Long Branch High School is a comprehensive, four-year community public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades in the city of Long Branch, in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as part of the Long Branch Public Schools. LBPS, one of 31 special-needs Abbott districts in the state, serves the city of Long Branch. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1928.
As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,495 students and 132.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.3:1. There were 927 students (62.0% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 208 (13.9% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
History
The city's first secondary school was called Chattle High School, named for Thomas G. Chattle, who served as the school district's superintendent from 1857 to 1889. Constructed at a cost of $78,000 (equivalent to $ million in ), the school opened to students in October 1899 and the four-story building remained in use as a junior high school after a newer facility was completed, until it was destroyed after a fire in 1966. The current high school building was completed in 1927 and built for $683,000 (equivalent to $ million in ). Constructed at a cost of $72 million under the auspices of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority, a new school covering of space with 75 classrooms and a 2,000-seat gym opened in September 2007 with a capacity for 1,200 students.
The high school was the original home of Monmouth University, then known as Monmouth Junior College, from 1933 to 1956 until Monmouth moved to Shadow Lawn in West Long Branch.
Students from Monmouth Beach, Oceanport, Sea Bright, and West Long Branch left the high school in September 1962 with the opening of Shore Regional High School, alleviating overcrowding that had forced the school to conduct double sessions.
Awards, recognition and rankings
The school was the 228th-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 167th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 206th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 246th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 290th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.
Athletics
The Long Branch High School Green Wave compete in Division A North of the Shore Conference, an athletic conference comprised of public and private high schools in Monmouth County and Ocean County along the Jersey Shore. The conference operates under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). With 1,146 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 school was classified by the NJSIAA as Group IV South for football for 2022–2024, which included schools with 893 to 1,296 students.
The boys track team won the Group III spring track state championship in 1933-1938, 1949 and 1967. The six-year streak of consecutive titles in the 1930s is tied for the fourth-longest streak in the state.
The boys' bowling team won the overall state championship in 1958, edging Bloomfield High School by 20 pins to take the NJSIAA's first state tournament in the sport.
The boys track team won the Group III indoor track state championship in 1967, 1975 (as co-champion) and 1982.
The boys' basketball team won the Group III championship in 1970 (vs. Orange High School in the final game of the playoff tournament), 1977 (vs. Ridgefield Park High School), 1980 (vs. Weequahic High School) and 1998 (vs. Parsippany High School), and won the Group II title in 1997 (vs. Dwight Morrow High School). The team finished the 1970 season with a 26-0 record and won the Group III title, the program's first, with a 90-74 win against Orange High School in the tournament final. The 1977 team finished the season with a 30-0 record after winning the Group III title with an 81-62 victory at the Jadwin Gymnasium against Ridgefield Park in the championship game. The 1980 team finished the season with a 26-3 with a 35-31 win against Weequahic in the Group III playoff finals.
The girls spring track team was the Group III state champion in 1980.