Colonia High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades in the Colonia section of Woodbridge Township in Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It operates as part of the Woodbridge Township School District, along with two other high schools, John F. Kennedy Memorial High School and Woodbridge High School. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1973; The school's accreditation status was extended for seven years in Fall 2018.
As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,344 students and 118.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.4:1. There were 302 students (22.5% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 97 (7.2% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
In 2022, Woodbridge investigated an apparent cluster of more than 100 brain tumor patients who were Colonia High School employees or students since its construction in 1967. State health officials found that the tumors were somewhat more prevalent than expected, but no radiation hazards were detected in or around the school.
Awards, recognition and rankings
The school was the 127th-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. The school had been ranked 182nd in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 192nd in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 188th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 208th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school tied for 93rd out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (an increase of 61 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (86.2%) and language arts literacy (97.6%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).
Athletics
The Colonia High School Patriots compete in the Greater Middlesex Conference, which is comprised of public and private high schools located in the greater Middlesex County area and operates under the supervision of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). With 1,023 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Group III for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 761 to 1,058 students in that grade range. The football team competes in Division 4 of the Big Central Football Conference, which includes 60 public and private high schools in Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset, Union and Warren counties, which are broken down into 10 divisions by size and location. The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Group IV North for football for 2022–2024, which included schools with 895 to 1,296 students. In the 07–08 school year, Colonia High School introduced three new sports: volleyball (boys and girls), ice hockey and swimming.
The school has operated as the host school / lead agency for a cooperative ice hockey program with John F. Kennedy Memorial High School and Woodbridge High School, under an agreement scheduled to expire at the end of the 2023–24 school year.
The girls bowling team won the overall state championship in 1981.
The boys' bowling team won the overall state championship in 1984 and won the Group II title in 2012.
Dagmara Wozniak was the state sabre champion in 2005.