Washington Township High School is a four-year public high school located in Washington Township, in Gloucester County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The school serves students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the Washington Township Public School District. It is one of the largest public high schools in South Jersey. The school building itself is just over a quarter of a mile long. It is located at 509, 519 and 529 Hurffville-Cross Keys Road.
As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 2,165 students and 177.2 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.2:1. There were 256 students (11.8% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 69 (3.2% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
Washington Township High School is the home of the Republic Bank Performing Arts Center, known until 2022 as the Investors Bank Performing Arts Center, a 2,500-seat performing arts center located at the center of the school. Most of the school's concerts and events are held there, and many notables have performed in this center, including the Barenaked Ladies, Tony Bennett, Wayne Brady, George Carlin, David Copperfield, Bill Cosby, BB King, Barry Manilow, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, Jessica Simpson, Lewis Black, Pete Davidson, and "Weird Al" Yankovic.
Awards, recognition and rankings
The school was the 149th-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 165th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 175th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 149th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 150th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.
History
11-12 Wing
Construction on what is now the 11-12 wing of the high school began in 1962. WTHS opened in September 1963, serving grades 6-9 while parts of the building were still under construction. Each successive year, all of the grades incremented by 1 (1964 was 7-10, 1965 was 8-11 and 1966 was 9-12) In 1966 the first High School Class of WTHS graduated. In the early 1970s, the school became overcrowded (a problem that would plague the school on and off through 1998). In the fall of 1968, the 7th grade was sent to the new Birches Elementary School, occupying 1/2 of that facility. For the 1969/70 school year, the 7th grade returned to WTHS which operated an AM and PM session, staggered over 4 lunch periods. The 9th through 12th grades taking the morning session and the 7th and 8th grades, the afternoon. In the 1970-71 school year, the 7th grade was sent to Wedgewood Middle School and WTHS operated a traditional single session. In the 1971-1972 school year, the 7th and 8th were sent to Wedgewood Middle School and the school operated split sessions with grades 11-12 attending from 7:30 AM to noon and grades 9-10 attending 12:30 PM to 5:00 PM. For 1972-73 it was back to split sessions in the high school with grades 10-12 taking the morning shift. As a result, a two-story addition was opened in September 1973 to the right side of the building, as well as an additional gym and a new library. The school continued to serve students in grade 7-12 until the 1979-1980 school year. As a result of this overcrowding and moving of grades, the Class of 1975 was the youngest class as 7th graders, then again the youngest class as 8th graders, then again the youngest class as 9th graders, and finally, with split sessions, the youngest class in their session, as 10th graders.
9-10 Wing
In the late 1970s, construction on what would be the township's first middle school began. In September 1980, WTMS opened, serving 7th and 8th graders. Because of its location right next to WTHS (at the time, what is now the location of the Core was just a parking lot), the two schools would often share facilities.