Indian Hills High School (New Jersey)

Indian Hills High School is a comprehensive four-year public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades, located in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.  The school is a part of the Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School District, serving students from Franklin Lakes, Oakland and Wyckoff. The high school is located in Oakland. Ramapo High School is the other high school in the district. Students from the three feeder districts may make the choice of which high school to attend by February of the year that they are in eighth grade.

As of the 2017-18 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,109 students and 100.4 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.0:1. There were 17 students (1.5% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and none eligible for reduced-cost lunch.

Awards, recognition and rankings
The school was the 60th-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 43rd in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 35th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 40th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 36th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school 89th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (an increase of 5 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (86.9%) and language arts literacy (97.2%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).

In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 56th in New Jersey and 1,647 nationwide.

Historically, the Indian Hills Academic Decathlon Team has been noted for its excellent achievement. Under the guidance of coach Lisa Acquaire (1995-2009),the team represented New Jersey in the National Competition in 2001 (Anchorage, AK), 2006 (San Antonio, TX), and 2007 (Honolulu, HI). At the competition in Alaska, the Indian Hills Team was awarded Rookie of the Year and member Brent Morris earned a medal for his overall score that placed him as the third highest scoring decathlete at his level. In 2010, under coach Michael Catelli, the team ranked second in the state and the 2012 team finishing third in the statewide competition. In 2014 the team competed in the online national competition and was ranked second in the nation in their division.

Athletics 
The Indian Hills High School Braves compete in the Big North Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). With 946 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 grade range. The school had previously participated in the North Bergen Interscholastic Athletic League before the 2010 realignment.

Indian Hills High School has a long-standing rivalry with Ramapo High School, most notably with the school's football, lacrosse, and ice hockey teams. The Indian Hills-Ramapo football rivalry had been a yearly tradition since the founding of Indian Hills in 1964.  Ramapo won the first two games of the series as only the class of 1966 was eligible to play for Indian Hills.  However once that class became seniors Indian Hills began a dominant streak winning 20 of the next 24 games.  After a period of even play Ramapo has dominated the modern era winning 12 of 13 games. Ramapo won the 2009 by a score of 41-0, though realignment and the disparity in size between the two schools makes continuation of the series for scheduled games increasingly unlikely.

The girls' soccer team won the all groups state championship in 1980 and 1981 (defeating Steinert High School in the tournament final in both years), won the Group III/IV combined state title in 1984 (vs. Ewing High School), the Group III title in 1989 (vs. Holy Cross Academy), and the Group II title in 2002 (as co-champion with Delaware Valley Regional High School) and 2003 (vs. Cinnaminson High School). The 2003 girls soccer team won the North I Group II tournament, defeating River Dell Regional High School 1-0 in the final.

The softball team won the 2003 North I, Group II title over Hopatcong High School, winning by a score of 6-1.

In 2005, the girls' tennis team took the North I, Group II championship, beating Tenafly High School 3½-1½.

The baseball team took the North I, Group II state sectional title in 2007 with a 5-0 win over Westwood Regional High School.

The 2010 softball team won leagues, counties, state sectionals and state groups with only two losses the entire season. Indian Hills got its 31st win of the season, defeating Pequannock Township High School by a score of 1-0 to take the North I, Group II, sectional title, making it the 14th team in New Jersey history to win 31 games in a season.

The 2009-10 winter track team won the League, North I Group II sectional Championship, and Group II state championship.

The 2010 spring track Team won the League, County Group B, and North I Group II Sectional Championship making them triple crown winners two years in a row.

The 2014 softball team won the Group III state championship, defeating Ewing High School in the tournament final by a score of 8-5 to become the first team to finish their season undefeated with a 34-0 record.

Notable alumni 
 Jonathan Ames (born 1964), writer, artist and actor.
 Sheeri Cabral (born 1978, née Kritzer), MySQL community activist.
 Cindy Callaghan (born c. 1970, class of 1988), author of children's books whose first book, Just Add Magic, was adapted into an Amazon television series by the same name.
 Karen McCullah, screenwriter and novelist.
 Doug McKeon (born 1966), actor, director and screenwriter who first achieved notability as a juvenile performer in the television series The Edge of Night and the films Uncle Joe Shannon and On Golden Pond.

References

External links 
Indian Hills High School website

Data for Indian Hills High School, National Center for Education Statistics

Category:Franklin Lakes, New Jersey
Category:Schools in Oakland, New Jersey
Category:Wyckoff, New Jersey
Category:1964 establishments in New Jersey
Category:Educational institutions established in 1964
Category:Public high schools in Bergen County, New Jersey