Indian Hills High School (New Jersey)

Indian Hills High School is a comprehensive four-year public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades, located in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The school is a part of the Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School District, serving students from Franklin Lakes, Oakland and Wyckoff. The high school is located in Oakland. Ramapo High School is the other high school in the district. Students from the three feeder districts may make the choice of which high school to attend by February of the year that they are in eighth grade.Eighth Grade School Choice , Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School District. Accessed November 25, 2019. "All eighth grade students from Franklin Lakes, Oakland, and Wyckoff may choose to attend the high school of their choice within the following regulations, which are subject to review and revision: 1 - The choice is open to all students entering the district as freshmen only. 2 - The choice must be exercised by February 14 of the eighth grade year."

As of the 2024–25 school year, the school had an enrollment of 668 students and 75.4 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 8.9:1. There were 14 students (2.1% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 9 (1.3% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.School data for Indian Hills High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed January 15, 2026.

History In less than a decade after Ramapo High School opened, district enrollment rose from 650 to more than 2,000, ultimately requiring the school to operate with double sessions. Constructed to alleviate the overcrowding at a cost of $3 million (equivalent to $ million in ), the school opened in September 1964 serving 575 students in grades 9-11 from Oakland and the portions of Franklin Lakes closest to the new school, while students from Wyckoff and the rest of Franklin Lakes attended Ramapo High School.Mulligan, Nancy. "Ramapo District Welcomes Indian Hills", The Sunday News, August 19, 1964. Accessed April 6, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Indian Hills High School, although located in Oakland, is not an Oakland School. It is an active part of the Ramapo Regional High School District. Although, because of its location, its student body will be made up mostly of Oakland youngsters, some Franklin Lakes students will also attend.... All Franklin Lakes students living within that distance will attend Indian Hills High. For this year only, Indian Hills will operate as a partial school, with only freshmen, sophomores and juniors.... Indian Hills this year, with only three classes, will have 575 students to start.... A bond issue approved by the voters in Oakland, Franklin Lakes and Wyckoff, the three communities within the District, totaled $2,865,000. An additional $200,000 was raised, and the total expenditure will include construction, equipment and athletic facilities."

In 1999, the district allowed students from Franklin Lakes to choose which high school to attend, ending the policy under which students in the eastern half of Franklin Lakes were required to attend Ramapo High School while those in the borough's western half were assigned to Indian Hills High School. Oakland students were generally assigned to Indian Hills while Wyckoff residents could select which school to attend.Aberback, Brian. "Split's end turns out successful", The Record, June 29, 2003. Accessed April 6, 2022. "Four years ago, the students in the classes of 2003 at Ramapo High in Franklin Lakes and Indian Hills High in neighboring Oakland were the first to enter the district after the school board abolished a controversial policy known as the 'Franklin Lakes split' The policy determined which of the two high schools students from Franklin Lakes could attend. It created a suburban soap opera in Northwest Bergen County, replete with feelings of bitterness and resentment and accusations of class elitism. Under the policy, students from the more affluent east side of well-to-do Franklin Lakes went to Ramapo. Students on the west side had to go to Indian Hills, regarded as a fine school but not quite the equal of Ramapo in some respects..... In 1999, after years of debate, the 27-year-old split was abolished, giving all students from Franklin Lakes a choice between the two schools."

Awards, recognition and rankings The school was the 60th-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.Staff. "Top Schools Alphabetical List 2014", New Jersey Monthly, September 2, 2014. Accessed September 5, 2014. The school had been ranked 43rd in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 35th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed December 1, 2012. The magazine ranked the school 40th in 2008 out of 316 schools.Staff. "2010 Top High Schools", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2010. Accessed June 16, 2011. The school was ranked 36th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state."Top New Jersey High Schools 2008: By Rank", New Jersey Monthly, September 2008, posted August 7, 2008. Accessed August 19, 2008. Schooldigger.com ranked the school 89th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (an increase of 5 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (86.9%) and language arts literacy (97.2%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).New Jersey High School Rankings: 11th Grade HSPA Language Arts Literacy & HSPA Math 2010-2011, Schooldigger.com. Accessed March 1, 2012.

In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 56th in New Jersey and 1,647 nationwide.Mathews, Jay. "The High School Challenge 2011: Indian Hills High School", The Washington Post. Accessed August 21, 2011.

The Indian Hills Academic Decathlon Team, coached by Lisa Acquaire from 1995 to 2009, represented New Jersey in the National Competition in 2001 (Anchorage, AK), 2006 (San Antonio, TX), and 2007 (Honolulu, HI). At the competition in Alaska, the Indian Hills Team was awarded Rookie of the Year and member Brent Morris earned a medal for his overall score that placed him as the third highest scoring decathlete at his level. In 2010, under coach Michael Catelli, the team ranked second in the state. N.J. State Academic Decathlon Results - March 2010 , Academic Decathlon of New Jersey. Accessed June 25, 2012. and the 2012 team finishing third in the statewide competition. In 2014 the team competed in the online national competition and was ranked second in the nation in their division.2012 State Results , Academic Decathlon of New Jersey. Accessed June 25, 2012.

Athletics The Indian Hills High School BravesIndian Hills High School, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020. compete in the Big North Conference, which is comprised of public and private high schools in Bergen and Passaic counties, and was established following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).League & Conference Officers/Affiliated Schools 2020-2021, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020. The school had participated in the North Bergen Interscholastic Athletic League before the 2010 realignment.League Memberships – 2009-2010, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, backed up by the Internet Archive as of July 24, 2011. Accessed November 19, 2014. With 808 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Group III for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 761 to 1,058 students in that grade range.NJSIAA General Public School Classifications 2019–2020, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed November 20, 2020. The football team competes in the Ivy White division of the North Jersey Super Football Conference, which includes 112 schools competing in 20 divisions, making it the nation's biggest football-only high school sports league.Cooper, Darren. "Here's what we know about the new Super Football Conference 2020 schedule", The Record, July 23, 2020. Accessed March 22, 2021. "The Super Football Conference (SFC) is a 112-team group, the largest high school football-only conference in America, and is comprised of teams from five different counties."Cooper, Darren. "NJ football: Super Football Conference revised schedules for 2020 regular season", The Record, July 23, 2020. Accessed March 22, 2021. "The Super Football Conference has 112 teams that will play across 20 divisions." The football team is one of the 12 programs assigned to the two Ivy divisions starting in 2020, which are intended to allow weaker programs ineligible for playoff participation to compete primarily against each other.Cooper, Darren. "Super Football Conference creating 'Ivy Division' for struggling programs", The Record, May 1, 2019. Accessed March 24, 2021. "Seeking to restore participation and enthusiasm to high school football programs that have struggled to compete consistently, the Super Football Conference announced plans to start a 12-team 'Ivy Division' in the 2020 season. Teams that compete in the 'Ivy Division' will play exclusively against each other and won't participate in the NJISAA football playoffs.... Twelve schools from Bergen, Hudson, Essex and Morris counties have applied to compete in the Ivy Division: Bergen Tech, Cliffside Park, Dickinson, Fair Lawn, Ferris, Memorial, Dover, Dwight-Morrow, Fort Lee, Glen Ridge, Marist and Tenafly." The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Group II North for football for 2024–2026, which included schools with 484 to 683 students.NJSIAA Football Public School Classifications 2024–2026, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, updated September 2024. Accessed September 1, 2024.

Indian Hills High School has a long-standing rivalry with Ramapo High School, most notably with the school's football, lacrosse, and ice hockey teams.Cummins, Jeff. "Indian H. stuns Ramapo", The Record, November 29, 2003. "Nathanson kicked a 38-yard field goal in The driving rain with 42 seconds left to give Indian Hills a 16-14 win over arch-rival Ramapo on Friday night." The Indian Hills-Ramapo football rivalry had been a yearly tradition since the founding of Indian Hills in 1964. Ramapo won the first two games of the series as only the class of 1966 was eligible to play for Indian Hills. However once that class became seniors Indian Hills began a dominant streak winning 20 of the next 24 games. After a period of even play Ramapo has dominated the modern era winning 12 of 13 games. Ramapo won the 2009 by a score of 41-0, though realignment and the disparity in size between the two schools makes continuation of the series for scheduled games increasingly unlikely.Staff. "Devonshuk leads Ramapo over rival Indian Hills", Franklin Lakes - Oakland Suburban News, September 24, 2009. Accessed August 4, 2011. "With the start of the 2010-11 school year, Ramapo and Indian Hills will be in different leagues and will not play football against each other due to the disparity in the two schools' enrollment. Ramapo has considerably more students and is a Group 3-sized school; Indian Hills is a Group 2 school."