Hawthorne High School is a four-year comprehensive

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

that serves students in 9th through

twelfth grade Twelfth grade, 12th grade, senior year, or grade 12 is the final year of secondary school in most of North America. In other regions, it may also be referred to as class 12 or Year 13. In most countries, students are usually between the ages of 17 ...

s from Hawthorne, in Passaic County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

.The school operates as the lone secondary school of the Hawthorne Public Schools. As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 616 students and 58.7 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.5:1. There were 97 students (15.7% of enrollment) eligible for

free lunch A free lunch is the providing of a meal at no cost, usually as a sales enticement to attract customers and increase revenues from other business. It was once a common tradition in saloons and taverns in many places in the United States, with th ...

and 16 (2.6% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.School data for Hawthorne High School
National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed December 1, 2022. The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in

District Factor Group {{refimprove, date=February 2013 Membership in a District Factor Group (DFG) is an indicator of the socioeconomic status of citizens in school districts of New Jersey. DFGs were first developed by the New Jersey Department of Education in 1975 for ...

"DE". District Factor Groups organize districts statewide to allow comparison by common

socioeconomic Socioeconomics (also known as social economics) is the social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. In general it analyzes how modern societies progress, stagnate, or regress because of their l ...

characteristics of the local districts.

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 218th-ranked public high school in

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 234th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 171st in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 148th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 157th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state. The school set the Guinness World Record in 2013 for most people popping bubble wrap and was the first to hold the record before it was surpassed the following year.

Curriculum

Starting in the 2013–14 school year, Hawthorne High School switched to a modified rotating drop schedule, making more opportunities for new classes. The school will offer 19 honor classes along with 12 Advanced Placement classes and 25 new electives. For the 2017–18 school year, the high school added a second lunch to their drop schedule. The 2018–19 school year saw the addition of AP Computer Science.

Athletics

The Hawthorne High School BearsHawthorne High School
New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020. participate in the

North Jersey Interscholastic Conference The North Jersey Interscholastic Conference, or NJIC, is a high school athletic conference located in New Jersey. It is one of the so-called "super conferences" created by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) as a pa ...

, which is comprised of small-enrollment schools in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...

, Hudson,

Morris Morris may refer to: Places Australia *St Morris, South Australia, place in South Australia Canada * Morris Township, Ontario, now part of the municipality of Morris-Turnberry * Rural Municipality of Morris, Manitoba ** Morris, Manitob ...

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). Prior to realignment that took effect in the fall of 2010, Hawthorne was a member of the smaller Bergen-Passaic Scholastic League (BPSL). With 513 students in grades 10–12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Group II for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 486 to 758 students in that grade range. The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Group II North for football for 2018–2020. The boys' cross country team won the Group II state championship in 1973. The football team won the North I Group II state sectional championship in 1974 (awarded by the NJSIAA), 1975 and 1978. A 14–12 win against Rutherford High School gave the 1975 team their first North I Group II sectional playoff championship and a 10-0-1 record for the season. The 1978 team won the North I Group II sectional title with a 19–14 win in the championship game against

Lenape Valley Regional High School Lenape Valley Regional High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school and school district in serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from two municipalities in Sussex County and one in Morris County, New Jersey, Unite ...

. The field hockey team won the North I Group II state sectional championship in 1976. The wrestling team won the North I Group I state sectional title in 1994 The girls' volleyball team won the Group II state championship in 2001 with a 31–0 record, defeating

Union Catholic Regional High School Union Catholic Regional High School is a private Catholic high school located in Scotch Plains, in Union County, New Jersey, United States. Its motto promises to provide a "quality education in a faith-based environment." Founded in 1962 as se ...

in the tournament final. They also captured the Passaic County championship in that same season. Interscholastic sports offered include: ;Fall *Marching band *Football *Soccer (boys & girls) *Volleyball (girls) *Tennis (girls) *Cheerleading Winter: *Bowling *Basketball (boys & girls) *Cheerleading *Indoor track (boys & girls) *Wrestling Spring: *Marching band *Golf *Track (boys & girls) *Lacrosse (boys) *Baseball *Softball

Marching band

As of 2019 the band director for the Hawthorne High School Marching band is Keith Williams. There are approximately 60 students in grades 8 through 12 involved with the marching band. The 2019 season's theme was "Beautiful Nightmare”.

Administration

The school's interim principal is Kevin Pfister. His administration team includes two assistant principals.

Notable alumni

Fulvio Cecere Fulvio Cecere (born March 11, 1960) is a Canadian actor and filmmaker. Early life Born in Canada, he moved to Hawthorne, New Jersey as a teenager and attended Hawthorne High School, graduating as part of the class of 1978. Cecere attended Sou ...

(born 1960, class of 1978), actor. * Debbie Harry (born 1945, class of 1963), lead singer of Blondie.Rohan, Virginia
"North Jersey-bred ... and so talented"
'' The Record'', June 18, 2007. Accessed November 18, 2015. "Debbie Harry: Class of 1963, Hawthorne High School....Ivan Sergei: Class of 1989, Hawthorne High School" * Ivan Sergei (born 1972, class of 1989), actor best known for his work in television. * Michael Terrizzi (born 1953, class of 1971), former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

and punter who played for the

Purdue Boilermakers football The Purdue Boilermakers football team represents Purdue University in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of college football. Purdue plays its home games at Ross–Ade Stadium on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. ...

team.Cooper, Darren
"Results for North Jersey's Greatest Quarterback: Heroes Region second round"
'' The Record'', July 1, 2020. Accessed September 5, 2020. "Mike Terrizzi, Hawthorne (1971): He was the starting quarterback on the last two undefeated teams in school history."

References

External links

Hawthorne High SchoolHawthorne Public SchoolsHawthorne High School Forum
*
School Data for the Hawthorne Public Schools
National Center for Education Statistics {{Authority control Hawthorne, New Jersey Public high schools in Passaic County, New Jersey