Union City High School (New Jersey)
| Union City High School | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | |
 | |
| Information | |
| Type | Public high school |
| Established | 2009 |
| Principal | David Wilcomes |
| Grades | 10 - 12[1] |
| Enrollment | 1,800[1] |
| Color(s) | Navy blue and silver[3] |
| Athletics conference | North Jersey Tri-County Conference[2] |
| Nickname | Soaring Eagles |
| Website | Official site |
Union City High School is a four-year public high school in Union City, New Jersey, United States, as part of the Union City Board of Education. The four-story[4] school is located between Kennedy Boulevard and Summit Avenue, from 24th to 26th Street, with additional facilities a block south on Kerrigan Avenue.[1]
The school opened in September 2009, merging the city's prior high schools, Union Hill High School and Emerson High School, and marking the first high school opened in the city in 90 years.[5] The school, which was built on the site of the former Roosevelt Stadium, cost $180 million, covers 4½ acres and includes a rooftop football field.[6] The school's colors are navy blue and silver.[3] Its opening ceremony was attended by Union City Mayor Brian P. Stack, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez and New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine.[5]
Grade structure
Upon the opening of Union City High School in September 2009, the two high schools that previously served the city, Emerson and Union Hill High School, converted into middle schools, and José Martí Middle School, which is located on Summit Avenue at 18th Street, five blocks south of the high school, converted into José Martí Freshman Academy. Although Union City High School holds Sophomore through Senior students, Freshman who show interest in the fields of science and engineering can take classes at a separate building on Kerrigan Avenue between 22nd and 23rd Street called The Academy for Enrichment and Advancement (AEA), one block south of the main building.[7]
History
The site on which Union City High School sits was originally the site of the Hudson County Consumers Brewery Company. It was purchased for $456,000 USD, and turned it into a gated playground. Later, through the efforts of Director of Public Affairs Harry J. Thorout and the Federal Works Progress Administration Project, which awarded the project $172,472 USD, as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, it was turned into the art deco Roosevelt Stadium, which opened in 1937.[8][dead link] Though primarily a football stadium that served as a home to future National Football League greats Lou Cordileone and Frank Winters and College Football Hall of Famer Ed Franco, the stadium also housed events in semi-pro baseball, soccer, track, boxing, as well as numerous special events, from tractor pulls, concerts, carnivals and Fourth of July fireworks shows, to an exhibition baseball game featuring Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Roosevelt Stadium was also the home to the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Game between rivals Emerson High School and Union Hill High School, the last of which was hosted by the stadium in 2004. (Three subsequent Turkey Games were held elsewhere until 2007, after which the two high schools would merge.[3])
On July 11, 2005, acting New Jersey Governor Richard Codey and Union City Mayor Brian P. Stack, along with other officials, broke ground in preparation for the new complex, budgeted at $180 million. $172 million of the funds were provided by the state, with Union City providing the remaining $8 million.[3][6] Cliffside Park-based RSC Architects, in partnership with architecture firm HOK New York, designed the 360,000-square-foot school, which includes 66 classrooms. The school was one of six demonstration projects conceived and funded by the former Schools Construction Corporation, now the Schools Development Authority, according to Piscataway-based Epic Management, which served as the construction manager for the project.[9]
In early March 2006, a large piece of the Hudson Brewery's original brick foundation was found intact, along with the base of a manhole still connected to an original sewer that opened underneath the brewery. The artifacts were removed, and officials monitored the excavation for future discoveries of other artifacts for historical preservation.
Union City High School and Athletic Complex opened for students on September 3, 2009,[10] marking the first high school built in Union City in 90 years.[5] A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on September 25, and attended by Union City Mayor Brian P. Stack, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine and Senator Bob Menendez.[11]
Facilities
The school is equipped with high-tech classrooms and science labs and with automatic lights, SMART Boards, and Wi-Fi to enable students to use laptop computers in their studies.[1] The school's "world-class" gym includes bleachers that seat 1,800 people, and a weight room accessible directly from the gym. Elsewhere on the first floor is an aerobics room that houses cardio exercise machines.[9][5]
The arts are served by two art class rooms devoted to painting, sculpture and pottery,[1] sewing machine-equipped rooms for fashion classes, television production facilities,[4] and three music classrooms, each of which is equipped with grand pianos. Dancers have two separate rooms with floor to ceiling mirrors and ballet bars. The school's second floor cafeteria requires a private firm to operate the cooking equipment, including several walk-in freezers and a half-dozen pizza ovens.[1]
A centrally located, modern computerized library on the first floor, called the Media Center, is named after former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey.[5] It is located next to the outdoor Senior Courtyard. An American flag that stands in that courtyard, when raised, overlooks the athletic field.[1]
The school's centerpiece is its three-acre athletic field, called the Eagle's Nest, located on the second floor roof, which features skyline views of the Empire State Building and Midtown Manhattan. The architecture of the athletic complex, which cost $15 million, was designed to resemble the former Roosevelt Stadium, which previously occupied the site. A number of classrooms on the third and fourth floors overlook the field, which rests on two floors of steel and reinforced concrete. The field's bleachers seat 2,100 spectators. The field's on-campus location also eliminates not only the students' prior need to walk or be bussed from school to a separate location to play, but the need for the two prior schools to share the field. Although the merger of the former Union Hill Hillers and Emerson Bulldogs had experienced some difficulties a year prior, when the students were still housed at separate high schools (called Union City High School's North and South campuses, respectively), the merge had been ameliorated by the move of the unified student body to the single new school. Hudson Reporter columnist Jim Hague opined that the athletic facility is perhaps the most unique in the state.[1][3][4][9][12][13]
The school's 910-seat auditorium also serves as the Union City Performing Arts Center. The Center opened on October 16, 2009 with a celebration that featured an art gallery of over 160 paintings, as well as performances by a number of musicians, poets and dancers. Included in the performances were a guitar solo by Francisco "Pancho" Navarro, who appeared in 2002 Salma Hayek film Frida, a dance performance by Tap Ole Dance Company that was choreographed by Megan Fernandez, who had appeared on the reality television program America's Got Talent, and a poetry reading by Graciela Barreto, who had been named poet laureate of Union City in September.[14][15] Drama classes are aided with a separate black box theater for small productions, which doubles as a community conference center.[1]
The school's athletic field and auditorium will be made available to local residents.[3] In addition, The North Hudson Community Action Corp., a social services nonprofit group, runs a health screening facility six days a week by two doctors. The facility has a separate entrance/exit from the street, and is closed off to the rest of the school.[1] The staff's parking garage built a block south of the school will also serve nearby residents and business.[9]
Athletics
Union City High School's head football coach is Joe Rotondi,[2][3] who was previously the coach at Union Hill High School.[13] The Soaring Eagles are in Section: North 1, Group 4 in the North Jersey Tri-County Conference.[2]
The Soaring Eagle's 2009 record is 3-5-0.[2]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thorbourne, Ken. "Eagles ready to soar at new Union City High School" NJ.com August 30, 2009
- ^ a b c d Union City Soaring Eagles at GridIron New Jersey
- ^ a b c d e f g Hu, Winnie. "A Fine New Field Lifts Spirits" The New York Times; September 11, 2009
- ^ a b c "HOK Partners with RSC Architects on Union City, N.J. School" Contract magazine; November 18, 2009
- ^ a b c d e Pizarro, Max. "Stack honors McGreevey at new high school opening" PolitickerNJ; October 3, 2009
- ^ a b Hu, Winnie. "After 88 Years of Rivalry, the Last as Us and Them", The New York Times, November 22, 2007. Accessed January 2, 2008. "But today’s so-called Turkey Game signals the end of the tradition. Next fall, the two schools will merge in a new $176 million building.... The new Union City High School takes up four-and-a-half acres in the center of the city, squeezed between row houses and commercial strips. It will have a football field and bleachers built on the roof so that players will no longer have to share the facilities at José Martí Middle School."
- ^ "REGISTERED SCHOOLS 2009 as of 11-16-2009" New Jersey Science League. Accessed November 24, 2009.
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ a b c d Lee, Evelyn. "Union City High School project nears completion" NJBiz; September 11, 2009
- ^ Rappaport, Melissa. "Back to School" The Union City Reporter; August 30, 2009; Pages 1 & 8.
- ^ Thorbourne, Ken. "Music stars to help celebrate new Union City High School" NJ.com September 30, 2009
- ^ Hague, Jim. "Union City going through growing pains New program trying to meld teams of old" The Hudson Reporter Accessed October 23, 2009
- ^ a b Hague, Jim. "It’s up on the roof for Union City" The Hudson Reporter; Accessed October 23, 2009
- ^ Rappaport, Melissa. "Live! UC inaugurates performing arts center" Union City Reporter October 25, 2009; Pages 1 & 16
- ^ Union City Performing Arts Center official site