Pascack Valley High School

Pascack Valley High School
Location
200 Piermont Avenue Hillsdale, NJ 07642
Information
Type	Public high school
School district	Pascack Valley Regional High School District
Principal	Tom DeMaio
Faculty	78.2 (on FTE basis)
Grades	9 - 12
Enrollment	1,062 (as of 2005-06)
Student to teacher ratio	13.6
Athletics conference	North Bergen Interscholastic Athletic League
Team name	Indians
Information	201-358-7060
Website	School website

Pascack Valley High School (PVHS) is a four-year regional public high school located in Hillsdale in Bergen County, New Jersey, one of two high schools in the Pascack Valley Regional High School District. Pascack Valley High School serves the residents of both Hillsdale and neighboring River Vale, while its counterpart Pascack Hills High School serves the communities of Woodcliff Lake and Montvale. The school is often noted for its 1:1 eLearning Initiative, in which the school provided a laptop to every student, teacher, and administrator for educational use.

As of the 2005-06 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,062 students and 78.2 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student-teacher ratio of 13.6.

The school was the 25th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 314 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2008 cover story on the state's Top Public High Schools. The school was ranked 23rd in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state.

The principal of Pascack Valley High School is Tom DeMaio. On January 29, 2008, the school district announced that following surgery on her knee, then-principal Dr. Barbara Sapienza had become comatose and that her recovery was uncertain. Assistant principal Tom DeMaio took over as acting principal, and has remained in that position following Dr. Sapienza's death on March 5, 2008. DeMaio was subsequently appointed principal in his own right.

History

The school was originally founded in 1955 with 650 students enrolled. As enrollment and faculty size increased, educators realized that both the curriculum and the facilities were in need of expansion. Double-session scheduling was used as a remedy for the problem in 1963. The next year, Pascack Hills High School opened and promptly became Pascack Valley's rival. For thirty-five years, the two schools would play a Thanksgiving Day football game, except when state playoff committements dictated a move to another day, which eventually ended when enrollment disparities led to Pascack Hills leaving the NBIL for football.(Pascack Valley had dominated the series in the final years, winning the final four games by lopsided margins). Perhaps the most notable match was in 1978, when 4-4 Pascack Valley defeated 9-0 Pascack Hills in Montvale, 31-20.

In 1970, Pascack Valley's capacity was again full and it became necessary to perform another expansion. A new cafeteria was provided as well as expanded areas for each department, new classrooms, a new gymnasium, and a new library.

In 1989, tragedy struck the school as popular principal, Dr. Joseph Poli, noted for his trademark green jacket and affable manner, died suddenly. Among the many memorials to Dr. Poli was the renaming of the annual holiday girls' basketball tournament in his memory. The Joe Poli Tournament still attracts top teams from across the region.

1997 walkout

In 1997, in an act of support for the proposed school budget which was up for voter approval, up to 700 students (much of the student body) walked out of the school. In the past three years, the budget had been voted down and this had caused major setbacks for the school. Fearing the loss of popular teachers due to budget limitations, students staged a walkout and the local media were called to attend the event. Originally, the principal had planned to let students walk only to the back following an all-student meeting, but students took matters into their own hands when the leaders of the group led the walkout to the front. The students stayed outside until the local media arrived to cover the event. Half of the instructional time allotted for the day was missed, but students eventually had to return to class. In the end, the budget passed.

2004 Mascot controversy

The school's mascot is an Indian. In 2004, there was a major controversy at the school about the appropriateness of the mascot. The school took up the issue after researching high schools and colleges around the U.S. with similar nicknames that had decided to change their mascots. Many of these schools had received complaints from Native American groups about the stereotypes that the mascots reinforced. The student council also discussed rumors that New Jersey would be banning Native American-related mascots eventually, and it was decided that taking up the issue by choice rather than force was the right thing to do. After months of public debate and an official symposium in which students voiced opinions from both sides of the issue, a vote was held among the students and faculty and the motion to keep the Indian was overwhelmingly affirmed, 67% voting in favor of keeping the mascot.

2007 threat

On May 1, 2007, suspicious writing was left in one of the school bathrooms, consisting of sayings with sexual connotations and derogatory comments toward another school. At the bottom of the list was a phrase that could have be taken either as a threat or as a comment with sexual connotations. In short, the writing was not a clear, direct threat against the school. After the Chief of Police from the Hillsdale Police Department consulted with the Superintendent, it was determined that they should do a check of the classrooms and lavatories for suspicious items. None were found, and the police, taking into account the ambiguity of the writing on the wall and not finding anything in the school, declared the building safe for occupancy.

2008 Explicit photograph incident

In June 2008, police and school administrators found various explicit photographs of female freshmen on laptops issued to students by the school. Since all the students involved were freshmen, police handed responsibility of disciplining the students to the school. Five students were suspended for the rest of the school year, and their technology privileges were taken away.

1:1 eLearning initiative

In the fall of 2000, it was proposed to provide a laptop to every student and teacher for educational purposes. A wireless network environment for the school part of a referendum project. As the concept evolved, school representatives visited districts where such a program was already in place. The school's Steering Technology Committee was responsible for the logistics of the plan from 2000 to the present.

Corporate partners for the district included Apple, Promedia Technology Services, Inc., McAfee, Nexus Consortium, Stewart Industries, Motion Systems, ScanSoft, Minitab, Questia Media Inc., and Quia.

For the 2004-05 school year, the school finally issued all its students laptops, the first public school in the state to do so. The laptops were issued by the Sony Corporation and were put under a contractual lease for a period of 4 years. The lease will expire in 2008. The laptops were hailed as a success by the administration, but the students largely differed in their opinion. Soon after the issuing of the computers, many of them promptly began to break and malfunction. In response, the school debuted the so-called "Laptop Hospital," where students could drop off their laptops for repair.

Against the wishes of the administration, students downloaded games and various other applications for personal use. In early 2005, the networked multiplayer game Halo in particular caused a major problem for the school's limited bandwidth. An increase in personal student-to-student e-mail was noted. Concerns regarding a possible drop in academic performance due to non-academic use of the laptops during the school day were expressed.

In the 2005-2006 academic school year, computer use was for the first time restricted for all students. As of now, students no longer have access to student email during the school day and are limited to a restricted screen with a single window full of shortcuts to the various needed applications within the computer. The situation is not likely to change as the administration has not budged on the issue thus far. The school email also features a spam-block program. This has its advantages but the one cited disadvantage to this, is that many incoming replies from university emails have been blocked; thus complicating the process of applying to a university online if the student uses a school issued email address.

Starting in 2007-2008 all students were issued Apple Macbooks to replace the Sony Vaio laptops that were not under contract with the school anymore.

The 1:1 in the name of the program probably refers to the ratio of students to computers that it sought to attain.

Campus

Pascack Valley High School is well endowed with a wide range of facilities and a large campus. It is complete with one track (with new surface as of Spring 2006), surrounding a new artificial turf football field. The school grounds also have four tennis courts, a softball field and one baseball field. The school has two levels and is mainly arranged in a rectangular fashion.

The campus was currently undergoing major renovations, with the addition of several wings and a total overhaul of the track and field areas.

Extracurricular activities

Like most other area high schools, Pascack Valley offers a wide range of co-curricular and extracurricular activities. Included are the All-Male A Capella group, Bro Squad, Academic Decathlon, the Animal Rights Club, the Art Portfolio Club, the Audiovisual Club, the Marching Band and Concert Band, the Computer Club, the Debate Team, the new Film Analysis club the Flag Squad, Fall Drama, the French Club, the French National Honor Society and Spanish National Honor Society, the National Honor Society, HOPE (Helping Other People Every Day), the Human Rights League, the Interact Club, JAC (Just About Caring), a Literary Magazine, a Mathematics League, the Spring Musical, and the Yearbook. Pascack Pi-oneers is the school's US FIRST robotics team, operated together with its sister school, Pascack Hills High School (team 1676).

The school newspaper is the Smoke Signal, published on a quarterly basis.

Athletics

In athletics, the Pascack Valley High School Indians participate in the North Bergen Interscholastic Athletic League. There are ten boys interscholastic sports activities and seven girls interscholastic sports activities. Sports offered include cheerleading, dance, cross-country, football, boys' soccer, girls' soccer, tennis, volleyball, gymnastics, basketball, bowling, ice hockey, swimming, wrestling, winter track, baseball, softball, and lacrosse. The school has had considerable success in athletics, most notably in girls' basketball and in football.

The girls' basketball team, coached by Jeff Jasper, has won 30 consecutive league titles, seven county, and several state and sectional titles as well. On March 9, 2008, the Indians won the Group 2 State title, qualifying for the state Tournament of Champions, and giving Jasper his 800th coaching victory.

The football team, coached by Craig Neilsen, has enjoyed recent success, including state playoff berths in 2004, 2005, and state finals appearances in 2006 and 2007.

Pascack Valley Regional Gymnastics Team recently was selected by The Record as Team of the Year after only its second year as a team.

The Pascack Valley Regional Dance Team has been the National Grand Champions for the past two years at the National Dance Alliance Championship. In 2007 they were state champions as well. The Pascack Valley Regional Dance Team was on the cover of the February 2008 issue of The Record Sports Magazine. In 2008 they took home two first place trophies in the Large Pom & Small Team Performance categories at the NDA National Championship. They were state champions in 2008 as well.

Student government

The Pascack Valley High School Student Government Association consists of five councils. Each grade has a class council, and the PVHS Executive Council governs the entire student body. Each council consists of a President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. In 1996, two district students, Matt Kracinovich of Pascack Hills, and Ryan Shell of Pascack Valley, successfully lobbied the Board of Education to accept a special student representative from each school to sit on the board. In the following year, the 1997-1998 school year, Kracinovich and Shell became the first students to occupy the new positions officially known as the Non-Voting Student Members of the Board of Education.

The Executive Council recommends appropriation of funds for student activities, with the approval of the Board, for the school. It is also very deeply involved in organizing activities and events for the school. The next step down the ladder of the student government consists of the four class councils, which participate in the running and operations of the school with the Executive Council, but represent and are responsible to the electing class.

Elections to the class councils are held at the end of every year for various positions, and in the fall for the freshman class. There are two positions to which candidates must be appointed. The Executive Council, which is separate from the constituent class councils, holds elections in the spring.

Future Of PVHS

From 2005 to 2007, the school underwent a major renovation to add a new gymnasium and auditorium, expand upon the science/mathematics wing, and refurbish existing construction. The future classes have met this arrangement with much apprehension, including concerns about limited parking space and a general state of disarray.

The high school ceased the use of the Sony Vaio laptops given to students and teachers during the years 05-07 in order to integrate 1.6 GHz Mac Books from Apple Inc. for the student body and administration's use for the 2007-2008 school year. Several classes were used as "guinea pigs" with the Mac Books in order to test the students' abilities to adapt to Macintosh OS and interface, and assess the laptops' value for use with school activities. The proposed Macintosh laptops feature the Tiger X OS and feature all the standard Mac programs as well as a digital camera built into the top of the screen. The "test runs" of the Mac Books were successful. However, many network issues, especially regarding the printers, have arisen with the Macbooks, but have been addressed during the 2007- 2008 school year.

Administration

Core members of the school's administration are:

• Thomas De Maio, Principal
• John Puccio, Assistant Principal
• Debbie Squiccimarri, Assistant Principal

JUSTIN CANAVANN

Assorted facts

• 96% of the senior students of the past year received a diploma.
• 92% of the seniors planned to attend college.
• As of the 2008-09 school year, four world languages are offered: Spanish, French, Chinese and Italian.
• 14 Advanced Placement Program (AP) classes are offered: AP Computer Science, AP Biology, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP European History, AP French Language, AP United States Government, AP Physics B, AP Spanish Language, AP Statistics, and AP United States History.
• Pascack Valley participates in the Honors program.

Notable alumni

• Tyler Cowen (born 1962), economist, author, and blogger.
• David Remnick (born 1958), Editor for The New Yorker, who was editor-in-chief of Smoke Signal while in high school.
• T.J. Taormina, aka TJ the DJ. TJ is the Assistant Producer of Z100's Z Morning Zoo and is famous for his Z100 phone taps. He graduated from Pascack Valley in 2002.
• Clark R. Woods, President, Domestic Theatrical Distribution, at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.
• Garrett Zablocki (born 1985), guitarist for Senses Fail.
• Heather Zurich, Rutgers University women's basketball starter.

External links

• Pascack Valley High School web pages
• Pascack Valley Regional School District official site
• School Performance Report for Pascack Valley High School, New Jersey Department of Education
• Data for the Pascack Valley Regional High School District, National Center for Education Statistics