West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South

History

Prior to the school's opening, students from West Windsor and Plainsboro townships attended Princeton High School as part of sending/receiving relationships with the Princeton Public Schools. The high school was opened in September 1973 as West Windsor-Plainsboro High School and was described by The New York Times as the state's first high school to be developed with an "open space" plan, with open areas that could be divided off for instructional space that it said "looks more like a modern airline terminal than a high school". The school, constructed at a cost of $8 million (equivalent to $58 million in 2025), initially served 700 students in grades 7 to 10, while the remaining students in grades 11 and 12 finished their schooling at Princeton High School through their graduation, with an expected enrollment of 1,300 once the partnership with Princeton was ended. Population growth in the district throughout the 1990s necessitated an additional high school. In 1997, the school was renamed by appending "South" to the school's name concurrent with the opening of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North.

Renovations and additions begun in 2006 and completed at end of the 2008–09 school year included a new gym, more parking spaces, a new cover for the pool, more classrooms, improvements on the HVAC system, and artificial turf for the football field. The estimated cost of the projects included in the referendum was $23 million. As of January 2010, all projects had been completed including the new pool 'bubble' enclosure.

In 2018, the school worked with FVHD Architects-Planners to renovate the playhouse little theater in addition to building a new two-story science classroom and front entrance.

Demographics

As of the 2023–24 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,626 students and 121.9 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 13.3:1. There were 78 students (4.8% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 20 (1.2% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.

Notes

53.1% of students spoke English at home, 8.9% spoke Chinese, 7.9% spoke Hindi, 6.0% spoke Telugu, 4.2% spoke Tamil, and 19.1% spoke other languages.

Awards, recognition and rankings

During the 1992–93 school year, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School was awarded the National Blue Ribbon School Award of Excellence by the United States Department of Education, the highest award an American school can receive.

In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 129th in the nation among participating public high schools and 8th overall (and second for non-magnet schools) among schools in New Jersey. In 2012, US News ranked the school 11th in the nation for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). The school was ranked 132nd in the nation and seventh in New Jersey on the list of "America's Best High Schools 2012" prepared by The Daily Beast / Newsweek, with rankings based primarily on graduation rate, matriculation rate for college and number of Advanced Placement / International Baccalaureate courses taken per student, with lesser factors based on average scores on the SAT / ACT, average AP/IB scores and the number of AP/IB courses available to students. In August 2011, The Star-Ledger's Inside Jersey ranked the school 1st among the 330 public schools in the state of New Jersey. One notable feature of High School South is that it combines both AP Physics B and C courses into a single course known as Advanced Topics in Physics Honors. This required special permission from the College Board; this was approved when AP Courses were first made. It is the only school that offers such a course.

In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 9th in New Jersey and 407th nationwide.

The school was the 35th-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 62nd in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 16th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 21st in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 9th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state. The school was ranked 5th in the 2004 issue, while West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North was ranked 1st during the same year.

Schooldigger.com ranked the school tied for 53rd out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (a decrease of 29 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (93.1%) and language arts literacy (96.5%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).

Extracurricular activities

The school newspaper is called The Pirate's Eye, which won the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Medal in both 2007 and 2008. The school's radio station is WWPH 107.9 FM, shared with West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North.

Athletics

The West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South Pirates compete in the Colonial Valley Conference, which is comprised high schools from Mercer, Middlesex and Monmouth counties, operating under the supervision of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). With 1,199 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. After High School North suspended its football program, the district received approval from the NJSIAA to establish a co-operative North / South football team named "WW-P United" starting in the 2018–19 school year. The football team competes in the Capitol Division of the 94-team West Jersey Football League superconference and was classified by the NJSIAA as Group V South for football for 2024–2026, which included schools with 1,333 to 2,324 students.

The school mascot is the Pirate and the school colors are green and gold, with accents of black and white. From 1973 to 2003, the Pirate football team bore a "Golden Dome," or a yellow helmet, which for much of that time was blank without a decal. It changed to a green helmet with a yellow stripe down the middle. Starting in 2018, South's football team combined with High School North. Some of South's historically dominant athletic teams include both Boys' and Girls' swimming and diving, tennis, golf, basketball, fencing and lacrosse.

The school participates as the host school / lead agency for joint cooperative ice hockey and football teams with West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North. These co-op programs operate under agreements scheduled to expire at the end of the 2023–24 school year.

With a decline in the number of student athletes playing football at WW-P South that would be inadequate for the school to field a team of its own, the district attempted to combine the teams from the two schools to have them operate as a single co-operative football team for the 2017–18 school year based at South HS. Given that the size of the schools is larger than the threshold established by the state for co-op programs (North is classified as Group III and South as Group IV, based on the size of the enrollment of each school), the proposal was rejected by the West Jersey Football League and by the Leagues and Conferences Committee of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, before an appeal of the decision was rejected by the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education. In August 2017, the district announced that WW-P North would cancel its program. The members of the canceled program will be eligible to play for the North junior varsity football team, but will not be able to play for the South team. The West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South team and West Windsor Plainsboro High School North team merged for the 2018 season to create the WW-P football team. This combined football team was able to field a varsity, junior varsity and freshmen team for the 2018 and 2019 season.

Model United Nations

The West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South Model United Nations program dates back to the late 1970s and consists of approximately 40 students. It is the most awarded team in the entirety of South's extracurricular program, and consistently ranks in the top 10 MUN teams in the nation. The South MUN team picks conference rosters based on open-session mocks held in the school prior to every conference. The club annually consists of two advisers and six elected officers. Typically, the mocks involve more than 100 students vying for a limited number of conference spots, with roster decisions being made by the elected officers. As opposed to other successful high school MUN teams, South delegates, once selected, conduct individual research outside of school. As a result, club meetings are almost nonexistent. South MUN consistently wins delegation awards at conferences hosted by universities such as Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania (Ivy League Model United Nations Conference), Georgetown University, Rutgers University George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, and Cornell University. In 2011, SouthMUN won such an award at every attended conference, winning Best Small Delegation at RUMUN, Outstanding Large Delegation at PMUNC, Best Large Delegation at ILMUNC, Best Small Delegation at North American Invitational Model United Nations, and Outstanding Large Delegation at CMUNC. In 2014, SouthMUN performed very similarly to the 2011 season, winning delegation awards at 4 out of 5 of the conferences attended, winning Best Small at William and Mary High School Model United Nations (WMHSMUN), Best Large at PMUNC, Best Large at Washington Area Model United Nations Conference (WAMUNC) and Best Small at CMUNC. It was also recognized for hosting a one-day High School Conference named SouthMUNC. In the 2017–2018 season, SouthMUN had one of its best years ever, winning best delegation awards at 4 out of the 5 national conferences attended, winning Best Small at Princeton University Model United Nations Conference (PMUNC), Best Medium Delegation at Rutgers Model United Nations (RUMUN), Best Small Delegation at the Ivy League Model United Nations Conference (ILMUNC), and a Best Small Delegation at Cornell University Model United Nations Conference (CMUNC).

Science Olympiad

The Science Olympiad won 1st place in the regional and state competition in 2006 and 2007, earning spots in the national tournaments at Indiana University Bloomington and Wichita State University. They placed 11th in 2006 then 6th in 2007, out of more than 50 of the nation's most talented teams.

In 2008, the team earned 3rd place in regionals and 2nd at states, losing to rival team West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North. In 2009, the team placed 2nd at regionals, losing to North but came back at states to win 1st. They attended the Nationals competition at Augusta State University. At the tournament, the team placed 13th in the nation, and 1st place in Protein Modeling. In 2010, the school placed 1st in the state and 18th in the nation at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

In 2011, the school once again placed 1st in New Jersey. The High School South Science Olympiad team won Third Place at the National Tournament held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2011; this is the highest honor ever achieved by High School South in this competition. The team received a gold medal in Dynamic Planet; four silver medals in Microbe Mission, Ornithology, Protein Modeling, and Sumo Bots; a bronze medal in Chemistry Lab; a Fourth Place Medal in Helicopters; a Fifth Place Medal in Mission Possible; and two Sixth Place Medals in Ecology and Mousetrap Vehicle. In addition, the team received a gold medal in Materials Science, a trial event.

During the 2012 season, South placed 1st in the state again for the 4th consecutive year and attended the national tournament at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, where they placed 9th overall. South again won the New Jersey competition in 2013 and competed in the national competition in Ohio with 1st places in Anatomy & Physiology and Fermi Questions.

In 2014, South won the State Tournament for the 6th year in a row and went on to finish in the top ten at Nationals. Medals were achieved in Materials Science (gold), Water Quality (gold), Astronomy (silver), Dynamic Planet (bronze), and three other events.

In 2017, High School South once again won the State Tournament and returned to the National Tournament held at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. The team placed 20th overall and won medals in Disease Detectives (6th), Materials Science (6th), Microbe Mission (5th), and Optics (6th).

Music and arts

The music program at South has earned state acclaim. There are currently three orchestras, two of which are philharmonic, three choirs, and three bands. Other music programs include three a cappella groups, two jazz bands, and a marching band and colorguard. The marching band/guard placed first in 2005 in the USSBA Group II Open category. The band finished third at the 2007 United States Scholastic Band Association National Championships.

Science Bowl

In 2010, the team secured a first-place finish at the regional tournament held in the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. The team placed 9th in the nation. In the 2011 school year, the team placed 2nd in the regional competition to High Technology High School. In the 2011–12 school year, the team placed 2nd again in the regional competition, losing to Princeton High School. In the 2013 Competition the team again won first, defeating Bergen County Academies in the finals of the Winners' Bracket and the overall competition. The 2013 team went on to place in the Top 16 Nationally, winning a prize of $1000. In 2015, 2016, and 2017, the team qualified for the National Tournament.

International science / mathematics competition

Several students from the school have been recognized for their performance in international competitions. These awards include a gold medal at the 2001 International Mathematical Olympiad, silver medal at the 2006 International Olympiad in Informatics, bronze medal at the 2007 International Chemistry Olympiad, gold medal / absolute winner at the 2011 International Biology Olympiad, gold medal at the 2011 International Physics Olympiad, silver medal at the 2014 International Chemistry Olympiad, silver medal at the 2014 International Linguistics Olympiad silver medal at the 2014 International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics, bronze medal in 2015 at the International Mathematical Olympiad and a gold medal at the 2015 International Physics Olympiad.

Administration

The school's principal is Valerie Rodriguez. Her core administration team includes two assistant principals.

Notable alumni

The following attended West Windsor-Plainsboro High School, renamed West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South in 1997:

Kevin Barry (born 1978), right-handed relief pitcher for Atlanta Braves

Ron Berkowitz (born 1972, class of 1990), CEO and founder of Berk Communications

Akash Bobba (class of 2021), staffer at the Department of Government Efficiency

Aneesh Chopra (born 1972, class of 1990), technology executive who served as the first Chief Technology Officer of the United States

Boris Epshteyn (born 1982, class of 2000), political strategist, investment banker and attorney

Eileen Filler-Corn (born 1964, class of 1982), member of the Virginia House of Delegates since 2010 who was chosen to become the first woman to serve as Speaker

Mark Flythe (born 1968), former American football defensive end who played for the New York Giants

Cary Guffey (born 1972), actor who appeared in Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Ethan Hawke (born 1970), Academy Award-nominated actor

Katie Kellner (born 1991), distance runner and coach who specializes in the marathon

Ramesses McGuiness (born 2000), footballer who plays for the US Virgin Islands national team

Christopher McQuarrie (born 1968; class of 1986), Academy Award-winning screenwriter, The Usual Suspects