Jonathan Dayton High School


Jonathan Dayton High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades in Springfield Township, in Union County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Springfield Public Schools. The school is named after Jonathan Dayton, a signer of the United States Constitution. The school is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 578 students and 47.2 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 12.2:1. There were 55 students eligible for free lunch and 30 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.

Awards, recognition and rankings

In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 60th in New Jersey and 1,732nd nationwide. The school was the 991st-ranked public high school in the United States out of over 26,000 schools in the country, 29th in the state of New Jersey, in Newsweek magazine's "America's Top High Schools 2010" edition.
The school was the 113th-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 26th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 40th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 32nd in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 44th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school tied for 76th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics and language arts literacy components of the High School Proficiency Assessment.
In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 716th in the nation among participating public high schools and 55th among schools in New Jersey.

Curriculum

Jonathan Dayton offers Advanced Placement classes in the humanities, sciences, and and AP Computer Science. All students have laptops.

Extracurricular activities

Clubs

Jonathan Dayton is home to three publications, The Dawg Print, Jargon, and the yearbook. The former is the school's newspaper, which is released tri-yearly. Jargon is Jonathan Dayton's Literary Magazine, which displays the school's body of creative writing. Jargon's content can be submitted through the school's creative writing classes, or of the writer's own accord.

Athletics

The Jonathan Dayton High School Bulldogs compete in the Union County Interscholastic Athletic Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. With 471 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as North II, Group I for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 73 to 457 students in that grade range. Prior to the NJSIAA's 2010 realignment, the school had participated in the Mountain Valley Conference, which included schools in Essex County and Union County.
Sports offered at Jonathan Dayton High School include:
Jonathan Dayton is the host school / lead agency for cooperative programs with David Brearley High School in ice hockey, gymnastics, co-ed swimming expiring in 2018-19; the school participates in a cooperative wrestling program with David Brearley High School as the host school / lead agency, under an agreement that expires in 2018-19.
The boys' track team won the Group I/II indoor relay state championships in 1971; the girls' track team won the Group II title in 1984.
The wrestling team, operated in combination with David Brearley High School, won the 2006 and 2007 Central Jersey Group I state sectional title defeating Roselle Park High School 39-20 in 2006 and 46-10 in 2007. In 2008 the wrestling team won the North 2 Group 2 Sectional Title defeating South Plainfield High School by a score of 34-23 at South Plainfield High School. The team was a finalist in the Group I state championship before losing to Paulsboro High School at the Ritacco Center in Toms River in 2007 and a Group II state finalist in 2008, losing to Long Branch High School by a score of 30-27.
The boys tennis team won the North II Group I state sectional championship in four consecutive years 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and the Mountain Valley Conference in 2008 and 2009. The boys tennis team has won the Group I state championship in three consecutive years 2007, 2008, 2009 and four times overall including a state championship in 2000. The 2008 boys tennis team won the North II, Group I state sectional championship with a 3-2 win in the tournament final over Ridgefield Memorial High School. The boys tennis team won the 2007 North II, Group I state sectional championship with a 4-1 win against Ridgefield Memorial High School. The team moved on to win the 2007 NJSIAA Group I state championship, defeating Pennsville Memorial High School 4-1 in the final matches.
The boys' soccer team was Group I co-champion in 2009 with Palmyra High School.
The school had the only female football player in the state of New Jersey for the year 2007-2008, Cynthia Ibe.

Demographics

As of the 2006 - 2007 school year:
Males: 47%
Females: 53%
Total Teachers = 46
Teacher - Student Ratio = 1:12
EthnicityDaytonNJ Average
American Indian1%n/a
Asian7%7%
Hispanic12%20%
Black16%19%
White64%54%

Administration

Core members of the school's administration are: