Lenape High School

High school in Burlington County, New Jersey, US
Lenape High School

Lenape High School is a four year comprehensive public high school located in Medford Township in Burlington County, in the U. S. state of New Jersey. It is the oldest of the four high schools that comprise the Lenape Regional High School District, which serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Evesham Township, Medford Lakes, Medford Township, Mount Laurel Township, Shamong Township, Southampton Township, Tabernacle Township and Woodland Township. Since opening in 1958, the school has served students from Mount Laurel Township. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1963. As of the 2022–23 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,892 students and 158.6 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.9:1. There were 204 students (10.8% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 82 (4.3% of students) eligible for reduced cost lunch.

After the regional district was formed in 1955, a plot covering in Medford was selected in June 1956 as a site for the school, which was estimated to cost $2 million (equivalent to $2.0 in 1955 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years million in ). Lenape High School opened in September 1958, before which students from Medford, Medford Lakes and Tabernacle Township had attended Rancocas Valley Regional High School. Starting with 548 students in freshman and sophomore classes, the school grew quickly. Lenape draws its student body from Mount Laurel. Students, starting in the fall 2008, attended classes based on the letter of the day. Days could range from a e, and each student's schedule may be different for each letter. This allowed students never to miss too many classes. For example, in past years, students with lab days on Fridays would have fewer lab days when it would be a three day weekend because school was not in session on Friday. With the letter days, students schedules rotate and eliminate this issue by having a student have lab on a specific letter day. The current system that the high school employs is not much different from the letter schedule, but is significantly shortened. This is similar to the college system and helps prepare those for college. The school now relies upon a 4 day schedule with a total of eight periods, two of which are dropped every day. This way, a student's schedule rotates through four different options, having class periods 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the morning block, and having periods 5, 6, 7 and 8 in the afternoon, leaving out a morning and afternoon class each day. Every student, regardless of grade, also attends lunch at the same time, which is commonly known as Lunch and Learn. This time is not only utilized for lunch and social purposes, but for kids to receive extra help during their lunch from teachers who are available or meet with clubs and other activities. Each class is approximately one hour long.

The school was the 79th 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 143rd in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 122nd in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 120th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 134th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger. com ranked the school tied for 128th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (an increase of 6 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (84.3%) and language arts literacy (95.4%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).

Lenape High School has participated at the Princeton Model Congress, a four day conference with over 50 schools from around the country. The team placed first at Princeton Model Congress four of the past six years. They brought home the James Madison Award in the most recent 2006 Princeton Model Congress. Lenape is known for its academic / scientific clubs; Math Team, Science League, and Knowledge Bowl. Science League competes in the New Jersey Science League. Last year the Earth Science team brought home a plaque for ninth place in the state. The Science League also competes in the Merck State Science Day. Knowledge Bowl consists of two "A" teams composed of Juniors and Seniors, and one "B" team of the two other classes. The team competes in the Gateway Toyota tournament at Monsignor Donovan High School, NORJAC, which is at Leonia High School, the Burlington County Academic Tournament, which is usually held at Cherokee High School, as well as the Allentown tournament, held in Allentown, New Jersey. Last year, the B team brought home second place and the Gateway Toyota, second at the BCAT, and first at the Allentown Tournament. In November 2010, Lenape placed first in the Gateway Toyota Academic Tournament. Later, that December, Lenape placed third in the NORJAC tournament. The STORM Robotics Team is a collection of FIRST teams. FIRST Robotics Competition Team 2729, FIRST Tech Challenge Team 4390, and FIRST Tech Challenge Team 7433 are open for anyone to join from Lenape High School or its sister school Cherokee High School. Founded in the 2009 season, the team has made it to the FIRST Championship three times (2008 2009, 2012 2013, 2017–2018) and received the Highest Rookie Seed award in the 2008 2009 season. At the Washington DC Competition STORM received the Rookie AllStar award. In 2011 the FRC team won the "AutoDesk Excellence in 3D Animation" award' at the New Jersey Regional Competition. In 2013 the FRC team won the "Engineer Excellence Award" at that years Hatboro competition, the "District's Chairman Award" at the Lenape competition, along with being the winners for the district at the Lenape competition, and the Mid Atlantic Robotics Region Champion, finally rounding out the year as the 15th seed in the FIRST Championship's Galileo Division. In 2018 the team won the "Engineering Inspiration Award" at the Westtown competition, as well as the runner up equivalent at the Mid Atlantic District Championship. The team rounded out the year as the 20th seed in the FIRST Championship's Daly Division, as well as the Gracious Professionalism award in that same division. In addition the school allows any club to be created as long as the student with the idea finds an interest and a teacher to supervise.

The Lenape High School Marching Band has won multiple championships in State and National competitions. In 2004, they were United States Scholastic Band Association (USSBA) group 2A All States champions, and in 2005 they were Cavalcade of Bands American A Champions. In 2006, they placed third in the state in group 2A at USSBA state championships and third with best color guard at USSBA all states championships. Their 2007 show was "Four Seasons" which went undefeated within the Group 2A class in the USSBA circuit, with a 92.0 championship winning performance. In 2008, they once again, became the Group II A Class All States Champions with a score of 94.1, with their show entitled "I Write the Songs," a tribute to Barry Manilow. In 2009 the band won the New Jersey 2A state championships, capturing their first state championship in the USSBA circuit, and went on to place second at All States Championships. In 2010, the marching band held on to their title as NJ State Champions in the USSBA circuit's 2A group with their show "It's About Time." Due to scheduling conflicts with the All States Championships for 2A, the band opted to move up a group to 3A and performed in Allentown where they came in at a respectable fifth place and took the High Visual award. In 2011, with their show "True Colors", the marching band finished an undefeated season by retaining their title as USSBA Group 2A NJ State Champions for the third consecutive year, and by winning the USSBA Group 2A National Championship with the highest score in the band's history 96.413. The band continued the championship streak by winning the 2012 USBands Group 2 Open New Jersey State Title with their "World Tour" show before going on to place second at the National Championship. In 2013, the band placed second at the New Jersey State and National Championships. In 2014, with "It's A Jungle Out There" show, the band completed an undefeated season with the USBands Group 2 OPEN New Jersey state championship and the National Title with a new best high score of 96.425. "Lenape High School marching band wins fourth straight New Jersey State Band title", South Jersey Local News, December 12, 2012. Accessed May 26, 2013. "Lenape High School's marching band continued its winning streak on Sat., Nov. 10, in Washington Township, capturing the New Jersey State Band title for the fourth straight year. In 2015, with "Desert Winds", Lenape won the USBands Group 2 Open New Jersey State Title and placed second at the National Championships. In 2016, with "Bon Appetit! ", Lenape won the USBands Group 2 Open New Jersey State Title In 2017, Lenape's marching band again won the USBands Group 2 Open New Jersey State Title with their show "Abracadabra." The band won New Jersey State Titles in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022 along with the 2022 Group I OPEN USBands National Championship. In addition to competitions, the band performs at school football games, the Medford Halloween Parade, Mount Laurel Day, and the Vincentown Memorial Day Parade and has performed in the Miss America Parade since 2014. The Lenape Marching Band also had previously won Class I Championships in 1993 and 1994 and Class II Championships in 1996 and 1997 as part of the Eastern Marching Band Association.

The school's principal is Anthony Cattani. His administration team includes seven assistant principals.