Rahway High School
Rahway High School is a four-year public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Rahway, in Union County, New Jersey, United States, as part of the Rahway Public Schools. The high school's present location was built in 1941.
As of the 2005-06 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,139 students and 99.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.5.
Academics
Advanced Placement (AP) Courses
Rahway High School is rapidly expanding its number of Advanced Placement courses. To date, AP courses are offered in AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP United States History, AP United States Government and Politics, AP Comparative Government & Politics, AP Calculus, AP Statistics, AP Chemistry, AP Biology, and AP Physics.
Advanced Placement Incentive Program (APIP)
Beginning in 2007 with support from Rahway alumnus and former Merck & Co. CEO Dr. P. Roy Vagelos, President of The Marianthi Foundation, the new Advanced Placement Incentive Program (APIP) was introduced. The APIP Program involves naming teachers as AP Teacher, Pre-AP Placement Teacher, Lead Teacher, and AP Advisor, providing financial incentives for students and teachers based upon AP enrollment and AP exam results.
Vagelos Scholars Program
Rahway High School seniors who are admitted to and attend a U.S. News and World Report ranked Top 25 National University or Liberal Arts College will receive a scholarship from the Marianthi Foundation. The Vagelos Scholarship is funded by retired Merck and Co. CEO Dr. P. Roy Vagelos.
Graduate Destinations
Alumni consistently attend some of the finest universities, colleges and conservatories in the world, including: Manhattan School of Music, The New School, Berklee, New York University (NYU), Carnegie Mellon University, Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Ithaca College School of Music, Harvard, Brown, Princeton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Columbia, Barnard, Washington University in St. Louis, Johns Hopkins University, Notre Dame, The University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr College, Boston College, Colgate University, Penn State, Rutgers, The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), Montclair University, West Chester University, Wagner College, Hofstra University and many more.
Athletics
Rahway High School competes in the Mountain Valley Conference, which consists of public and parochial high schools covering Union County and Essex County in northern New Jersey. The conference operates under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).
Extracurricular activities
Allegarooter, the Rahway High School yearbook received state-wide recognition for earning the 2007 and 2008 Garden State Scholastic Press Association Yearbook 1st Place Gold Award in Content and Design.
Rahway High School is the proud home of the Marine Corps JROTC Drill Team, the Devil Pups. This team competes in the National High School Drill Team Championships, held annually at Daytona Beach, Florida. In May 2008, the Devil Pups earned the title of Overall National Champions at NHSDTC. In addition to the overall title, the team also brought home several more first and second place trophies in each section at the event: Inspection, Regulation, Color Guard, and Exhibition. In the area of Armed Dual Exhibition, the team claimed both first and second place in that event, a feat never before seen at NHSDTC.
The Devil Pups were featured in the Disney Channel made-for cable movie Cadet Kelly (2002) after earning a National Runner-Up trophy in Platoon Exhibition the previous year.
Fine & Performing Arts
Rahway High School is home to a widely recognized fine & performing arts department. Over a third of the school population is involved in at least one aspect of the fine & performing arts department.
Fine Art, Drama, Chorus, Madrigals, Piano, Music Theory, Musical Theater, Dance, and Band curriculum coursework are available to the study body.
The Musical Theater program has been largely recognized by the Papermill Playhouse Rising Star program as one of the finest in the state, with awards won in 2003 for "Outstanding Achievement in Choreography" for the production of Crazy for You, and in 2004 for "Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design" for the production of 42nd Street along with a final nomination for Outstanding Overall Production that year, Several final nominations were awarded in 2006 and 2007 for the productions of Me and My Girl and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat respectively.
The Papermill Playhouse has recently nominated Rahway High School's Spring Production of The Will Rogers Follies in 13 categories, and was awarded 4 Rising Star Awards. These include "Outstanding Costuming Achievement", "Outstanding Achievement by a Teacher or an Outside Director", "Outstanding Achievement by a Chorus", and "Outstanding Overall Production".
The Rahway High School Marching Indians continue to compete in various USSBA Competitions. In 2003 and 2005, the Marching Indians took 1st place in the USSBA State Championship with their shows "Rhythms of Our Planet" and "Magic: The Music of Cirque du Soleil", and finished in 2nd place in 2008 with their show "Elements: Mother Earth". The Marching Indians, along with the Performing Arts Company of RHS, perform biennually at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.
Administration
Core members of the school's administration are: Paula Braxton - Principal
Tong ya Clay - Vice Principal
John Farinella- Vice Principal
Tom Lewis - Vice Principal
Chey Rivera - Vice Principal
Notable alumni
Earl Clark (born 1988), basketball player for the University of Louisville and High School McDonald's All-American.
Milton Friedman (1912-2006), Economist, 1976 Nobel Laureate recipient.
Antonio Garay (born 1979), Defensive Tackle for the Chicago Bears.
Wayne Gilchrest (born 1946), U.S. Congressman.
Kenneth R. Miller (born 1948), Professor of Biology at Brown University.
Jeffrey Moran (born 1946), Ocean County Surrogate and former member of the New Jersey General Assembly.
Carl Sagan (1934-1996), Astronomer, astrochemist, author, and highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences.
Bob Scarpitto (born 1939), former professional football player.
Dr. P. Roy Vagelos (born 1929), Retired Merck & Co. CEO.
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