2018–2020.[17]

NBTHS has a wide range of athletic facilities, available to both its student body and the North Brunswick community. With over six multipurpose athletic fields, a six-lane track, a football stadium, five tennis courts, a gymnasium that seats over 1,500 people, and three multipurpose baseball/softball diamonds, the school has long been considered one of the premier athletic facilities in the county. Furthermore, the school is one of the only GMC members that has a six-lane indoor swimming pool, and has thus frequently been the host of GMC Championships and state sectional meets. Annually, the school's boys' soccer and girls' swimming teams are among the stronger representatives of the school's athletics, with which numerous state championships have been captured over the last decade. The girls' swim team was undefeated in the 2007-08 season, in addition to being the GMC champions. The school also fields interscholastic sports teams in football, girls' soccer, boys' and girls' tennis, boys' and girls' basketball, baseball, softball, boys and girls' lacrosse, boys' swimming, diving, boys and girls' winter and spring track and field, cross-country, gymnastics, wrestling, and golf.[2] Volleyball was introduced in the 2005-06 season. The school's main rivals include the New Brunswick High School Zebras, East Brunswick High School Bears and the South Brunswick High School Vikings.

The boys' soccer team won the Group III state championship in 1993, defeating Parsippany High School by a score of 2-1 in the tournament final to finish the season with a record of 15-5-2.[18][19]

The girls swimming team won the Public Group B state championship in 1997.[20]

Extracurricular activities

NBTHS offers close to 35 extracurricular activities for its students, many of which are integrated with the school's academic curriculum. Its DECA program, linked with the school's marketing coursework, has won championships at the regional, state, and the national levels. The Model United Nations has won honors at a variety of prestigious conferences, including those held at Harvard University, Georgetown University and Princeton University. Daedalus, the product of the school's yearbook program, has won awards for excellence in yearbook production across New Jersey and at an annual conference held by Columbia University.

The school also serves as the host to a chapter of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), Key Club,[21] as well as honor societies like the National Honor Society, National Art Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society, French Honor Society, German National Honor Society, Latin Honor Society and Italian Honor Society.

The Student Government Organization, which is run by mostly students and two faculty, hosts a series of events and opportunities for NBTHS students as well as the greater North Brunswick community throughout the school year, and sometimes even during the summer.

To accommodate growth of the school's arts program, the North Brunswick Board of Education approved a $67 million expansion that includes a 1,000-seat auditorium, music practice rooms, and theater and film production studios. The school has a marching band, which competes locally in the USBands circuit, along with a full orchestra, choir, jazz band, and winter percussion ensemble, who has been currently eleven of thirteen years undefeated.

The school has a full theatre program (The Alchemist Theatre Company), which puts on one Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre and three mainstage performances each year. The 2017-2018 lineup featured a Murder Mystery titled Occupation: Murder, Twelve Angry Men in the fall, Theatre Revue 2018 in the winter, and 42nd Street in the Spring.

Members of NBTHS also participate in the FIRST Robotics Program. Team 25, Raider Robotix, sponsored by local corporation Bristol-Myers Squibb, won the National Championships in 2000 and 2012, finished as world championship finalists in 2003 and 2006, and finished as world championship semifinalists in 2002 and 2011.[22] The team has also consistently won numerous state regionals all across the country as well and received international recognition for its achievements.

Other organizations include the school newspaper (The Banner), Environmental club, language clubs, Film production club, Care-to-Walk Club, Health Careers Club, Human Psych Club, Chemistry Club, Science League, the Academic Team, Mock Trial, the Debate Team, the LAMBDA Coalition and an award-winning literary magazine, Painted Words.

In the 2008-09 school year the mock trial team earned the title of Middlesex County and Central Jersey champions, and ended third in the state; it was the first time in over 30 years that a Middlesex County team advanced to semi-regionals.[23]

Administration

The principal is Michael Kneller.[24]

Notable alumni

Notable faculty
  • James Egan is a former band teacher at NBTHS and current district music supervisor. He is a professional trombonist and trumpeter who has performed with ska bands such as Catch 22 and Streetlight Manifesto.[30]

References
  1. School data for North Brunswick Township High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed April 1, 2020.
  2. North Brunswick Township High School, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  3. North Brunswick Township High School, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools. Accessed August 30, 2020.
  4. Johnston, Richard J. H. "School Showdown Looms In New Brunswick Dispute", The New York Times, September 17, 1973. Accessed October 20, 2020. "A showdown was expected this week over whether 280 10th-graders from predominantly white North Brunswick should continue to attend New Brunswick's racially troubled, overcrowded high school."
  5. Blue Ribbon Schools Program: Schools Recognized 1982-1983 through 1999-2002 (PDF), National Blue Ribbon Schools Program of the United States Department of Education. Accessed November 25, 2012.
  6. Staff. "CIBA cited as one of the best by Education Department", Journal Inquirer, November 16, 2006. "The Blue Ribbon award is given only to schools that reach the top 10 percent of their state's testing scores over several years or show significant gains in student achievement. It is considered the highest honor a school can achieve."
  7. "Viers Mill School Wins Blue Ribbon; School Scored High on Statewide Test", The Washington Post, September 29, 2005. "For their accomplishments, all three schools this month earned the status of Blue Ribbon School, the highest honor the U.S. Education Department can bestow upon a school."
  8. "North Brunswick High School", U.S. News & World Report. Accessed September 11, 2014.
  9. Staff. "Top Schools Alphabetical List 2014", New Jersey Monthly, September 2, 2014. Accessed September 5, 2014.
  10. Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed August 28, 2012.
  11. Staff. "2010 Top High Schools", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2010. Accessed March 22, 2011.
  12. "Top New Jersey High Schools 2008: By Rank", New Jersey Monthly, September 2008, posted August 7, 2008. Accessed August 19, 2008.
  13. New Jersey High School Rankings: 11th Grade HSPA Language Arts Literacy & HSPA Math 2009-2010, Schooldigger.com. Accessed January 9, 2012.
  14. Amato, Jennifer. "North Brunswick Township High School awarded Green Ribbon", Sentinel News, June 26, 2018. "North Brunswick Township High School has been rewarded for taking a comprehensive approach to sustainability. Now cited as a New Jersey Green Ribbon School and a U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School, the school will continue improving its impact on the environment."
  15. League & Conference Officers/Affiliated Schools 2020-2021, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  16. NJSIAA General Public School Classifications 2019–2020, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed November 20, 2020.
  17. NJSIAA Football Public School Classifications 2018–2020, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, finalized August 2019. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  18. NJSIAA History of Boys Soccer, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  19. Kitchin, Mark. "Parsippany falters in state final", Daily Record, November 20, 1993. Accessed January 26, 2021, via Newspapers.com. "The sullen looks of despair and the sad faces of the Parsippany High School boys soccer team more than told the story after the Redskins' 2-1 loss to North Brunswick in the Group III state final at Trenton State College last night.... The Redskins seemed comfortable going into the half and also looked strong to start the second half, but little by little, North Brunswick, 15-5-2, and players like Norman and Brian Cuddy, made inroads into the Parsippany defense."
  20. NJSIAA Boys and Girls Team Swimming History, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed November 20, 2020.
  21. "North Brunswick Township High School - Key Club Website". Archived from the original on October 27, 2016. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  22. Haydon, Tom. "North Brunswick High School wins national contest for creating robot that's got game", The Star-Ledger, May 6, 2012. Accessed August 28, 2012.
  23. Hutchins, Ryan. "North Brunswick High vs. 25 teams in mock trial competition", The Star-Ledger, May 15, 2009. Accessed January 4, 2017. "Among the hard-working lawyers and witnesses are teenagers on North Brunswick High School's team, which is competing in a national competition for the first time.... Two other New Jersey teams, Marshall Academy from Mercer County and Mainland Regional High School from Atlantic County are also competing. Those schools placed in the top three in state competitions to gain an invitation to this one, which runs Monday through Wednesday in New Brunswick."
  24. Administration, North Brunswick Township High School. Accessed August 30, 2020.
  25. 2004 Men's Soccer Roster, UConn Huskies men's soccer. Accessed October 15, 2017. "Sean Cameron So. M 6-0 155 North Brunswick, N.J./North Brunswick"
  26. Sargeant, Keith. "Soccer star Tim Howard returning to N.J. roots to address Tourette syndrome awareness at Rutgers", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, May 1, 2015. Accessed May 31, 2016. "A North Brunswick High School product, Howard was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome at age 10."
  27. Crouse, Douglas. "United by soccer -- Passionate followers cheer 2 of the sport's elite teams", The Record, August 1, 2003. Accessed May 31, 2016. "For local star power, many fans looked Thursday night to Manchester goalkeeper Tim Howard, a North Brunswick High School grad who until two weeks ago tended goal for the MetroStars."
  28. Condran, Ed. "Jim Norton feels at home in front of Philadelphia audiences", Bucks County Courier Times, March 31, 2016. Accessed September 20, 2018. "However, Norton has been tested and is HIV negative. The wiseguy, who dropped out of North Brunswick Township High School during his senior year, has a lot to live for, considering his success."
  29. Crump, Ahmaad. "Get to Know Him: Comic Impersonator Aries Spears", WZAK. Accessed October 15, 2017. "Spears was kicked out of North Brunswick Township High School at age 17, solidifying his choice of a career in comedy."
  30. Jordan, Chris. "Musician steps out from the shadows", Asbury Park Press, December 20, 2003. Accessed April 14, 2013. "The band is comprised of ex-'Keasbey' era Catch 22 members - Kalnoky; Josh Ansley, Old Bridge, bass; and James Egan, trombone, who's also a music teacher of North Brunswick High School..."
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