- Fair Lawn High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, United States, serving students as part of the Fair Lawn Public Schools. The school is for those residing in Fair Lawn, a borough in Bergen County in Northern New Jersey.
- As of the 2005-06 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,539 students and 104.0 classroom teachers (on a FTE basis, for a student-teacher ratio of 14.8.
- Awards and recognition
-
For the 1990-91 and 1997-98 school years, Fair Lawn High School received the Blue Ribbon Award from the United States Department of Education, the highest honor that an American school can achieve.
- Then-Principal was named the 1998 State Principal of the Year by the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association in recognition of her work, which included being the principal of the only public high school in New Jersey (as of that time) to have won two Blue Ribbon Awards for Excellence.
- In Newsweek's May 22, 2007 issue, ranking the country's top high schools, Fair Lawn High School was listed in 808th place, the 19th-highest ranked school in New Jersey.
- The school was the 81st-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 316 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2008 cover story on the state's Top Public High Schools. The school was ranked 62nd in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state.
- The school musical is regularly nominated for both the Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Awards as well as Helen Hayes' Metropolitan High School Theatre Awards.
- In 2008, the Fair Lawn High School Destination Imagination team won the New Jersey Affiliate Finals for the first time in school history. The team competed in the Obstacles, Of Course Challenge.
- General
-
The school offers numerous classes of various levels, including an extensive Advanced Placement Program (AP) program. Students consistently perform above the state average on the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) and SAT. The town's demographics are reflected in the languages spoken at home by students (English 64.1%, Russian 13.0%, Spanish 7.6%, Hebrew 4.2%, Other 11.1%).
- Clubs
-
Fair Lawn High School has an active extracurricular program encompassing diverse interests. The school has an award-winning musical theater program [1] , as well as shows performed by the Masques (drama group), the Boptones (school rock band), and the orchestra.
- The Fair Lawn High School musical won a Rising Star Award for Best overall production in 2004 for their production of Company. In 2009, the school also received the Metropolitan High School Theatre Award for their production of Thoroughly Modern Millie.
- On November 11, 2006, the Fair Lawn High School Marching Band and Color Guard won the Class IV national championship in percussion at the 2006 United States National Marching Band Championships held in Annapolis, Maryland at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The color guard also placed fourth. The team finished third overall in Group IV with a score of 94.225.
- Both Junior and Senior Math Leagues do well in state and national competitions. The Senior Math League, previously under Mrs. Irene Stein's command, swept the Bergen County Math League earning the first, second, and third place individual scores in 1999-2000. Other successful teams include, the Chemistry League, Academic Decathlon, Debate Team, and Computer League.
- Another club in the school is Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA). Many students represent Fair Lawn High School at conferences around the nation every year, and bring back many awards. Fair Lawn High School is known to be a strong FBLA chapter and students run for NJ FBLA state office consistently.
- Also, the Model United Nations delegation of Fair Lawn High School is one of the top delegations in New Jersey, and has named the Best Delegation at the AMUN Conference the last four years. Furthermore, because the school district provides no funding, unlike other clubs, Model UN is solely funded through the delegates.
- The Student Government is a large part of all student activities and is at the base of many school sponsored events.
- GSA, or the Gay-Straight Alliance, hosts events like the Coffee House, where students can perform and meet new people from other schools. The goal of this club is to spread awareness about homosexuality and cut down on harassment.
- Marching Band
-
The Fair Lawn High School Marching Band is a highly acclaimed high school musical program. Directed by Paul Kafer, they placed third in Nationals in Annapolis, Maryland in 2006. They won Best Percussion, also. In 2007, they placed fifth in Nationals in Baltimore Maryland.
- Some past shows include: The Best Way Out is Always Through, Cascades: A Series of Stages, Festival of Lights, A New Century Dawn, Perspectives, and An American Portrait,
- Paul Kafer is assisted by Jaime Szeinberg, Alex Knox, Gina Monahan, Ashley Davison, and others
- This year's show - Hypnotize, is an original composition by musician Alex Knox. "Hypnotize," got 13th place at National Championships in Baltimore, Maryland this year.
- The schools marching band is one of the best in the state of New Jersey & the United States and has won many awards in recognition of this.
- Athletics
-
The Fair Lawn High School Cutters compete in the North Bergen Interscholastic Athletic League (NBIL/NBIAL). Depending on the sport, there is at most a Varsity, Junior Varsity, and Freshman team. Some sports do not have all three levels.
- Teams marked with an asterisk (*), although they officially compete and score as separate teams, usually have their events and practices with each other.
- Fall sports teams: Cheerleading, Cross country (boys/girls)*, Football, Gymnastics, Soccer (boys/girls), Tennis (girls), and Volleyball (girls)
- Winter sports teams: Basketball (boys/girls), Bowling (boys/girls)*, Ice hockey, Swimming (boys/girls)*, Track (boys/girls)*, Wrestling and Fencing (boys/girls)*
- Spring sports teams: Baseball (boys), Softball (girls), Track (boys/girls)*, Tennis (boys), Lacrosse (boys/girls), Volleyball (boys) and Golf
- The boys tennis team won the 2007 North I, Group III state sectional championship with a 3-2 win over Ramapo High School.
- The boys wrestling team was started in 1947 by Frank Bennet (who also founded Washington Township's (now Warren Hills) wrestling program and has been inducted in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame). The most successful coach in the program's history was Frank Guadagnino who retired in the beginning of the 2006 season. Guadagnino had over 300 career victories for the Cutters and 14 League Championships. The 1987 Fair Lawn High School wrestling team has been recognized as the best team in Bergen County for the 1980s decade, also led under the guidance of Guadagnino. The wrestling program is now under the guidance of Head Coach Jon Piela who earned his first League title in his first year of coaching.
- Administration
-
Core members of the school's administration include:
- James Marcella - Principal
- - Vice Principal
- Timothy Wilson - Assistant Principal Grade Level Administrator for Classes of 2011 and 2009
- Frank Guadagnino - Assistant Principal Grade Level Administrator for Classes of 2012 and 2010
- Corey Robinson - Director of Athletics
- Notable alumni
- Bruce Jankowski (born 1949), played wide receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs from 1971-72.
- Millie Perkins (born 1938), actress, played the title role in the movie The Diary of Anne Frank.
- Ron Perranoski (born 1936), former MLB Baseball pitcher.
- Regina Spektor (born 1980), singer-songwriter and pianist who graduated from FLHS in 1998.
- Donna Vivino (born 1979), Broadway Actress - currently 'Elphaba' in the National Tour of Wicked.
- Dave Miller ex-guitarist for American rock band, Senses Fail.
- Patrick Lehman (born 1986), Starting Pitcher in Washington Nationals organization
- Notable faculty
- Harrison Bernstein (born 1978), football coach and trainer.
- Hubie Brown (born 1933), former NBA basketball coach, who coached the Fair Lawn High School basketball team in the 1960s.* Fagen (born 1948). Graduating in 1965, Donald, co-founder of Steely dan, the classic rock/jazz fusion band renowned in Classic Rock. He formed Steely Dan alongside Walter Becker in 1972 and released his first debut album in 1982.
- External links
- Fair Lawn High School website
- Fair Lawn Schools website
-
- Data for the Fair Lawn Public Schools, National Center for Education Statistics
- Fair Lawn High School Model UN website
- Source: Wikipedia; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.
-
Add/edit information about this school (e.g., awards, news stories, notable alumni, fun facts)
|
Visit school website
View current housing listings in this area
Find your graduating class at Classmates.com
Review school: 
