Matawan Regional High School is a four-year regional public high school located in Aberdeen Township, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District. Serving students from Aberdeen Township and Matawan, it is one of Monmouth County's largest schools. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools since 1951. The school mascot is a husky.
As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,139 students and 95.4 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.9:1. There were 187 students (16.4% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 45 (4.0% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
Awards, recognition and rankings
The school was the 139th-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 92nd in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 126th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 111th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 115th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.
Schooldigger.com ranked the school 253rd out of 376 public high schools statewide in its 2010 rankings (a decrease of 38 positions from the 2009 rank) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the language arts literacy and mathematics components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).
History
When the State of New Jersey mandated graded school systems replace district schools in 1894, Matawan Township and Matawan Borough constructed an eight-room brick school building at the corner of Broad Street and South Street, which was completed and occupied in 1895.
A 1913 graduate described the school as having four rooms on the first floor, and four rooms and a long, wide hall on the second floor. There was no indoor plumbing until a major addition was made to the building about 1910, so outdoor toilets were used for about fifteen years. Sanitary facilities were added in the basement. The Class of 1913 consisted of 34 eighth graders, most of whom were expected to go to work after they finished school.
By 1923, the school was so overcrowded that it was running double sessions to teach its students in 12 rooms, so the township voted to build a new high school next door.
The first Matawan High School was completed and occupied in 1924 on at the corner of Broad Street and South Street. The -story brick building of Georgian design was constructed at a cost of $175,000 (equivalent to $ million in ). It contained 13 classrooms, a study hall, a cafeteria, an auditorium seating 527, and a gymnasium with capacity for 300. The school had 388 students and 14 teachers in 1936; 76 seniors graduated with the Class of 1936. The school had recently taken in students from Laurence Harbor, effectively doubling the graduating class between 1933 and 1936. The school, which included some middle school students in 1957, had 540 high school students and their 28 teachers. After it was replaced in 1962, consideration was given to making the old high school an elementary school but it was eventually demolished.
Matawan Regional High School was built to deal with sharp population growth due to the construction of 2,300 new housing units in the area. Population nearly doubled between the 1960 census figure of 12,456 and the 1965 estimate of 21,177. Constructed at a cost of $2.5 million (the value of $ million in ), the school opened in September 1962 with nearly 1,200 students in grades 7–12. The school had 1,780 students and 102 teachers in the 1964/1965 school year. The 62 rooms included 33 classrooms, two gymnasiums, an auditorium, a cafeteria, two music rooms, two industrial arts shops, eight science rooms, and two fine arts rooms.
The school underwent a $13.3 million renovation project completed in September 2004 which included a new facade, new chemistry and oceanography laboratory classrooms, a new art wing, including a kiln, computer labs, as well as a new greenhouse. The sports department received a renovated artificial turf football field and stadium lighting. Streetside saw a new electronic sign.