Wayne Valley High School
Wayne Valley High School is a comprehensive four-year public high school, in Wayne, in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. The school serves students in ninth through twelfth grades as one of the two secondary schools of the Wayne Public Schools, the other being Wayne Hills High School. Wayne Valley has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 1954.[4] The school is also accredited by the New Jersey Department of Education. Wayne Valley's school colors are blue and white.[3]
Wayne Valley High School | |
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Address | |
Wayne Valley High School Wayne Valley High School Wayne Valley High School | |
551 Valley Road , 07470 United States | |
Coordinates | 40.9308°N 74.2307°W |
Information | |
Type | Public high school |
Motto | "The Tribe with Pride" |
Established | 1952[1] |
School district | Wayne Public Schools |
NCES School ID | 3417280[2] |
Principal | Kenneth J. Palczewski |
Faculty | 115.6 FTEs[2] |
Grades | 9-12 |
Enrollment | 1,312 (as of 2017-18)[2] |
Student to teacher ratio | 11.3:1[2] |
Color(s) | Blue and white[3] |
Athletics conference | Big North Conference |
Team name | Indians[3] |
Publication | Smoke Signals |
Website | School website |
As of the 2017-18 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,312 students and 115.6 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.3:1. There were 97 students (7.4% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 20 (1.5% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[2]
Awards, recognition and rankings
In its listing of "America's Best High Schools 2016", the school was ranked 417th out of 500 best high schools in the country; it was ranked 45th among all high schools in New Jersey and 28th among the state's non-magnet schools.[5]
The school was the 91st-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.[6] The school had been ranked 64th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 63rd in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.[7] The magazine ranked the school 46th in 2008 out of 316 schools.[8] Schooldigger.com ranked the school tied for 122nd out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (a decrease of 16 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (85.9%) and language arts literacy (94.6%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).[9]
Sports
The Wayne Valley High School Indians[3] compete in the Big North Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association.[10] In the 2009-10 school year, the school competed in the North Jersey Tri-County Conference, which was established on an interim basis to facilitate the realignment.[11] Prior to the realignment, the school had participated in the Northern Hills Conference's Skyline Division.[12] With 987 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as North I, Group III for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 786 to 1,074 students in that specific grade range.[13]
The field hockey team won the North I Group IV state sectional championship in 1975 and 1979.[14]
The football team was awarded the sectional championship by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association in 1967, 1968 and 1970.[15] Since the playoff system was introduced in 1974, the team has won the NJSIAA North I Group III state sectional championships in 1984, 1988, 1989, 1991[16] and won its fifth playoff championship in 2019 with a 21-17 in the North II Group IV title game against Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan.[17]
The boys' basketball team, seeded 10th in the tournament, won the North I Group III state championship on March 4, 2008 over top seed West Milford High School by a score of 48-45 in a game played at John F. Kennedy High School in Paterson, New Jersey.[18] This was the team's first sectional title in just over a decade.[19]
The Wayne Valley boys' track team went undefeated in the 2011 season, winning the county relays, conference and county meets. The girls' team went undefeated in the dual meet season, losing the conference meet to West Orange High School which came down to the last event, and won its fifth county title in a row.
The wrestling team won the North I Group III state sectional title in 2014.[20]
Incidents
On June 13, 2007, authorities found two bundles of what looked like half-sticks of dynamite in two lockers at Wayne Valley. All of the students were evacuated, and the Passaic County Sheriff's Department bomb squad extracted the devices. The devices were then detonated at the Paterson firing range. It is unknown whether the devices were intended to do harm or be used as part of a prank, and police are still investigating.[21] On June 27, 2007, five members of the class that just graduated from the school were arrested for their roles in the incident, and face up to 25 years in jail if convicted on all charges filed.[22]
Notable alumni
- Jay Della Valle (born 1979), filmmaker, singer and songwriter.[23]
- Lisa Edelstein, (born 1966, class of 1984), actress who starred as Dr. Lisa Cuddy, on the Fox drama seriesHouse. Currently stars in the Bravo drama series Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce.[24]
- Jazmine Fenlator, (born 1985, class of 2003), Olympian who competed for Team USA in the bobsled during the 2014 Winter Games.[25]
- John A. Ferraro (1946-2010), actor, academic, stage director and television director.[26]
- Paulie Harraka (born 1989), stock car racing driver and entrepreneur.[27]
- Gene Mayer (born 1956), former tennis player from the United States who won fourteen singles titles during his career. At Wayne Valley, he went unbeaten in his two years on the tennis team.[28]
- Pete Muller, hedge fund manager and quantitative trader who founded PDT Partners in 1993 as part of Morgan Stanley's trading division.[29]
- Chris Pantale (born 1990, class of 2008), tight end with the New York Jets.[30]
- Art Thoms (born 1947, class of 1965), former NFL defensive tackle.[31][32]
- Michael Turco (born 1982, class of 2000), magician.[33]
References
- School Overview Archived 2008-09-15 at the Wayback Machine, Wayne Valley High School. Accessed June 15, 2011.
- School data for Wayne Valley High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed November 1, 2019.
- Wayne Valley High School, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed November 29, 2015.
- Wayne Valley High School, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools, backed up by the Internet Archive as of February 7, 2012. Accessed March 30, 2015.
- Staff. "America's Best High Schools 2016", Newsweek. Accessed November 11, 2016.
- Staff. "Top Schools Alphabetical List 2014", New Jersey Monthly, September 2, 2014. Accessed September 5, 2014.
- Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed September 19, 2012.
- Staff. "2010 Top High Schools", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2010. Accessed February 21, 2011.
- New Jersey High School Rankings: 11th Grade HSPA Language Arts Literacy & HSPA Math 2010-2011, Schooldigger.com. Accessed March 4, 2012.
- League & Conference Affiliations 2016-2017 Archived 2012-11-09 at the Wayback Machine, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed January 10, 2017.
- League Memberships - 2009-1010, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, backed up by the Internet Archive as of July 24, 2011. Accessed September 16, 2014.
- Home Page, Northern Hills Conference, backed up by the Internet Archive as of January 28, 2011. Accessed December 15, 2014.
- General Public School Classifications 2015-2016, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, as of December 15, 2015. Accessed December 12, 2016.
- History of the NJSIAA Field Hockey Championships, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed March 14, 2017.
- Conrad, JJ; and Iseman, Chris. "NJ HS football championships: How past finalists fared", The Record (Bergen County), November 27, 2016. "Although the state established the current playoff format in 1974, titles have been awarded for decades. Here are the most decorated North Jersey teams playing for a title this weekend, listed by their state championship totals:.... Wayne Valley (7): 1967, 1968, 1970, 1984, 1988, 1989, 1991"
- NJSIAA Football History, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed November 29, 2015.
- Patti, Ryan. "Football: Wayne Valley road warriors close book on 28-year state title drought", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, November 23, 2019. Accessed November 23, 2019. "All Wayne Valley head coach Roger Kotlarz could do was cry when he hugged his wife, Hillary, after his team’s 21-17 victory in Old Tappan on Friday night.... The fifth-seeded Indians (10-2) took down second-seeded Old Tappan (8-4) in the NJSIAA/Rothman Orthopaedics North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 championship, capturing the school’s first state title since 1991."
- 2008 Boys Basketball - North I, Group III, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed March 9, 2008.
- Zagoria, Adam. "Wayne Valley guard comes up big", The Record (New Jersey), March 5, 2008. Accessed March 9, 2008. "Valley (20-9) has won four consecutive road tournament games to capture its first sectional title since 1997, when the Indians beat Indian Hills, led by current Valley head coach Joe Leicht."
- History of the NJSIAA Team Championships, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed March 14, 2017.
- Heininger, Claire; Sterling, Guy; and Heyboer, Kelly "Pyrotechnics force evacuation of school", The Star-Ledger, June 13, 2007. Accessed June 13, 2007. "Wayne Valley High School was evacuated this morning after pyrotechnic devices capable of causing "catastrophic" damage were found in the building a day before final exams were to begin, authorities said. No one was injured in the scare, which began around 9:15 a.m. when a student spotted wires protruding from his second-floor locker, authorities said. The locker, which the student had cleaned out the day before, and another nearby each contained two bundles of pyrotechnics - 16 half-sticks of the material in all, authorities said."
- Schweber, Nate. "5 Charged in Planting of Devices at School", The New York Times, June 28, 2007. Accessed July 1, 2007. "Five teenagers who graduated last week from Wayne Valley High School have been arrested in connection with the discovery of 16 devices with fuses in lockers at the school, forcing the evacuation of 1,400 students on the last full day of classes. The young men, three of them 18 and two 17 at the time of the evacuation, face up to 25 years in prison if found guilty, said James Wilson, chief of the arson unit for the Passaic County prosecutor.
- Winters, Debra. "Indie film continues production", Wayne Today, February 4, 2010. Accessed February 21, 2011. "Both Della Valle and Beatty are graduates from Wayne Valley High School just a year apart in classes of 1996 and 1997."
- Rohan, Virginia. "North Jersey-bred and talented too", The Record (Bergen County), June 18, 2007. Accessed June 25, 2007. "Lisa Edelstein: Class of 1984, Wayne Valley High School"
- Push to Sochi: Jazmine Fenlator, USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation. Accessed March 30, 2015. "I was recruited by Rider based off of my track and field accomplishments at Wayne Valley High School and potential in the sport with further elite development."
- Levin, Jay. "Stage, TV director John Ferraro, 64, Wayne Valley grad", The Record (Bergen County), December 21, 2010, backed up by the Internet Archive as of September 22, 2012. Accessed October 8, 2018. "Mr. Ferraro graduated from Wayne Valley High School and received a bachelor of fine arts degree from New York University."
- Sullivan, William J. "Harraka balances college with racing in NASCAR's minor league", The STar-Ledger, October 26, 2008. Accessed November 5, 2017. "As a junior at Wayne Valley High School, Harraka took honors courses and kept his GPA above 4.0; he also drove to rookie of the year honors in the Whelen Series. He moved to North Carolina for his senior year, during which he earned his diploma while interning in the engineering department of Joe Gibbs Racing."
- Best Boys Tennis Team of the Century, The Star-Ledger. Accessed December 10, 2007.
- Staff. "This crossword puzzle writer and poker champ generating 20% returns; Peter Muller founded Morgan Stanley's successful PDT quant unit; dubbed 'brilliant' by Clifford Asness", InvestmentNews, July 7, 2011. Accessed July 21, 2017. "The family moved into a shingled ranch house in the New Jersey suburb of Wayne, 21 miles (34 kilometers) west of New York. At Wayne Valley High School, Muller was named one of two class mathematicians."
- Hubbard, Daniel. "N.Y. Jets Sign Wayne Valley Alumnus; Chris Pantale, who played tight end at Boston College, was signed by the Jets as a undrafted free agent Saturday night.", WaynePatch, April 28, 2013. Accessed April 29, 2013. "Chris Pantale, an alumni[sic] of Wayne Valley High School, was signed by the New York Jets on Saturday night following the third and final day of the National Football League's annual draft, bleacherreport.com reported."
- Art Thoms player profile Archived 2007-02-09 at the Wayback Machine, database Football. Accessed August 11, 2007.
- Art Thoms Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine, Oakland Raiders. Accessed August 11, 2007. "I started playing football in high school. It was the freshman team at Wayne High School in Wayne, N.J. I played two years there and then my family moved to Brickjohn [sic], NJ. I played the last two years of high school ball there."
- Klein, Alvin. "In Person; A Young Performer With a Few Tricks of His Own", The New York Times, March 15, 1998. Accessed October 24, 2012. "The not-so-simple stuff that Michael, 16, a sophomore at Wayne Valley High School, uses in school involves video and computer equipment for his electives, advanced television production and graphic arts."