Princeton High School (New Jersey)

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Princeton High School
Location
151 Moore Street Princeton, NJ 08540
Information
Type	Public high school
Established	1898
Principal	Gary Snyder
Faculty	98.8 (on FTE basis)[1]
Enrollment	1,257 (as of 2005-06)[1]
Student:teacher ratio	12.7[1]
Color(s)	Blue and White
Athletics conference	Colonial Valley Conference
Team name	Little Tigers
Information	609-806-4280
Website	http://phs.prs.k12.nj.us/

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Princeton High School (PHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school in the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, United States. PHS is a part of the Princeton Regional Schools district, which serves all public school students in the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township. Students from Cranbury Township also attend PHS as part of a sending/receiving relationship with the Cranbury Township School District.

PHS is notable for its high academic standards and strong arts programs that rival many of the nation's private schools. The school consistently ranks amongst the top conventional public secondary schools in the state concerning SAT scores, and was ranked second in the state in 2006.^[2] The High School Program at Princeton University permits qualified juniors and seniors to take free courses at Princeton University; Students must have exhausted all high school course alternatives within a discipline and receive high school credit only for any university courses successfully completed.^[3]

As of the 2005-06 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,257 students and 98.8 classroom teachers (on a FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.7).^[1]

Contents 1 Overview 2 Awards and recognition 3 School policy 3.1 Schedule 3.1.1 Lab days 3.2 Graduation requirements 4 Extracurricular activities 4.1 Project Timeline 4.2 Mock Trial Team 4.3 Athletics 4.4 The Tower 4.5 The Ivy 4.6 The Ideas Center 4.7 Spectacle Theatre 4.8 The Princeton High School Choir 4.9 PHS Studio Band 5 Student body 6 Alma Mater 7 Achievement gap 8 Notable alumni 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Overview

PHS is located in the Borough of Princeton, across the street from John Witherspoon Middle School (which is in Princeton Township).

PHS offers courses in many subjects and levels, including most of the courses in the Advanced Placement Program. The school also provides the opportunity for students to take free courses at Princeton University provided that they have exhausted all the courses at the school pertaining to that particular subject and have done well enough in those courses.

As of 2008, the school's principal is Gary Snyder, and its assistant principals are Harvey Highland and Julianne Inverso. The school's student activities director (also known as the Dean of Students) is Angela Siso. The Athletic Director is John Miranda.

Princeton High underwent significant reconstruction from 2003-2008 as part of an $86 million project to renovate the Princeton Regional School District's school buildings. At the start of the 2006-07 school year, the new auditorium, science labs, gymnasium, and the bulk of the new wings and staircases in the school opened. The renovated library (now located in the former auditorium) opened in May 2007. During the summer of 2007, finishing touches such as the removal of classroom trailers, installation of tennis courts, repaving of parking lots, finishing of renovations to old portions of the building, and the beginning of work on the new, state-of-the-art fitness center took place. The school continued to be a work in progress at the beginning of the 2007-08 school year. Full and total completion of renovations and additions was achieved in 2008.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Awards and recognition

In U.S. News & World Report's December 10, 2007 issue, Princeton High School was the 94th ranked public high school in the nation and the third-highest ranked school in New Jersey.^[4]

The school was ranked 210th in Newsweek's 2009 ranking of the top 1,500 high schools in the United States and was the third-ranked school in New Jersey, with 2.943 AP tests taken in 2008 per graduating senior and 60% of all graduating seniors passing at least one AP exam; The school was ranked 142nd nationwide in 2008.^[5] In Newsweek's 2007 ranking of the country's top high schools, Princeton High School was listed in 208th place, the seventh-highest ranked school in New Jersey.^[6] The school was also listed in 133rd place, the third-highest ranked school in New Jersey, in Newsweek's May 8, 2006, issue listing the Top 1200 High Schools in The United States.^[7] Princeton High School was ranked as number 212 in Newsweek's 2005 survey .^[8] and 113th in its 2004 survey.

The November 30, 2007 issue of [The Wall Street Journal], ranking the country's high schools based on a percentage of 2007 high school seniors sent to eight selective colleges, placed Princeton High School at number 27.^[9] PHS was the second highest ranked publicly-funded school, with a total of 31 students matriculating the select eights schools. The eight colleges were Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Pomona, University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, and Williams. Princeton High School's rank was aided by the fact that 19 students from the school matriculated to Princeton University, many of whom have parents working as faculty at the University.

The school was the 6th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 316 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2008 cover story on the state's Top Public High Schools. The school was ranked 13th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state.^[10]

[edit] School policy

[edit] Schedule

School is held from Monday through Friday, for a total of 180 days per year. The usual daily schedule consists of eight periods of 50 minutes each, with a homeroom period (12 minutes) between the second and third periods, and a break (25 minutes) between the sixth and seventh periods. There are four minutes between each class period for the students to get to their next class.

Every Wednesday, (termed "short Wednesdays" or "one-thirty-nine days") and on some other days when special events are planned, the school day is shortened. School ends at 1:39 pm. Short Wednesdays exist to permit the operation of the Peer Group program (which is mandatory for freshmen) between 1:39 and 2:51. This period of time is also used for community service group meetings for sophomores, other optional extracurricular activities, and school-wide events, such as pep rallies, the Fall Fest (now usually held in November), and Spring Fling bake sales.

[edit] Lab days

The school days are assigned letter labels, cycling from A through G. This is done to accommodate double periods for science classes, which are scheduled such that there is a gym class the preceding or following period. For two out of these seven days (either A and E, B and F or C and G depending on the class, so that D day is normal for everyone) the science class meets two periods in a row to give the class opportunity for a lab experiment. The gym class does not meet on these days. As a result, when a student has no science class on his or her designated lab day, he or she has a free period for that day. Some science classes, such as Genetics, only have one lab day per cycle, leaving the other as a free period.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Graduation requirements

Each year-long class counts for 5 credits; each semester class counts for 2.5. Science classes that have one or two lab periods, however, count for 5.7 and 6.4 credits, respectively (because of the lab cycle). Quarterly Gym and Health classes count for 1 credit, or 4 credits per year. A student must complete 120 credits to graduate (about 24 courses). Additionally, each student must have completed 50 hours of community service to graduate. These community service requirements are usually completed during students' sophomore years. Students must also pass the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA 11).

Required courses include English I and English II (which must respectively be taken in the first two years) and two more years of English. Other requirements include: three years of science, including biology and chemistry; two years of a foreign language; three years of mathematics; one year of gym for every year that the student is attending (if the student graduates in three years they only need three classes); two years of United States History; one year of World History; one year of Visual/Performing Arts; and one year of Practical Arts.

PHS has a policy of revoking credit for a student's course if he reaches a certain amount absences in a class. More than 18 absences from a year-long course, 9 absences for a semester course, and 5 absences for a marking period course will lead to credit revocation. Starting in 2005, tardiness has been counted as one-third of an absence for the purposes of revoking credit. However, students can appeal if they are denied credit; credit can be restored from an appeal if approved by a school administrator or can be re-obtained through summer school.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Extracurricular activities

Princeton High School offers many extracurricular activities, including clubs, publications, competitive teams, and other organizations. Chartered organizations include Enspiration (an environmental community service group), The Speech & Debate Club, Operation Smile Club, the Anime Club, Asian American Club, Dance Club, the PHS Amnesty International organization, A.R.T.E: Artistically Reviving the Earth, Badminton Club, the Chess Club, the Cricket Club, the Environmental Club, the Gay-Straight Alliance, the Indian Club, The Ivy (a literary magazine), the Latin Club, the Math Team, the Mock Trial Team, Model United Nations, the Numina Gallery group, The Prince (the Yearbook), the Princeton High Ultimate Club, the Robotics and Computer Club, the New Rubik's Cube Club, the Science Bowl Team, the Science Olympiad Team, the Statistics Club, The Tower (the newspaper), the Quidditch Club, the Bibliophile club, French Club, the Circolo Italiano (Italian Club), and the Pen Spinning Club.

[edit] Project Timeline

Princeton High School's student run club, A.R.T.E: Artistically Reviving The Earth painted a mural in the new 2007 addition. The mural celebrates 110 years of PHS.

[edit] Mock Trial Team

The PHS Mock Trial team has been one of the best in the region. Following the County Competition is the Regional Competition, and following that is the State Competition. Mr. Baxter, the Mock Trial coach prepares the students to become first-rate attorneys and witnesses.

[edit] Athletics

The Princeton High School Little Tigers participate in the Colonial Valley Conference, which includes high schools from Mercer, Middlesex and Monmouth Counties.

The Little Tigers have had many successful seasons in ice hockey, cross country, tennis, swimming, track, lacrosse, soccer, and golf over the years. The Golf Team went 5 for 5 in its 2007 Tournaments, including the Group 3 State Championships, the Mercer County Tournament, Sectional Championships, the Bunker Hill Tournament, and the Cherry Valley Tournament, and has gone 47 and 2 in its last 2 years.

The Girls' Swim Team won the 2007 NJSIAA Central - B state sectional championship with an 87-83 win over Ocean Township High School.^[11] They also beat Ocean Township High School in 2008 for the second year in a row, claiming their 6th consecutive NJSIAA Central - B sectional championship. In 2007, The Princeton Girl's Team lost to Haddonfield Memorial High School in state finals, and in 2008, lost to Haddonfield in state semi-finals.

In 2008 the Varsity Cheerleading squad competed in the Colonial Valley Conference Competition, and won Best Dance, First place in Medium Division and Overall Grand Champions. They competed against 13 other teams in order to win the Grand Champion Award.

In 2009 the Varsity Boys Soccer Team competed in the Group III State tournament and subsequently won. In the state championship the team played Millburn to a 2-1 win.

[edit] The Tower

The Tower is a newspaper which was founded in 1911 as the Observer. In 1925 it was renamed the Blue & White. It was renamed to its present title four years later at the suggestion of Stryker Warren (a 1930 graduate of PHS) to commemorate the construction of what was then the new building and what is now the oldest building, with the famous tower. The Tower has throughout its life varied enormously in its content and style. As of 2006, the Tower funds itself through the selling of subscriptions and advertisements to local organizations & businesses, and through subsidies from the Princeton Regional Schools.

In its very first incarnation it was published fortnightly in a format somewhat smaller than 8.5 by 11 inches and was advised by a teacher of the era, Mrs. M. A. Dick. The Tower has published continuously since that time, assisted by different local publishers, most recently for the last few decades, the Princeton Packet. At one time, typesetting was done separately from publishing for the Tower by another local paper, Town Topics.

The Tower's masthead has varied tremendously—when the present name first was bestowed upon it, the logotype was a pencil drawing of a sun rising above a tower with the school's motto and The New York Times-style lettering, but since then the image of the architectural feature has been removed and reinserted multiple times by zealous editors throughout the decades. Throughout the forties and fifties, the Tower's logotype was very plain, consisting only of serifed capital block letters, with no additional style or imagery. The current masthead dates to the eighties.

A well-known feature of the Tower is the propensity of the editors to publish joke issues: in recent years, it is generally done at the boundary between years, around the same time when the entire editorial staff is replaced wholesale. The first example of this was in the late 1920s, when one issue was published on blue paper and carried the title "Black & Blue." The humor in that printing consisted largely of printing some of the text backwards or upside down. More recent joke issues have somewhat more vivid humor, such as a mid-2000s issue alleging that a giant condom had been placed on top of the school, or an early-eighties issue stating that the Tower had been converted into a pornographic racket (with pictures to support the point).^{[citation needed]} The 2009 edition featured a back page of student-made lolcats.

Of course, like many of the running aspects of the Tower, such as the monthly quotes section, exemplars decades ago may be seen not so much as "first instances" as much as spiritual precursors—there has been constant flux at the Tower over the decades. Features such as the Vanguard (a two-page topical opinions/forum spread) frequently are born, killed, resurrected, and killed again in a cycle that takes place over twenty or so years, as new enterprising editors-in-chief try to imprint their own mark upon the publication as soon as they can before their very brief tenure expires and that mark again fades into history.^{[citation needed]} Ironically, the Tower is one of the few clubs at PHS (if not the only one) which has much of a history to speak of. This follows from having an inherent running month-by-month record of its activities going back to its founding: the newspapers themselves.

For a glimpse into the newspaper's history, a series of front pages from the Tower archives has been on display in the lobby of the new arts wing at Princeton High School since the wing opened in the spring of 2007. This exhibit shows the consistently professional layout of the paper as well as its coverage of period-defining events. It also celebrates that the newspaper is not only one of the few clubs at PHS with a significant known history, but also that the newspaper's history has generally exemplified good journalism, strong leadership, and the sort of excellence for which Princeton High School is known.

[edit] The Ivy

The Ivy, Princeton High School's Magazine of the Arts, like the Tower, has much of a history to speak of. First started in the 1960s, The Ivy, named for the ivy which grows on the school, has entertained generations of Princeton High School students as well as the Princeton community as a whole. Students submit their art in various media (whether drawings, collages, poems, short-stories, essays, paintings, and photographs) to the Ivy mailbox located in the library. A team of students, lead by a chief editor then select works, edit works, and even write create their own works of art until they have gathered enough to make a magazine. The magazine is then graphically designed using In Design, given a theme, and printed at the School in black in white or in color at various printers. The Ivy generally produces two magazines a year, and the first magazine printed in the 2008-2009 school year was entitled "Two Birds, One Stone".

[edit] The Ideas Center

The Princeton High School Ideas Center provides most of the students in need at the school with peer tutors, who are Princeton High School students who work with their tutees in one-on-one sessions or study groups. The center is also home to the Building Bridges program, in which tutors from Princeton High school tutor students at John Witherspoon Middle School. Building Bridges was founded by student Lisa Sendrow during the 2008-2009 academic year and proved to be successful.

[edit] Spectacle Theatre

Spectacle Theatre is Princeton High School's student-run drama club. Each year, students will act in and produce a fall play (generally in November) and a spring musical (generally in March). After the conclusion of the musical, seniors have the opportunity to direct one act or short plays in a Student Directed Play production. Each production involves tech, make-up,lighting, and costume departments as well as a stage crew. The program has had a long history of excellence, and was the first high school to premiere "Brigadoon" and "Carousel". They have also performed operas at Princeton High School, the first of which was Cavalleria Rusticana, a one act opera written by Pietro Mascagni.

Spectacle Theatre is currently directed by Pat Wray, a former Broadway dancer and actress.

[edit] The Princeton High School Choir

Founded in 1944, the Choir is nationally and internationally known as one of the top high school choirs in the world. The Choir is composed of between sixty to eighty students every year, with auditions conducted at the end of each academic year for entry in the following year. Students who are not accepted during their first audition may try again in subsequent years. The Choir tours internationally (and occasionally nationally) once every two years. In 1977/78, the Choir was personally invited by the American composer Gian Carlo Menotti to participate in Spoleto, a world-renowned summer festival where they premiered Menotti's opera, "The Egg". Since 1993, the choir has visited Russia, England, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Sweden, and performed at the White House. A tour to Washington D.C., including a performance at the National Cathedral, were planned for the spring of 2009.

The Choir has been under five directors in its history, including founding director Harvey Woodruff from 1944 to 1948, Thomas Hilbish from 1948-1965, William Trego from 1965 to 1993, and Dr. Charles "Sunny" Sundquist from 1993 to 2008. After Dr. Sundquist's move to Mountain Lakes High School, Vincent Metallo took over as director, along with veteran Assistant Director Sarah Pelletier.

The Choir performs its annual winter concert in the Chapel of Princeton University. Since its humble beginnings, the Winter Concert has become one of the prides of the high school and an important community event; the Chapel is generally filled to capacity with over 1,200 attendees.

PHS Choir is not an extracurricular activity because it is a course for which credits and grades are given. Part of PHS' music tradition stems from the significant amount of money, time, and value placed on music and the arts.

A cappella

PHS also is home to four student-run a cappella groups. There are two all-female groups, the Cat's Meow and Cloud 9, one all-male group, the Testostertones ("Tones"), and one co-ed group, Around Eight. The four talented groups perform at various school and non-school related events year round, singing songs arranged by current and former members. They all hold weekly, student-run rehearsals. The a cappella groups hold auditions each school year and admit a small number of new members. Admission into each one of these groups is very selective, however some groups are more selective than others. Cat's Meow and Around Eight are considered to be the more selective groups because they only admit members from within PHS Choir, but selectivity amongst all four groups varies annually. Cat's Meow is known for their arrangements which often include spirituals and folk songs, while Around Eight was originally established as a madrigal group but now sings a wide variety of music. Both groups arrange contemporary songs. The Testostertones are known for their witty performances, and Cloud 9 is known for their creative arrangements of modern songs. Cat's Meow was the first a cappella group established at Princeton High School, followed closely by Around Eight. Cloud 9 and the Testostertones are more recent additions to the school's rich a cappella history.

[edit] PHS Studio Band

The band program at PHS is not an "extracurricular" activity, as it gives credits and is considered a course.

Band Program

Princeton High School has several levels of bands to accommodate all levels of playing from beginning to professional skill. Tiger I&II, Nassau I&II, Jazz Ensemble, and Studio Band are the 6 bands by order of pure playing ability. Students are assigned to their respective band level according to skill, being an upperclassman holds no extra sway.

The Princeton High School Studio Band, currently co-directed by Joe Bongiovi and Scott Grimaldi, selects its members by audition only. All Studio Band members are expected to excel in sight-reading, master finger positions, and be familiar with all techniques that apply to their instrument (i.e. Trombone F-attachment). They are also expected to attend all rehearsals both during and after school. During the band's preparation for competition, ensemble rehearsal can be over 12–20 hours in 1 week.

The Studio Band is known to play a wide variety of genres arranged for Big Band. About one Friday evening each month throughout the school year the Studio Band hosts dances known as Big Band Dances.

Band History

The original director and founder of the Studio Band was Dr. Anthony Biancosino. Biancosino was the director of the Studio Band for 26 years. During those years the Studio Band had many successes, including playing at the inaugural balls of both Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

When Biancosino died in December 2003 his brother, Joseph Downey, took over as director of the Studio band. Under his direction the Studio Band continues to play and compete. In 2007 the Studio Band took first place at the Berklee College of Music High School Jazz Festival. Prior to performing, Downey dedicated the set to Dr. Biancosino. The set consisted of three pieces: Whiplash, Of Another Time, and Cherokee; the same set the Studio Band had played when they won previously at Berklee under Biancosino's direction. Joe Bongiovi later took over the band director's position, with the help of band director Scott Grimaldi. Under the direction of Joe Bongiovi in 2009, PHS Studio Band won first place overall, best woodwind section, and best brass section at the Disney Jazz Festival. Later in the year, they also won first place overall and best saxophone section at the NJAJE State Finals. The set consisted of Heat of the Day, Mumuki, and What is This Thing Called Love.

Jazz Festival

The Princeton High School band program also hosts an annual Jazz Festival, nicknamed "Jazz Fest", at which local high school jazz bands are invited to perform for adjudication. Like many other similar high school jazz festivals, the host band traditionally plays last and is not scored for competition. Each year, the band program invites a guest artist to perform after the festival for its attendees.^[12]

[edit] Student body

During the 2005-2006 school year, Princeton High School had 1253 students [1].

• 75% were White American
• 12% were Asian American
• 7% were African-American
• 6% were Hispanic

3% of students qualified for free or reduced lunch.

[edit] Alma Mater

Princeton High School's Alma Mater is traditionally sung at the Fall Pep Rally by the Cat's Meow, the oldest all-female acapella group at PHS. It is also sung by the student body at the Gold Key Service Award Ceremony in the spring, as well as at the annual graduation ceremony, led by the ladies of the Cat's Meow.

Now stand and sing with heart and voice

Our Alma Mater's praise!

Let all who know thy guiding hand

To thee, the chorus raise.

Our friendships hold in memory

Thy tow'r against the sky

And evermore our hearts will sing

In praise of Princeton High!

[edit] Achievement gap

PHS has been considered a case study of the achievement gap in elite high schools. The gap between different groups in academic progress received greater attention in 2005, after the school failed the No Child Left Behind Act. The New York Times ran an article entitled "The Achievement Gap in Elite Schools," by Samuel G. Freedman on September 28, 2005,^[13] which essentially accused Princeton High School of neglecting its responsibility to educate minorities. While the cause may be due to socioeconomic status rather than racial segregation, many students in the overwhelmingly white-and-Asian-populated advanced classes can spend most of their high school career without sharing but a few classes with their Hispanic or African American peers.

According to Freedman's article, "In the early 1990s, an interracial body calling itself the Robeson Group—in homage to Paul Robeson, the most famous product of black Princeton—mobilized to recruit more black teachers and help elect the first black member to the school board."

In 2003, the school became part of the Minority Student Achievement Network, a network of 21 different schools across the country, that share Princeton High School's achievement gap problem. MSAN gathers high achieving minority students, to address and help fix the growing achievement gap, in their schools.^[14]

[edit] Notable alumni

• Chris Barron (born Christopher Barron Gross), the lead singer of Spin Doctors.^[15]
• Laurie Berkner (born 1969), children's musical artist.^{[citation needed]}
• The entire band of Blues Traveler
• Eron Bucciarelli, drummer for Hawthorne Heights
• Sim Cain (born 1963), drummer Rollins Band
• Michelle Charlesworth (born 1970), news anchor WABC New York
• Rhys Coiro (born 1979), actor
• Ben Jelen (born 1979), musician
• Michael Lemonick, senior science writer at Time magazine.^{[citation needed]}
• John Lithgow (born 1945), actor.^[16]
• Brad Mays (born 1955), filmmaker ^[17]
• John McPhee (born 1931), The New Yorker staff writer, author of twenty-seven books, and Pulitzer Prize-winner.^[18]
• Bebe Neuwirth (born 1958), actress.^[19]
• Andy Potts, Olympic athlete.^[20]
• Tsutomu Shimomura, Japanese-American scientist and computer security expert.^[21]
• Quentin Smith (born 1952), the lead singer in the alternative rock band Vaux.^{[citation needed]}
• Michael Showalter (born 1970), comedian.^{[citation needed]}
• George Barna (born 1954), author.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Princeton High School
• Princeton High School's 2007-08 School Report Card from the New Jersey Department of Education
• Data for the Princeton Regional Schools, National Center for Education Statistics
• PHS Jazz
• The Princeton Packet
• A.R.T.E: Artistically Reviving the Earth

Coordinates: 40°21′25″N 74°39′25″W / 40.357027°N 74.656917°W / 40.357027; -74.656917

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