Butler High School is a four-year public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Butler, in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as the lone secondary school of the Butler Public Schools.
Students from Bloomingdale attend Butler High School as part of a sending/receiving relationship with the Bloomingdale School District.Butler Public Schools 2016 Report Card Narrative , New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed December 14, 2017. "The district also engages in several Shared Service agreements with the Bloomingdale school district, beyond the send-receive high school experience, including sharing of school Library oversight, Special Education and sharing the services of the Student Assistance Counselor."Butler High School profile , Butler High School. Accessed November 15, 2014. "Butler High School is a public high school servicing the students of the Borough of Butler and the Borough of Bloomingdale." In 2020–21, more than 40% of the students in the high school came from Bloomingdale.Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the Butler Public Schools, New Jersey Department of Education, for year ending June 30, 2021. Accessed January 4, 2023. "The District received high school students from Bloomingdale, in Passaic County, on a tuition basis. These students comprised 44.3% of the high school enrollment in the 2020 - 2021 school year."
As of the 2024–25 school year, the school had an enrollment of 482 students and 38.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.7:1. There were 116 students (24.1% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 18 (3.7% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.School data for Butler High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed January 15, 2026.
History Students from Butler had been sent to attend high school in Paterson before Butler High School was opened in 1903. From the time the school opened, the school served students from a area that included Jefferson Township, Kinnelon, Pequannock Township and Riverdale in Morris County, and Bloomingdale, Pompton Lakes, Ringwood, Wanaque and West Milford in Passaic County until they built their own schools or established alternate arrangements with other school districts.Fagan, Matt. "Butler High School's Hall of Honor accepting nominations", The Record, September 12, 2017. Accessed September 13, 2017. "However, between 1906 and early 1960s, Butler was the high school for vast portions of Morris County and northwestern Passaic County and even portions of Sussex County, Wall said.... At one time the high school served as the regional high school for Bloomingdale, Jefferson, Kinnelon, Pequannock, Ringwood, Riverdale, Wanaque and West Milford. Before 1903, when Butler High School first opened its doors, graduates of the Butler Grammar School attended Paterson High School, Butler school board officials said."Frelinghuysen, Rodney P. "Honoring Butler High School", Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 9, June 19, 2006. Accessed February 23, 2022. "Butler High School graduated its first class in 1907, making the senior class of 2006 the 100th class to graduate from the school. Until 1903, graduates of the Butler Grammar School attended Paterson High School. In the early years, Butler High School was a 'regional' high school in the extreme sense of the word. Originally the school encompassed a territory of more than 200 square miles, providing secondary education to students from Bloomingdale, Jefferson, Kinnelon, Pequannock, Ringwood, Riverdale Wanaque and West Milford. Over the years the sending districts, with the exception of Bloomingdale, withdrew from Butler High School as municipalities built their own high schools or regional districts were created."
Pompton Lakes withdrew in 1933 to open their high school. In September 1954, the Butler district notified its eight sending communities that growing enrollment of borough residents would mean that there would be no space available at Butler High School and that the local districts serving students from Passaic County communities and Pequannock Township would have to make alternate arrangements by 1958.Staff. "Enrollments Tax Schools In Bergen; Auxiliary Rooms Are Being Converted for Classes and Construction Is Pushed", The New York Times, September 5, 1954. Accessed September 13, 2017. "Butler, in near-by Morris County, is taking drastic action to relieve congestion in its high school... Four of these 'sending districts' -- Riverdale, Jefferson Township, Kinnelon and Pequannock Township -- are in Morris County. The others -- Wanaque, Ringwood, West Milford and Bloomingdale -- are in Passaic County. Butler has given Pequannock Township and the four districts in Passaic until 1958 to complete withdrawal of their students." While Pequannock Township, Ringwood and Wanaque met the 1958 deadline, West Milford left four years later, Kinnelon and Riverdale left with the opening of Kinnelon High School in 1962 and Jefferson Township ended their sending relationship with the opening of Jefferson Township High School in 1964."Students Choose 'The Colts,' Colors of New Kinnelon H.S.", The News, April 18, 1962. Accessed April 8, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "The vote was taken by Riverdale and Kinnelon sixth, seventh and eighth grade students, and ninth graders attending Butler High School, who will attend the new Kinnelon High School in September."History of BHS, Butler High School. Accessed September 13, 2017. "Until 1903, graduates of the Butler Grammar School attended Paterson High School. In 1903, the district's supervising principal, Mr. Clarence J. Howell, oversaw the establishment of Butler High School.... Ringwood, Wanaque and Pequannock withdrew in 1958, following by West Milford in 1962, and Kinnelon, Riverdale and Jefferson in 1964."
The original building occupied by Butler High School was built in the late 1800s and soon expanded with an annex (Still existing, "Annex Building") constructed in 1916. The school then doubled its size with an addition parallel to Bartholdi Avenue in the mid 1930s. After sections of the original Butler High School facility caught fire in January 1963, with damage focused on the portion of the building constructed in 1897, the school was shut down for renovations."Fire Damages Butler School", Courier News, January 15, 1963. Accessed April 8, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Fire burned through a section of the Butler High School from basement to roof early today causing heavy damage to classrooms and offices. Fire departments from eight communities fought the blaze, which was brought slowly under control after more than four hours. The fire began about 3 a.m. in the janitor's room in the basement and spread throughout the older section of the two-story school. Damage was centered in the original building, which was built in 1897." The gymnasium was unusable due to water damage caused during the fighting of the fire and physical education classes were held outside for the remainder of the school year. Several classrooms in the original 1888 building were also heavily damaged and that building was town down. The school day was increased and the freshmen and some sophomores began classes later in the morning. Trailers were used for the guidance offices, freeing space in the main building for classrooms. The "Art Building" was then built to the left of the original school and opened after 1964.
The "Art building" (as of 2011): four locker rooms, a gymnasium, cafeteria and kitchen, five bathrooms, nurse's office, athletic director's office, physics lab, forensic science, two art rooms, an English classroom, culinary arts, health room, photo lab, auxiliary gym, and library w/ media center. The "Main building" (as of 2011): Main and attendance offices, Principal and Vice Principal's offices, guidance offices, and academic offices. Band and choir room, auditorium, foreign language, history, mathematics, and English classrooms, and science laboratories. Also, an updated computer lab; TLC lab, and six bathrooms (two for the use of faculty) The "Annex building" (as of 2011): Butler Board of Education, student resource center, one marketing and financial classroom, and two computer labs: (Business and computer-animated design).
Awards, recognition and rankings The school was the 162nd-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 94th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 176th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed August 23, 2012. The magazine ranked the school 123rd in 2008 out of 316 schools.Staff. "2010 Top High Schools", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2010. Accessed June 22, 2011. The school was ranked 116th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 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 as 224th out of 376 public high schools statewide in its 2010 rankings (an increase of 14 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).New Jersey High School Rankings: 11th Grade HSPA Language Arts Literacy & HSPA Math 2009-2010 , Schooldigger.com. Accessed February 15, 2012.
Athletics