Willingboro High School

Willingboro High School
Location
Willingboro High School
Willingboro High School
Willingboro High School
20 JFK Way
Willingboro, NJ 08046
United States
Coordinates 40°00′38″N 74°53′18″W / 40.010439°N 74.88825°W / 40.010439; -74.88825Coordinates: 40°00′38″N 74°53′18″W / 40.010439°N 74.88825°W / 40.010439; -74.88825
Information
Type Public
Established 1975
School district Willingboro Township Public Schools
Principal Kimberly Ash
Asst. principals Harold Booker
Melissa Cummings
Leion Owen
Alex Taliaferro
Faculty 69.5 FTEs[1]
Grades 9–12
Enrollment 740 (as of 2015-16)[1]
Student to teacher ratio 10.6:1[1]
Color(s)      Navy
     Scarlet[2]
Athletics conference Burlington County Scholastic League
Team name Chimeras[2]
Website School website

Willingboro High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Willingboro Township in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary school of the Willingboro Township Public Schools.

As of the 2015-16 school year, the school had an enrollment of 740 students and 69.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.6:1. There were 427 students (57.7% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 58 (7.8% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[1]

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 320th-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.[3] The school had been ranked 252nd in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 295th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.[4] The magazine ranked the school 247th in 2008 out of 316 schools.[5] The school was ranked 300th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.[6] Schooldigger.com ranked the school as 362nd out of 376 public high schools statewide in its 2010 rankings (a decrease of 17 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).[7]

History

The high school was opened in 1975 as a response to the overcrowded student population at John F. Kennedy, then the only high school in Willingboro, located just down the road on Kennedy Way. For a short time, residents were having a difficult time in deciding what to call the new Willingboro high school; some sought to name the new high school "J.F. Kennedy High School – East" while others debated on naming the school, "Robert F. Kennedy" after President Kennedy's brother, the former US Attorney General during his administration, Robert. A vote was taken and it was decided that the only appropriate name would be what the school is called today, "Willingboro High School." The school colors are navy blue, scarlet and white – which are the slight opposite of the school's former sister school, J.F.K. (which were scarlet, navy and white). The mascot is the "Chimera", a mythological monster with the head of a lion and body of a goat and the tail of a serpent, opposite of the former sister school, which was a "Gryphon, which had the head of an eagle and the body of a lion."

The two schools were merged at the start of the 1989–90 school year, with all students attending what is now Willingboro High School.[8]

Athletics

The Willingboro High School Chimeras[2] compete in the Patriot Division of the Burlington County Scholastic League (BCSL) sports association, which operates under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) and consists of public and non-public high schools covering Burlington County, Mercer County and Ocean County in central New Jersey[9] With 614 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as Central Jersey, Group II for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 498 to 750 students in that grade range.[10] The football team competes in the Liberty Division of the 95-team West Jersey Football League superconference[11] and was classified by the NJSIAA as South Jersey Group II for football for 2017-18.[12]

The girls' basketball team won the Group IV state championship in 1978 vs. Columbia High School and won Group III titles in 2000 vs. Orange High School, in 2002 vs. Malcolm X Shabazz High School and in 2007 vs. South Plainfield High School.[13] The team won the 2007 Group III state championship, defeating South Plainfield by a score of 53–46 in the tournament championship for the title.[14][15] The team won the South, Group III state sectional championship in 2000 with a 47–35 win against Pemberton Township High School.[16]

Administration

Core members of the school's administration are:[17]

  • Kimberly B. Ash, Principal
  • Harold Booker, Assistant Principal
  • Melissa Cummings, Assistant Principal
  • Leion Owen, Athletic Director / Assistant Principal
  • Alex Taliaferro, Assistant Principal

Notable alumni

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 School data for Willingboro High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed February 12, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 Willingboro High School, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 28, 2015.
  3. ↑ Staff. "Top Schools Alphabetical List 2014", New Jersey Monthly, September 2, 2014. Accessed September 5, 2014.
  4. ↑ Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed September 4, 2012.
  5. ↑ Staff. "2010 Top High Schools", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2010. Accessed February 14, 2011.
  6. ↑ "Top New Jersey High Schools 2008: By Rank", New Jersey Monthly, September 2008, posted August 7, 2008. Accessed August 19, 2008.
  7. ↑ New Jersey High School Rankings: 11th Grade HSPA Language Arts Literacy & HSPA Math 2009–2010, Schooldigger.com. Accessed February 9, 2012.
  8. ↑ Quinn, Laura. "Willingboro Girds For School Merger", The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 28, 1989. Accessed October 8, 2008.
  9. ↑ League & Conference Affiliations 2016-2017, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed January 10, 2017.
  10. ↑ General Public School Classifications 2015-2016, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, as of December 15, 2015. Accessed December 12, 2016.
  11. ↑ Divisions, West Jersey Football League. Accessed September 25, 2017.
  12. ↑ NJSIAA Football Public School Classifications 2017-2018, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, finalized August 2, 2017. Accessed September 25, 2017.
  13. ↑ NJSIAA Group Basketball State Champions, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 28, 2015.
  14. ↑ Graves, Jody. "Willingboro wins fourth quarter, captures Group 3 championship", Courier-Post, March 7, 2000. Accessed August 19, 2007. "With the score tied at 29 to start the fourth quarter, the Chimeras,ranked No. 3 in the Courier-Post Top 20 Poll, went on a 12–2 run to put the game away en route to a 49–35 victory over Pemberton."
  15. ↑ 2007 Girls Basketball – Public Group Semis/Finals, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, May 9, 2007.
  16. ↑ Public Sectionals – South, Group III, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed August 19, 2007.
  17. ↑ Contact Information, Willingboro High School. Accessed September 28, 2017.
  18. ↑ "City High: Top of Their Class" (Biography). MTV. 2007. Retrieved October 9, 2009.
  19. ↑ Hunt, Donald (March 25, 1991). "Tom Davis Sets Sights On NBA". The Philadelphia Inquirer. philly.com. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
  20. ↑ Jenkins, Sally via The Washington Post. "Faucette, Maryland Linebacker, a Wild but Not Crazy Guy", Los Angeles Times, September 20, 1986. Accessed November 3, 2017. "The son of a steel worker and music teacher from Willingboro, N.J., Faucette was a two-sport blue-chipper out of Willingboro High School who played running back and linebacker for the football team and outfielder for the baseball team, and who also could dabble with guitar, piano, drums and clarinet."
  21. ↑ James Green, United States Olympic Committee. Accessed August 9, 2016. "Residence: Willingboro, N.J.... As a senior at Willingboro High School, became first wrestler in school history to win state championship after perfect 29-0 season... Closed prep career with 148-8 overall record"
  22. ↑ Retired Jerseys, Rutgers Scarlet Knights men's soccer team. Accessed February 14, 2011. "An all-state performer for Willingboro High School, Grimaldi played three years in the Major Indoor Soccer League for the Cleveland Force where he was elected player-representative and team captain."
  23. ↑ Bowden, Mark. Bringing the Heat, p. 160. Grove Atlantic, 2007. ISBN 9781555846053. Accessed September 28, 2017. "One of the best examples concerned a forthright, fast-talking charmer from Willingboro, New Jersey, named Marvin Hargrove.... He'd been a star receiver at Willingboro High School and had attended the University of Richmond on a football scholarship."
  24. ↑ Cosentino, Dom. "Jets re-sign backup offensive tackle Ben Ijalana", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, April 1, 2015. Accessed September 28, 2017. "Ijalana, 25, attended both Willingboro and Rancocas Valley high schools in South Jersey."
  25. ↑ Editorial. "Crystal clear: Entire county celebrates as W'boro grad ends March madness with a flair", Burlington County Times, April 6, 2006. Accessed February 14, 2011. "Her parents have known it all along. Her teammates at Willingboro High School and the University of Maryland learned it quickly. And now the whole country is in on the secret: In the world of college basketball, Crystal Langhorne is unstoppable."
  26. ↑ Strauss, Robert. "Worth Noting; Carl Lewis Takes Honors, But Not at His Home Track", The New York Times, December 2, 2001. Accessed February 9, 2012. "Mr. Lewis, who graduated from Willingboro High School in 1979, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in Mobile, Ala., along with three fellow Olympians from the 1984 Games – the marathoner Alberto Salazar, the steeplechase runner Henry Marsh and Larry Myricks, a long jumper."
  27. ↑ Pileggi, Sarah. "Going to Great Lengths", Sports Illustrated, June 1, 1981. Accessed September 28, 2017. "And then there is Carol Lewis. An assistant track coach at Willingboro High School, where Carol is a senior, says, 'She's probably one of the mot gifted athletes in history.'"
  28. ↑ Eisen, Michael. "Giants Sign OL Kareem McKenzie: Signing is second major addition in two days for Big Blue", new York Giants, March 4, 2005. Accessed May 25, 2007. "McKenzie played only two years of football at Willingboro High School, but was still named an All-America by USA Today. He was All-State and All-Burlington County. McKenzie competed in the discus and shot put on the track team, serving as captain for two seasons."
  29. ↑ Wanya Morris Biography, Biography.com. Accessed February 11, 2017. "Morris remained with the group despite expulsion and graduating instead from Willingboro High School."
  30. ↑ Dezman Moses, Tulane Green Wave football. Accessed December 27, 2012. "High School: Four-year letterman at Willingboro High where he played wide receiver and inside linebacker for coach Nelson Hayspell... Personal: Born Dezman Mirrill Moses on Jan. 4, 1989, in Willingboro, N.J."
  31. ↑ Shaun Phillips player profile, San Diego Chargers. Accessed July 20, 2007. "Shaun grew up in Willingboro, New Jersey, not far from Giants Stadium where the New York Jets play their home games....all-state, All-South Jersey and all-city at Willingboro High School in Willingboro, New Jersey"
  32. ↑ Green, Joe. "Olympic gold medalist from Willingboro launches foundation to help students", Burlington County Times, April 23, 2015. Accessed March 19, 2018. "LaMont Smith had come a long way from Willingboro High, where he’d won nine state track championships. But among the thousands of voices he heard that day during the 1996 Summer Olympics, he could still make out that of his high school coach."
  33. ↑ Lowe, Herbert. "Standing Tall, In And Out Of Character Ryan Toby, 17, Wants The World To Judge Him 'Not By My Money, Not By My Status.'", The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 26, 1994. Accessed October 31, 2015. "'Honestly,' said Toby, dressed in jeans and a white crewneck sweater in his parents' living room in Willingboro, 'I think he (Ahmal) just started wanting to know more about his heritage and... was rebellious in that 'I'm going to do something different than what my friends are doing.'... A student at Willingboro High School, Toby began his singing in school and church choirs."
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