West Morris Central High School (WMCHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Washington Township, Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is one of two high schools in the West Morris Regional High School District.
History
The constituent municipalities—the Chester School District (Chester Borough / Township), Mendham Borough / Township, Mount Olive and Washington Township—approved a referendum in 1956 by a better than 7-1 margin for the construction of a high school to cost $1,961,000 (equivalent to $ million in ).
The school opened in September 1958, with 531 students in grades 9-11 in a building with 39 classrooms designed to accommodate 1200 people. The school's first hire was a biology teacher named Maria Young.
Academics
Enrollment
As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,084 students and 95.4 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.4:1. There were 11 students (1.0% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and none eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
Rankings
West Morris Central was the 14th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 339 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2018 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", using a new ranking methodology. The school had been ranked 56th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 43rd in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 42nd in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 41st in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state.
Schooldigger.com ranked the school 92nd out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (a decrease of 32 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (87.1%) and language arts literacy (96.8%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).
In 2017, the Washington Post ranked WMCHS as the third most challenging public, non-charter high school in New Jersey behind West Morris Mendham HS and Princeton HS. The school was also ranked 328th in the entire nation in the list of most challenging high schools.
In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 535th in the nation among participating public high schools and 43rd among schools in New Jersey. The school was ranked 226th in the nation and 20th in New Jersey on the list of "America's Best High Schools 2012" prepared by The Daily Beast / Newsweek, with rankings based primarily on graduation rate, matriculation rate for college and number of Advanced Placement / International Baccalaureate courses taken per student, with lesser factors based on average scores on the SAT / ACT, average AP/IB scores and the number of AP/IB courses available to students.
Awards
History Teacher Rosanne Lichatin, was named the 2005 Preserve America History Teacher of the Year, and was recognized with the honor by First Lady Laura Bush.
Programs
The school is accredited by the New Jersey Department of Education. The school has offered the IB Diploma Programme, as part of the International Baccalaureate Organization, since January 1998 The school was one of 17 high schools in New Jersey to offer the IB diploma program in 2021; along with its sister school West Morris Mendham, it is one of the two high schools in New Jersey to offer both the IB Diploma and Career Programs.
Extracurricular activities
Athletics
As of 2020, the school offers programs in baseball, basketball, cheerleading, fencing, women's field hockey, football, men's ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, unified sports, volleyball, wrestling, and track and field.
The school's mascots are either the Highlanders or the Wolf Pack depending on the team. School colors are Columbia blue, navy blue and gray.