Hunterdon Central Regional High School is a comprehensive, four-year public high school, and regional school district that serves students from five municipalities in east central Hunterdon County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Students from Delaware Township, East Amwell Township, Flemington, Raritan Township and Readington Township attend the school.
As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 2,575 students and 225.3 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.4:1. There were 250 students (9.7% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 60 (2.3% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "I", the second-highest of eight groupings. District Factor Groups organize districts statewide to allow comparison by common socioeconomic characteristics of the local districts. From lowest socioeconomic status to highest, the categories are A, B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J.
District and school history
The Hunterdon Central Regional High School School District was created by referendum on April 4, 1954, and the high school opened in the former Route 69 Elementary School in September, 1956. There were a few impetuses that led to the creation of the district. Before 1956, public school students of the school districts of Delaware, East Amwell and Readington Townships were sent to Flemington High School as tuition students, but these districts had no voice on the Flemington-Raritan Board of Education, which administered the school. Additionally, Flemington High's facilities could no longer support the growing student population, nor could its plant support the offering of a more broad-based curriculum that was becoming standard among American high schools in the post-WWII era. A statute passed by the New Jersey Legislature in 1931 permitted two or more municipalities to create regionalized school districts so that all member municipalities had representation and authority as members of a regional board of education, as well as the benefit of being able to pool tax resources and share the cost of running a school district.
When the new HCRHS Board of Education purchased the Route 69 elementary school, its facilities were expanded to accommodate 1,000 students with the passage of a bond act in December 1954. The Board selected Robert Shoff to be the district's first superintendent. When the school opened in 1956 most of the program and faculty from the former Flemington High School was transported to the new school and district.
Throughout the 1960s, HCRHS expanded its curriculum to offer vocational training, work force and college education. The new facilities allowed for a more varied curriculum including an expanded world languages program, agricultural education programs, a music and performing arts program (curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular) and continuing expansion of the Red Devils athletic program. Additionally, the physical plant was expanded in 1962 and then again in a massive expansion begun in 1969. By 1970 the campus consisted of the 9/10 building, the 11/12 building, a separate Instructional Media Center (library), a fieldhouse and separate fine arts building. Connecting all of these buildings to one another was a covered walkway to shield students from the elements when passing from class to class.
In 1974, radio station WCVH-FM 90.5 began broadcasting from the campus of Hunterdon Central, and it was the first NJ radio station to be part of the National Public Radio network. WCVH still features student programming as well as programs of local interest.
Since 1987 Hunterdon Central has had the word "Regional" as an official part of its name. Prior to that it was known as Hunterdon Central High School. Other plant renovations occurred in the 1980s, and in 1984 lights were installed on the football field.