Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School
Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School (or SPFHS) is a comprehensive regional four-year public high school in Union County, New Jersey, which serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from the Township of Scotch Plains and the Borough of Fanwood, operating as the lone secondary school of the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Regional School District. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1932. As of the 2019–20 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,537 students and 113.8 classroom teachers (on  an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 13.5:1. There were 38 students (2.5% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 16 (1.0% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch. In order to qualify for graduation, students must complete 120 credits of course work. Over 80% of students participated in clubs, athletics, service organizations, and music programs in 2008. In the class of 2008, there were ten National Merit Commended Students. In the class of 2003, 21 students were named Edward J. Bloustein Distinguished Scholars. There were 89 Advanced Placement (AP) examinations administered in 21 subject areas; 71% of  the students received a score of 3 or better giving them exemption from certain required courses at various colleges and universities. 98% of the class of 2003 was enrolled in the college preparatory course of study. A total of $2,407,154 in scholarship money was awarded to graduates for their academic achievements. History. The facility is located in Scotch Plains and was built in 1957. Originally, the high school was located in another part of town on Park Avenue, which currently houses Park Middle School. That building was constructed in 1926. Awards, recognition and rankings. In its listing of "America 's Best High Schools 2016", the school was ranked 210th out of 500 best high schools in the country; it was ranked 33rd among all high schools in New Jersey and 16th among the state's non-magnet schools. In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", "The Daily Beast" ranked the school 918th in the nation among participating public high schools and 69th among schools in New Jersey. In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by "The Washington Post", the school was ranked 42nd in New Jersey and 1,349th nationwide. The school was the 54th -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 60th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 62nd in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 69th in 2008 out of 316 schools. Schooldigger.com ranked the school tied for 86th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (a decrease of 14 positions from the 2010 ranking) which  were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (88.6%) and language arts literacy (96.3%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA). SPHFS's quiz bowl team, founded in 1982, won the New Jersey state championship of the Rutgers University-run College Bowl competition in 1988 and embarked on creative televised fundraising in order to afford the travel costs to the many regional and national competitions where they were invited. Publications. The school is host to an annually published literary magazine, "Muse", which features poetry, stories and art by the students . The school's newspaper, "The Fanscotian," was ranked by the GSSPA as the best newspaper in New Jersey. The school's yearbook is called "Culmen". Music. Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School is host to an extensive music department. The department is home to multiple choruses, including concert choir and five auditioned groups: Select Choir, Men's Choir, Women's Choir, Chamber Choir, and the Sensations a cappella group. The instrumental music program includes a plethora of groups. Non-auditioned groups include Freshman Band, Symphonic Band, Percussion Ensemble, two jazz lab bands, as well as the SPF Raiders Marching Band. Auditioned  groups include the Wind Ensemble, RhythmSense, SPF Jazz, and the Moonglowers. Scotch Plains-Fanwood is also home to the Repertory Theatre program, which in the past few years has put on such shows as "Footloose", "Les Misérables", "West Side Story", "42nd Street", "Once Upon a Mattress", "Urinetown", "Guys and Dolls", "Curtains", "Hairspray", and "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" garnering a number of Rising Star Award nominations from the Paper Mill Playhouse, including one win for Outstanding Student Orchestra, for "42nd Street" in 2006. SPF Moonglowers. SPF's top level ("A") jazz band, the Moonglowers, is the oldest continuously operated high  school jazz band in the state of New Jersey. It was formed in 1942 to play contemporary big-band songs during lunch periods and at the high school's senior prom. Beginning in 1979, the Moonglowers started competing in the New Jersey International Association of Jazz Education (now the North Jersey Association for Jazz Education) jazz band circuit. Since then, the Moonglowers have won a McDonald's National Jazz Band title and 10 New Jersey State titles. Since 2007, when the NJIAJE reformed into the New Jersey Association for Jazz Education, the Moonglowers have competed in Division II. Notably, in  2008, both the Moonglowers and SPF Jazz, SPF's second tier ("B") jazz band, competed together at the New Jersey State Final festival, and SPF Jazz took first place. This is the only time in the 21-year competition history of the school that SPF Jazz scored higher than the Moonglowers in competitions. When not competing, the Moonglowers play old time big band swing songs for various community events and organizations. From community concerts to retirement homes, the Moonglowers play songs from the golden age of jazz for those who remember them. Since 2007, the Moonglowers have headlined the Susan  G. Komen for the Cure race in New York City in early September. SPF Raiders Marching Band. The marching band's 2006 program was entitled "Mystic Journey" with selections from "Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings" movies. The band competed in the USSBA NJ State finals and won with a score of 86.6. It also competed in the USSBA All State finals, and won second place, with a score of 90.1. The marching band's 2007 show was entitled "Quest: Visions of a Dream" with selections from Zorro and "Man of La Mancha". The SPF Raiders Marching Band  competed at the USSBA Yamaha Cup in Giant's Stadium and took second place. At the USSBA New Jersey State Finals, the Marching Band took first place for the second year in a row while also receiving the award for best percussion for the third year in a row. Moving on to the All-Eastern Finals in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the band received the award for second place as well as the caption award for best percussion. The 2008 program was entitled "Destiny: Past, Present, And Future". For the first time in the band's history, it competed in USSBA Group  VI Open, the most prestigious of all USSBA groups. The show included large props, actors, and narration. At the 2008 All Eastern Finals, Scotch Plains-Fanwood took 7th place with a historic score of 94.375. The 2010 show, entitled "Generation Millennium", featured selections of music from Epcot's IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth fireworks show. The band competed in the USSBA NJ State Finals in Union, NJ and was named the state champion of Group VIA. At the All-Eastern Finals in Allentown, PA, the band received 3rd place but received the caption awards for best color guard and best music . In 2012, the Marching Raiders went into the USBands National Championships (Groups 2 Open & 4 Open PLUS 3A &6A) at MetLife Stadium, with a show entitled "On The Brink Of Change: Gold Rush To A Better Tomorrow". They ended the competitive marching band season ranked 2nd place, with a score of 95.8 in group 6A, with a caption award of Best Effect. In 2014, the show was entitled Il Cuore Di Romano: The Heart of the Roman Empire. The band had an undefeated season and were Group VIA NJ State and Group VIA National Champions, winning all captions at the  latter. For the 2015 season, the Raider Marching Band was promoted to Group VI Open with their show "Chance Love: Tales Beneath a Persian Moon". In the 2016 season, the band displayed a medieval themed show entitled "The Code: Of Kingdoms and Glory", featuring narration by Morgan Freeman taken from a documentary. In 2017, the show was entitled Elements and featured parts such as "Water", "Mother Earth", and "Fire". The band took third place at the Group VI Open New Jersey state championships. In 2018, the show was called "On Point"—The band took third place at the Group VI Open  USBands New Jersey State Championships with a score of 90.938. They also took 6th place at the 2018 USBands National Championships with a score of 90.825. Theater. The school has a Repertory Theater, which does yearly stage productions, the most recent one being "Les Miserables". The theater program has also performed "Bye Bye Birdie". Additionally, beginning in 2015, the school has put on a yearly fall play, with "A Christmas Carol" being the most recent production. Athletics. The Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School Raiders compete in the Union County Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which is comprised of public and private high  schools in the county and was established following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). Prior to the 2010 reorganization, the school had competed in the Watchung Conference, which consisted of public and private high schools in Essex, Hudson and Union counties. With 1,152 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 Division  4 of the Big Central Football Conference, which includes 60 public and private high schools in Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset, Union and Warren counties, which are broken down into 10 divisions by size and location. The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Group IV North for football for 2018–2020. The school has a longstanding rivalry with Westfield High School, with the two schools first competing against each other in football in 1901. The boys spring track team won the Group IV state championship in 1963, 1964 and 1967, and won the Group III title in 1998 (as co-champion). The  girls' tennis team won the North state championship in 1971 and 1972. The 1977 boys' baseball team finished the season with a record of 29-3 after winning the Group IV state championship by defeating Piscataway High School by a score of 1–0 in the final game of the tournament. The team won the Union County Tournament championship in 1969, 1976, 2004 and 2009. They also won the 2019 Union County Tournament, with a 4–0 win against Arthur L. Johnson High School in the finals. The boys' soccer team won the Group III state championship in 1986 (as co-champion  with Randolph High School), 1987 (vs. Wall High School), 1989 (vs. Bridgewater-Raritan High School), 1991 (vs. Lacey Township High School), 1992 (vs. Wall Township High School), 1995 (as co-champion with Ocean City High School), 1997 (vs. Brick Memorial High School) and 1998 (vs. Delsea Regional High School). The football team won the North II Group III state championship in 1990 with a 25–12 win against West Morris Central High School in the tournament final, after coming back from a 12–0 deficit early in the first half. The Scotch Plains-Fanwood girls swim team won their first state championship  title in 2005 and won again in 2006 and 2015. The Lady Raider Swimmers defeated Princeton High School 100–70 to win the 2015 Group B State championship. The Lady Raiders have also won the Union County Championship 5 years in a row (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019) however their streak was broken in 2020 with a loss to Westfield High School The boys' basketball team won the Group III state championship in 2008, defeating Timber Creek Regional High School in the tournament final. The Scotch Plains-Fanwood boys swim team won their only Group B state championship in 2011. The  boys have won four Union County Championships (1999, 2002, 2010, 2011). The boys also have won fourteen sectional championships (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019) and are common contenders for the state title. They returned to the state championship for multiple consecutive years most recently in 2019 after winning against Ridgewood High School in the state semi-finals but they fell to Mainland Regional High School. The boys track team won the indoor Group III state title in 2019. The boys track team also won the Group III indoor relay championship in  2019. Administration. Core members of the school's administration are: Notable alumni. Many of the alumni listed below have been inducted into the Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School Hall of Fame. Controversies. Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School has been the center of several controversies regarding its use of a logo with a Native American mascot. In September 2017, the school came under controversy when students raised concerns through a petition on change.org regarding the use of the former logo at sporting events by spectators in a fan group called Raider Nation. The petition garnered over 400 signatures. A counter petition  was also created, stating that the school should return to using its original logo with a Native American head. The petitions gained news attention from NJ 101.5, Fox News, "Courier News" and NJ.com.