West Side High School (New Jersey)

West Side High School is a four-year comprehensive community public high school complex in Newark, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Newark Public Schools.

West Side High School
Address
403 South Orange Avenue

Newark
,
Essex County
,
New Jersey
07103

United States
Coordinates40.741149°N 74.20292°W / 40.741149; -74.20292
Information
Typepublic high school
Established1925
School districtNewark Public Schools
NCES School ID3411340[1]
PrincipalAkbar Cook[2]
Faculty52.0 FTEs[1]
Grades9-12
Enrollment635 (as of 2018–19)[1]
Student to teacher ratio12.2:1[1]
Color(s)  Green and
  white[3]
Athletics conferenceSuper Essex Conference
Team nameRoughriders[3]
Websitewww.nps.k12.nj.us/WSD

As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 635 students and 52.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.2:1. There were 328 students (51.7% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 9 (1.4% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[1]

The West Side campus has hosted two separate high school programs that operate independently but have shared a facility and athletic programs:

History

West Side High School opened on September 14, 1925, in a building designed to provide students with classrooms, an auditorium, gyms, and other facilities, serving 520 boys and 809 girls.[6]

The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools until 2011, when the school's accreditation status was removed.[7]

Awards, recognition and rankings

The school was the 326th-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.[8] The school had been ranked 268th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 319th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.[9] The magazine ranked the school 313th in 2008 out of 316 schools.[10] The school was ranked 313th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.[11]

The school has twice received gifts of $50,000 from Ellen DeGeneres.[12] West Side also received a gift of $500,000 from Oprah Winfrey to be used for the school's summer initiative.[13]

Athletics

The West Side High School Roughriders[3] compete in the Super Essex Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).[14] With 675 students in grades 10–12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015–16 school year as North II, Group II for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 508 to 770 students in that grade range.[15] Prior to the 2009 realignment, the team had been in the Skyline Division of the Northern Hills Conference.[16][17] The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Group III North for football for 2018–2020.[18]

The boys' cross country team won the Group IV state championship in 1949, 1950 (as co-champion with Asbury Park High School), 1951, 1953 and 1954.[19]

The boys' track team won the Group III indoor relay state championship in 1988.[20]

The boys track team won the Group II spring track state championship in 1988 and the Group IV title in 1989.[21]

The 1993 girls' basketball team won the Group III state championship with a 60-50 defeat in the tournament final of Egg Harbor Township High School, the state's top-ranked team and the group's defending champion.[22][23] Entering the Tournament of Champions as the fourth-seeded team, West Side defeated number five seed Haddonfield Memorial High School by a score of 44-39 in the quarterfinals and top-seeded St. Rose High School by 48-38 in the semis before falling to second-seed St. John Vianney High School in the finals by a score of 57-43 to finish the season with a 30-4 record.[24][25]

The football team won the 2007 North II Group III state sectional championship with a 20–0 win against South Plainfield High School in a game played at Giants Stadium, earning the team its first ever sectional title.[26][27] Since 2009, the football team plays their home games at Untermann Field, which is shared with other public school in Newark, following the closure and demolition of Newark Schools Stadium.

The boys basketball team won the Group II state championship in 2016 and 2017, defeating Camden High School in the tournament final both years.[28] The team won its second consecutive Group II title with a 51-49 win in the championship game.[29]

Notable alumni

References
  1. School data for West Side High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed April 1, 2020.
  2. School Leadership, West Side High School. Accessed November 15, 2018.
  3. West Side High School, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  4. Newark Early College (NEC), Newark Public Schools. Accessed March 29, 2017. "The mission of the Newark Early College High School is to prepare students for post-secondary academic work, with the goal of completing 30-60 credits of college before high school graduation."
  5. Newark Vocational, Newark Public Schools. Accessed March 29, 2017. "The school's mission is to prepare youngsters for post-secondary education, including certificate bearing programs, apprenticeships, and immediate productive employment."
  6. History of West Side, West Side High School. Accessed March 30, 2017.
  7. Fall 2011 Accreditation Actions, The Standard; A Newsletter from the Middle States Association Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools, Winter 2012. Accessed November 11, 2020. "Removal of Accreditation... West Side High School, Newark, NJ"
  8. Staff. "Top Schools Alphabetical List 2014", New Jersey Monthly, September 2, 2014. Accessed September 5, 2014.
  9. Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed September 24, 2012.
  10. Staff. "2010 Top High Schools", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2010. Accessed March 30, 2011.
  11. "Top New Jersey High Schools 2008: By Rank", New Jersey Monthly, September 2008, posted August 7, 2008. Accessed August 19, 2008.
  12. Carter, Barry. "Ellen DeGeneres really likes this N.J. principal. She just gave him another $50K check.", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, March 2, 2019. Accessed November 5, 2020. "Ellen DeGeneres is more than a talk show host to Akbar Cook, principal of Newark’s West Side High School.... DeGeneres, who has a partnership with Cheerios to encourage 'One Million Acts of Good,' gave him another $50,000 check for the work he’s doing at the school to help students overcome adversity and succeed."
  13. Carter, Barry. "Oprah shows up to N.J. school, surprises students with $500,000 gift", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, May 18, 2019. Accessed November 5, 2020. "The blessings keep coming to West Side High School in Newark, where its principal, Akbar Cook, is removing barriers to education and making national news for how he cares about his kids.... Well, Oprah Winfrey wants the lights to stay on for a long time, too. In a surprise visit Friday evening, Winfrey dropped in to say she is giving $500,000 to West Side’s summer initiative, which is also held during the school year on Friday nights."
  14. League & Conference Officers/Affiliated Schools 2020-2021, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  15. General Public School Classifications 2015-2016, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, as of December 15, 2015. Accessed December 12, 2016.
  16. Falzarano, Brian. "Schools Compete in Super Essex Conference; University, West Side High schools enjoying move to competitive, re-aligned conference", Newark Patch, May 18, 2011. Accessed June 11, 2012. "Previously, West Side played in the Northern Hills Conference — Skyline Division, which featured lengthy road trips to Passaic County Tech (Wayne), Passaic Valley (Little Falls), Wayne Valley, West Milford that often took an hour-plus between distance and traffic."
  17. Home Page, Northern Hills Conference, backed up by the Internet Archive as of January 28, 2011. Accessed December 15, 2014.
  18. NJSIAA Football Public School Classifications 2018–2020, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, finalized August 2019. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  19. State Group Team Champions, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  20. History of the NJSIAA Indoor Relay Championships, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  21. NJSIAA Spring Track Summary of Group Titles Boys, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed September 1, 2020.
  22. Public Past State Champions, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  23. via Associated Press. "West Side whips No 1 Egg Harbor in Group III final; Anthony's 25 points pace stunning upset by Roughriders.", Asbury Park Press, March 17, 1993. Accessed January 13, 2021, via Newspapers.com. "Denise Anthony scored 25 points as Newark-West Side won its first New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association girls basketball championship, stunning defending champion Egg Harbor Township 60-50 in the Group III final last night at Monmouth College. The state title was the first for the Roughriders (27-3), while the loss was the first of the year for the Eagles (26-4), the No. 1-ranked team in the state, against a team from New Jersey."
  24. NJSIAA Girls Basketball Tournament Of Champions History, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed November 1, 2020.
  25. Slater, Tom. "Lady Lancers do it again; St. John Vianney bucks odds", Asbury Park Press, January 13, 2021. "John Vianney proved that winning a Tournament of Champions title is much more fun the second time around. Using their ferocious man-to-man defense, the Lady Lancers wore down Newark West Side 57-43 to win their second state title in three years in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association TOC championship yesterday.... Sophomore guard Rose Jackson, who also scored 21 points and was named most valuable player, got the assignment of shadowing slippery Newark West Side (30-4) point guard Sabriya Mitchell, who ignites the Roughriders' offense."
  26. Kinney, Mike. "Newark West Side rolls to first title, 20-0", The Star-Ledger, December 3, 2007. Accessed December 3, 2007. "That's how on-top-of-the-world West Side was feeling after its 20-0 victory over South Plainfield for the NJSIAA/Gatorade North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3 championship yesterday in snowfall at Giants Stadium. It was the first championship for West Side (10-2), which became only the third Newark school to claim a crown but second in as many years."
  27. 2007 Football - North II, Group III, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed December 3, 2007.
  28. NJSIAA Boys Basketball Championship History, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed September 1, 2020.
  29. Schneider, Jeremy. "No. 14 West Side repeats as Group 2 champion versus Camden", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, March 12, 2017, updated August 23, 2019. Accessed November 5, 2020. "West Side coach Akbar Cook said in the lead-up to Sunday's Group 2 final that Camden is tough, but Newark is tougher. And when the two teams took the court in a rematch of last year's title game, his statement proved true: Camden was tough, but West Side was tougher. The Rough Riders, No. 14 in the NJ.com Top 20, won their second straight title with a physical, bruising and sometimes sloppy 51-49 victory over Camden in the NJSIAA Group 2 championship game at the Louis Brown Athletic Center."
  30. Alma Shealey Adams, Civil Rights Greensboro. Accessed January 26, 2013. "Alma Adams was born in High Point, NC, in 1947, but her family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, while she was an infant. They left Maryland for Newark, New Jersey, where Adams, an African American, attended predominantly white West Side High School."
  31. The North Carolina Manual 2009-2010, p. 365. North Carolina Secretary of State, 2009, Raleigh, North Carolina. Accessed January 26, 2013. "Alma S. Adams; Democrat, Guilford County... Educational Background: West Side High School, Newark, N.J., 1964"
  32. Barbanel, Josh. "Hugh J. Addonizio 67, Convicted Of Extortion As Newark's Mayor", The New York Times, February 3, 1981. Accessed November 15, 2018. "The son of Italian immigrants, Mr. Addonizio was born in Newark on Jan. 31, 1914, and attended West Side High School and St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, where he was an oustanding [sic] athlete and was named allstate quarterback."
  33. Booker, Cory. United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good, p. 33. Random House Publishing Group, 2016. ISBN 9781101965160. "The other person I met was a man named Ray Chambers. Ray was born in Newark in 1942 and later graduated from Newark's West Side High School."
  34. Miller, Jonathan. "For a City Hall Widow, Politics Can Wait, for Now", The New York Times, September 16, 2004. Accessed November 15, 2018. "She grew up in Newark, the daughter of a preacher, and graduated from West Side High School and Bloomfield College."
  35. Selman, Carol. "Newark Visual, Performance Artist Jerry Gant: From Slave Ship to Mother Ship; Work by leading Newark-based artist on view now", Newark Patch, August 24, 2011. Accessed February 18, 2018. "Gant was born in Newark, grew up in a succession of Newark apartments — 'my mother Shirley was a gypsy;' lost his Dad young to alcohol and cirrhosis, graduated West Side High School and went to Essex County College to study graphic design — just as desktop publishing was coming in and decimating the print industry."
  36. Rothstein, Mervyn. "A Life in the Theatre: Bernard Gersten", Playbill, January 29, 2010. Accessed April 27, 2020 "I grew up in Newark, and at the end of the third grade a play was done to celebrate commencement.... I was in the dramatic club at West Side High School and I was voted best actor in my class."
  37. Sherman, Ted. "Frederick B. Lacey, former U.S. Attorney who took on the mob, dead at 96", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, April 4, 2017. Accessed November 15, 2018. "Born in Newark, Lacey was the son of a former Newark police chief and attended West Side High School."
  38. Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey, 1975, p. 245. E.J. Mullin, 1975. Accessed January 20, 2020. "Rocco Neri (Dem., Irvington) Assemblyman Neri was born in Newark Sept. 26, 1918. He attended West Side High School, Newark, and served in the Army for five years during the World War II period."
  39. Kanzler, George. "Charli Persip", All About Jazz, February 12, 1999. Accessed November 15, 2018. "Went to West Side High School (in Newark) because Arts High didn't have a team. The West Side football team wasn't any good and neither was I. In my junior year I joined the marching band and that was a lot of fun because I'd never played in any kind of band before."
  40. via Associated Press. "Virginia Squires Sign Aulcie Perry", The Gettysburg Times, August 21, 1974. Accessed June 11, 2012. "Perry, 24, played high school basketball at Newark, N.J., West Side High, then at Belknap College in Center Harbor, N.H."
  41. "The Spots: Redman's New Jersey", Street League Skateboarding, August 21, 2013. Accessed November 11, 2019. "I went to Westside High. You know the East Side High in Lean On Me? I went to the Westside version. It was off the hook. I went to Speedway Avenue School. I went to 13th Avenue School."
  42. Goldstein, Richard. "Richie Regan, 72, Star Player And Then Coach at Seton Hall", The New York Times, December 26, 2002. Accessed November 15, 2018. "Richie Regan, a star guard on Seton Hall's 1953 National Invitation Tournament champions and later the university's basketball coach, athletic director and fund-raising director for athletics, died Tuesday at a hospital in Neptune, N.J. Regan, who lived in Sea Girt, N.J., was 72.... A native of Newark who gained all-New Jersey honors playing basketball at West Side High School, Regan helped Seton Hall reach the N.I.T. in all three of his seasons there."
  43. Staff. "Rod Steiger", The Daily Telegraph, July 10, 2002. Accessed February 29, 2016. "He started acting while still at Newark's West Side High School but quit at 16, enlisting in the US Navy by lying about his age."
  44. Caruba, Alan. "Toma is Returning", The New York Times, June 12, 1977. Accessed January 20, 2020. "Clark is not far from where Mr. Toma was born and reared in the Central Ward of Newark, the youngest of 12 brothers and sisters. However, distance can be measured in many ways, and the Dave Toma of today lives in an entirely different world than the one in which he graduated from West Side High School in Newark, played a little professional baseball and then spent three years in the United States Marines as a drill instructor."
  45. Art Weiner, Pro-Football-Reference.com. Accessed November 15, 2018.
  46. Stanmyre, Matthew. "NFL Draft 2012: Detroit Lions select Newark native Tahir Whitehead in fifth round", The Star-Ledger, April 28, 2012. Accessed June 11, 2012. "They informed Whitehead, a 2008 graduate of Newark's West Side High School, they had selected him with their fifth-round pick — the 138th overall — of the 2012 NFL draft."
  47. Clark, Alice. "Barrence Whitfield: Walk On The Wild Side", Loudersound.com, September 7, 2015. Accessed January 20, 2020. "Once at West Side High School he grabbed every opportunity to perform, 'from taking part in productions of Broadway shows and musicals to playing in soul and funk bands.'"
  48. via Associated Press. "Kevin Widemond, basketball player from Newark, dies during game in Portugal", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, October 26, 2009, updated April 1, 2019. Accessed November 11, 2019. "Widemond, who was first-team All-Newark in 2003 as a guard for Newark West Side High School, had played 10 minutes in the third-place playoff game of the cup competition, which was canceled following his death."
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