HCRHS - Awards, Recognition and Rankings

Awards, Recognition and Rankings

For the 1997-98 school year, Hunterdon Central Regional High School received the Blue Ribbon Award from the United States Department of Education, the highest honor that an American school can achieve, is awarded for excellence in instructional delivery and educational environment. In 2002, Hunterdon Central was awarded the Blue Ribbon School award for the second time, one of a limited number of schools across the state to be recognized on two separate occasions.

The school was the first in the State of New Jersey to be designated as a Star School by the New Jersey Department of Education, the highest honor that a New Jersey school can achieve, and has been recognized with this award three times, in 1993-94, 1994-95, and 1997-98.

The school was the 84th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 328 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2012 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", after being ranked 85th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 62nd in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 57th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state. Schooldigger.com ranked the school 81st out of 376 public high schools statewide in its 2010 rankings (an increase of 4 positions from the 2009 rank) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the language arts literacy and mathematics components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).

For the 2005-06 school year, the district was recognized with the "Best Practices Award" by the New Jersey Department of Education for its "Books Breaking Barriers: The ESL Literature Circle" World Languages program at Hunterdon Central Regional High School.

In a February 2004 radio address, President George W. Bush credited random drug testing at Hunterdon Central as resulting in significant cuts in drug use and quoted the school's principal as saying that the school now had "a tool that was making a large difference", cutting drug use by students in half in the three years since the random selection and testing plan had been implemented. On December 11, 2007, President Bush thanked Hunterdon Central for "feeling as passionate as we do and working as hard as we do" at a meeting with Principal Christine Steffner and Superintendent Lisa Brady at the White House as part of a round table discussion with other individuals who have been active in programs that cut drug use by teens.

In 2011, The FIRST Robotics FRC Team 3637 was awarded the Rookie Inspiration Award and in 2012 made it to the MAR Regional Championships.