School History
Profile
•Current Grades: Grades 9-12
•Current Enrollment: 862 as of July 2024
•Academic Classrooms: 47
•Additional Rooms: 20
•Constructed: 1984
•Addition Constructed: 2004, 2019
Mahwah High School continues to strive for academic excellence and to meet the diverse needs of its student population. Through an early morning music program, an eight period academic day, and time available for extra help before athletics and co-curricular activities, students and faculty come together in partnership as learners. Through New Jersey Tiered System of Supports, the Intervention and Referral Services Team (IR&S), the Student Assistance Counselor, Guidance, the Child Study Team, faculty and administration endeavor to support and assist Mahwah High School students so that they may identify and attain positive learning goals and objectives.
Particularly effective is the Administrative Intervention, a process through which the at-risk student, parents, guidance counselor, and administrators come together to identify problems and explore solutions. Department supervisors are working to coordinate middle school and high school programs. In meetings with teachers, administrators and Board of Education members, department supervisors are clarifying goals and objectives and are proposing curriculum and text changes in keeping with NJ Student Learning Curriculum Standards. Mahwah High School has an extensive Advanced Placement program, many electives for enrichment, collaborative education, and community service as a part of its course offerings. Teachers continue to attend conferences, workshops, courses, and departmental meetings in an effort to insure Mahwah High Schools' growth as a community of learners.
Mahwah High School students learn to assume personal responsibility for themselves and their environment by working cooperatively in classrooms, on athletic teams, and in the myriad co-curricular activities and award-winning publications available to them. For example, students learn about themselves and others through the student council, the Interact club, the environmental club, H.O.P. E., Mock Trial, FIRST Robotics, conflict management, peer tutors and the multi-cultural club.
In Fall 2009, the Freshman Advisory, a required full year freshman transition program, was implemented. Freshman Advisory is a required course for all freshman students, and it is taught by upperclassmen (juniors and seniors) and supervised by the high school faculty. The following topics are addressed: study and organizational skills, time management, coping skills, peer pressure, Habits of Mind, and college/post-secondary planning.
History
The campus-style school with 13 buildings was originally established as a joint Junior and Senior high school. It was constructed in 1958-59 for $4 million. Before the new school opened, Mahwah's high school students attended Ramsey High School.
Prior to the construction of Northern Highlands Regional High School in the mid-1960s, students from Allendale and Upper Saddle River attended what was then known as Mahwah Junior-Senior High School. The first all-Mahwah graduating class was in 1967.
The present school building was constructed in 1984 with three floors on the site of the original school, with an addition completed in "March 2005" (along with the expansion of Ramapo Ridge Middle School), according to a plaque in the new wing.
In 2019, the district added a STEAM facility, Thunderbird Think Tank (T3), connected to Building 7, which contains two innovative labs, an open instructional space, a robotics lab, and a large flexible classroom for professional development. This structure is connected to the main building with an enclosed overhead walkway.