Clifton High School (CHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from the city of Clifton in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as part of the Clifton Public Schools. It has the largest student body in a single facility amongst high schools in New Jersey; Elizabeth High School had more students, but its students have been spread over multiple campuses.
As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 2,962 students and 212.3 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 14.0:1. There were 1,192 students (40.2% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 188 (6.3% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch. Based on 2021-22 data from the New Jersey Department of Education, it was the third-largest high school in the state and one of 29 schools with more than 2,000 students.
History
The district established a high school in 1906, with 40 students, with a curriculum that covered "English, Latin, Greek, German, history, mathematics, physics, chemistry, bookkeeping, shorthand, typewriting." By 1914, the school had 150 students. A new building was dedicated in April 1926, by which time the school served an enrollment of 1,100.
The current high school building on Colfax Avenue was completed at a cost of $6 million (equivalent to $ million in ) and opened in September 1962 with 3,000 students.
An additional overflow site, the Clifton High School Annex, was constructed at a cost of $17 million and opened in September 2009 to accommodate 540 of the school year's 850 incoming freshmen to alleviate overcrowding.
Awards, recognition and rankings
The school was the 239th-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 274th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 259th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 223rd in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 280th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.
Campus
Clifton High School is divided into four wings; North, Central, South and East. Between the South and East wings, the William F. Shershin Memorial Technology and Media Center provides students access to many books, music, movies and computers with internet access.
Due to overcrowding, a walkway that runs alongside the four wings was added. There is also an annex building which now contains ASPIRE students. Originally, it had both freshmen students and ASPIRE students in the building. This annex building is located on Brighton Road.
Activities
Athletics
The Clifton High School Mustangs compete in over 50 sport programs as part of the Big North Conference, which is comprised of public and private high schools in Bergen and Passaic counties, and was established following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). For the 2009–10 season, the school competed in the North Jersey Tri-County Conference, an interim conference established to facilitate realignment. Prior to the reorganization, the school had participated in the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League (NNJIL) an athletic conference of high schools in Bergen and Passaic counties. With 2,131 students in grades 10–12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Group IV for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 1,060 to 5,049 students in that grade range. The football team competes in the Liberty Blue division of the North Jersey Super Football Conference, which includes 112 schools competing in 20 divisions, making it the nation's biggest football-only high school sports league. The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Group V North for football for 2022–2024, which included schools with 1,313 to 5,304 students.
Interscholastic athletics offered at the school include: Fall sports include boys' and girls' cross country, girls' gymnastics, football, girls' Volleyball, girls' tennis, boys' and girls' soccer, and marching band. Winter sports include hockey, boys' and girls' indoor track, wrestling, basketball, swimming, and bowling. Spring sports include baseball, boys' volleyball, boys' and girls' outdoor track, boys' and girls' lacrosse, boys' tennis, softball, and golf.
The boys' baseball team won the North I Group IV state sectional championships in 1960 and 1961.