Plainfield High School

Plainfield High School is a comprehensive community four-year public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Plainfield, in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The school is part of the Plainfield Public School District, one of New Jersey's 31 former Abbott districts. Plainfield High School was established in 1857, making it the second-oldest high school in New Jersey. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1928. As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,831 students and 129.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 14.2:1. There were 1,219 students (66.6% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 190 (10.4% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch. Awards, recognition and rankings The school was the 318th-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 280th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 307th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 293rd in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 307th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state. Athletics The Plainfield High School Cardinals compete in the Union County Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which is comprised of public and private high schools in Union County and was established following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). Before the 2010 realignment, the school had competed in the Watchung Conference, a high school sports association that included public high schools in Essex, Hudson and Union counties. With 1,553 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Group IV for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 1,060 to 5,049 students in that grade range. The football team competes in Division 5A of the Big Central Football Conference, which includes 60 public and private high schools in Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset, Union and Warren counties, which are broken down into 10 divisions by size and location.