Pinelands Regional High School

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Pinelands Regional High School
Location
590 Nugentown Road
Tuckerton, NJ, Ocean County, 08087
United States
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Information
Type Public high school
Established September 1979
School district Pinelands Regional School District
Superintendent Dr. Robert Blake
Principal Thomas Normile
Faculty 80.4 (on FTE basis)[1]
Grades 10-12
Enrollment 819[1] (as of 2013-14)
Student to teacher ratio 10.2:1[1]
Campus Suburban
Color(s)      Green
     Gold[2]
Athletics conference Shore Conference
Team name Wildcats[2]
Publication The Scratching Post
Yearbook A Cat Tale
Website School website
File:Prhs.jpg
The entrance hall of Pinelands Regional High School.

Pinelands Regional High School (PRHS) is a three-year regional public high school that serves students in tenth through twelfth grades from Bass River Township, Eagleswood Township, Little Egg Harbor Township and Tuckerton Borough, four communities in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Pinelands Regional School District.[3][4] The school is overseen by the New Jersey Department of Education and has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 1986.[5]

As of the 2013-14 school year, the school had an enrollment of 819 students and 80.4 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.2:1. There were 266 students (32.5% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 81 (9.9% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[1]

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 185th-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.[6] The school had been ranked 173rd in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 262nd in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.[7] The magazine ranked the school 241st in 2008 out of 316 schools.[8] The school was ranked 254th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.[9]

Schooldigger.com ranked the school 254th out of 376 public high schools statewide in its 2010 rankings (a decrease of 2 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).[10]

History

Pinelands Regional High School officially opened on September 5, 1979, as a Junior-Senior High School, originally housing grades 7-12 from Tuckerton, Little Egg Harbor, Bass River, and Eagleswood. Prior to the opening of the school, students from those towns had attended Southern Regional School District in Manahawkin.

The building originally housed grades 7-8 on the third floor, 9-10 on the second, and 11-12 on the first. The building featured an experimental "Open classroom" design, where a large group of students of varying skill levels would be in a single, large classroom with several teachers overseeing them; and contained no interior walls. However, this format didn't last long, and in the 1980s, the rooms were walled off, and separated by floor-to-ceiling folding partitions.

In 1991, Pinelands Middle School opened across the street for students in grades 7-8. Also in the 90s, a new building was completed next to the high school, which houses a daycare center called "Rainbow Express". Students taking Child Care classes go to class in this building to help with the daycare kids. In 2002, the Middle School was expanded and the 9th grade was moved there. When the expansion was completed at the Middle School, it was renamed "Pinelands Regional Junior High School" while the High School was renamed the "Senior High School", although this name is rarely used.

Most of the High School is centered around a "Commons" area, which is a two-story open court with skylights, benches, and planters. The commons is home to many of the school's events, such as the Junior Prom, Semi-formal, and Jazz & Java Art show. Most of the commons feeds into a 3-story mall-like hallway where most of the classrooms are off of. Most elective classes, such as Art rooms, Shop classes, Auto tech, etc. are located in the one-story "D-wing" away from the rest of the classrooms, surrounding the Auditorium.

Most of the school, especially the Commons area, has remained unchanged since its 1979 opening. Elements from the decade, such as globe lighting, planters, and earth tones are present. Recent major improvements to the school include renovated science labs and locker rooms, expanded parking lot, permanent lighting for the football field, and repainting of the lockers, which were formerly painted in a 70s-esque repeating orange-yellow-red-brown pattern were painted a dark green.

In 2010, severe budget cuts resulted in the removal of several teachers and programs, including Freshmen sports and the 3-day Pinelands Experience, which was held annually at the school since the opening.

Athletics

The Pinelands Regional High School Wildcats[2] compete in the Shore Conference, an athletic conference made up of private and public high schools centered at the Northern Jersey Shore.[11] All schools in this conference are located within Monmouth County and Ocean County. The league operates under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).[12] With 772 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2014-15 school year as South Jersey, Group III for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 772 to 1,082 students in that grade range.[13]

Pinelands Regional's wrestling team has won nine division titles, two district titles, and has been ranked in the top 20 in the state four times.[citation needed]

The school's Amy Beykrich was the individual cross country champion in Group II in 1995.[14]

Joshua Allegretti set the school record for bowling the highest single game (299) and highest season average (201), during the 2007-2008 season.[citation needed]

The school's Cheerleading Team was state champions in 2012, the team's fifth state championship, after winning four consecutive titles from 2004 through 2007.[15] The team finished third in the nation in the years of 2010, 2011 and 2012 at the UCA National Cheerleading Championship.[16][17]

Drama department

Pinelands Regional's drama and theater program has been highly successful, especially in the past several years. In 2010, the team won 19 awards at the annual Speech and Theatre Association of New Jersey competition at Rutgers University, including 8 Governor's awards, which are the highest honors in the state to be given for education.[18]

Cat TV

Cat TV is Pinelands Regional's local Public-access television cable TV station sponsored by Comcast Cable. It is located on channel 21 for the area that the district serves. Most of the cast and crew is made up of students who take the video production classes as an elective. The channel shows live morning announcements at 8:15 am daily, followed by a commercial or short skit made by members of the video productions class. Throughout the day, especially during lunch periods, other school programs or past school events are shown on the channel. The remainder of the time the channel broadcasts school and community events through the Infochannel program, along with a simulcast of lite-rock station WWZY. The communities which it serves are Little Egg Harbor, Tuckerton, Eagleswood and Bass River, New Jersey.

Administration

Core members of the school's administration are:[19]

  • Thomas Normile - Principal
  • Darren Hickman - Assistant Principal
  • Michael Tash - Assistant Principal

Notable alumni and faculty

  • Sarann Kraushaar, former vice-principal of the school, who was the mistress of murderer Robert O. Marshall, whose slayings inspired the bestselling book Blind Faith, and was later a miniseries of the same name, in which a character based on Kraushaar and a fictional incarnation of the school is featured.[20]
  • Lily McBeth (born 1934), transgender former substitute teacher at the school who made national news after undergoing a sex-change operation and quit a position as a substitute teacher at the school.[21]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 School Data for Pinelands Regional High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed November 29, 2015.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Pinelands Regional High School, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 31, 2015.
  3. ↑ Greenfield, Dr. Bruce. "Ocean County Report On Consolidation and Regionalization", Report of the Executive County Superintendent, March 15, 2010. Accessed April 21, 2011. "Pinelands Regional - Eagleswood, Tuckerton, Bass River, Little Egg Harbor".
  4. ↑ Pinelands Regional School District 2013 Report Card Narrative, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed February 12, 2015. "The Pinelands Regional School District is a limited-purpose regional school district located in southern Ocean County. The District consists of a Junior High School for grades 7-9, a High School for grades 10-12 and an Alternative High School for at-risk students in grades 9-12. The communities of Bass River, Eagleswood, Little Egg Harbor, and Tuckerton are served by the District with approximately 1,700 students in grades 7-12."
  5. ↑ Pinelands Regional High School, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools. Accessed June 22, 2011.
  6. ↑ Staff. "Top Schools Alphabetical List 2014", New Jersey Monthly, September 2, 2014. Accessed September 5, 2014.
  7. ↑ Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed August 22, 2012.
  8. ↑ Staff. "2010 Top High Schools", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2010. Accessed June 22, 2011.
  9. ↑ "Top New Jersey High Schools 2008: By Rank", New Jersey Monthly, September 2008, posted August 7, 2008. Accessed August 19, 2008.
  10. ↑ New Jersey High School Rankings: 11th Grade HSPA Language Arts Literacy & HSPA Math 2009-2010, Schooldigger.com. Accessed January 15, 2012.
  11. ↑ School Info, Shore Conference. Accessed March 9, 2008.
  12. ↑ League Memberships – 2014-2015, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 23, 2014.
  13. ↑ 2014-2015 Public Schools Group Classification: ShopRite Cup–Basketball–Baseball–Softball for South Jersey, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, as of July 8, 2014. Accessed October 23, 2014.
  14. ↑ Cross Country State Group Champions, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed January 15, 2012.
  15. ↑ Christopher, Chris. "Pinelands cheerleading wins state championship", Daily Record (Morristown), March 15, 2011. Accessed November 29, 2015. "The Pinelands Regional High School varsity cheerleading squad won the New Jersey Cheerleading and Dance Coaches Association Medium Division state title at the Sun National Arena in Trenton.... Pinelands also captured the championship in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007."
  16. ↑ Staff. "Everyone Has A Story: Pinelands cheerleaders going to national competition for eighth time", The Press of Atlantic City, February 5, 2012. Accessed November 29, 2015. "The Pinelands Regional High School Varsity Cheerleaders are headed for their eighth UCA National High School Cheerleading Championships, to be held Saturday and Sunday in Orlando, Fla. For the past five years their performance has been televised by ESPN, and for the last three years they have placed third in their division, said Coach Marybeth Sundermann, of Manahawkin in Stafford Township.... The girls are five-time state champions, and train year-round."
  17. ↑ 2011 National High School Cheerleading Championship: Medium Varsity Division II Results, Varsity.com. Accessed November 29, 2015.
  18. ↑ Staff. "Pinelands High School theater team wins 19 awards at state competition", The Press of Atlantic City, February 8, 2010. Accessed June 22, 2011.
  19. ↑ Contacts, Pinelands Regional School District. Accessed October 31, 2015.
  20. ↑ Toner, Noreen. "'Blind Faith' Miniseries Dramatizes Toms River Murder", The Press of Atlantic City, February 11, 1990. Accessed January 30, 2011. "In real life, Marshall's lover was former Pineland Regional High School vice principal Sarann Kraushaar, who was not a suspect in the case."
  21. ↑ via Associated Press. "Transgender teacher retiring in frustration: 'All they did was put me in a closet again,' she says of N.J. school districts", MSNBC, July 22, 2009. Accessed January 30, 2011.

External links

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