Northern Highlands Regional High School (NHRHS) is a regional public high school and school district in Allendale, in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The school serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Allendale, Ho-Ho-Kus, Saddle River, and Upper Saddle River.Northern Highlands Regional High School 2015 Report Card Narrative, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed May 31, 2016. "A four-year public high school, Northern Highlands strives to address the needs of all of its students who come from four towns in northern Bergen County: Allendale, Upper Saddle River, Ho-Ho-Kus, and Saddle River."Northern Highlands Board of Education District Policy 0110 - Identification, Northern Highlands Regional High School District, adopted November 27, 2000. Accessed September 20, 2026. "Purpose: The Board of Education exists for the purpose of providing a thorough and efficient system of free public education in grades 9 through 12 in the Northern Highlands Regional High School District. Composition: The Northern Highlands Regional High School District is comprised of all the area within the municipal boundaries of Allendale and Upper Saddle River."The Quad Districts, Northern Highlands Regional High School. Accessed February 20, 2025. "Comprised of four school districts, Allendale, Ho-Ho-Kus, Northern Highlands, and Upper Saddle River, 'The Quad' represents all four school districts." Students from Saddle River have the option of attending either Northern Highlands or Ramsey High School, as part of sending/receiving relationships with the two districts.Greene, Rebecca. "Tuition to rise $219 under new contract", Town Journal, November 19, 2009. Accessed September 20, 2026, via Newspapers.com. "With no high school in the borough, Saddle River students have the option of enrolling in either Ramsey High School or Northern Highlands. The new deal replaces the previous agreement that covered 1998 to 2008." The high school is the only facility of the Northern Highlands Regional High School District.School Performance Reports for the Northern Highlands Regional High School District, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed September 20, 2026.New Jersey School Directory for the Northern Highlands Regional High School District, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed February 1, 2024.
As of the 2024–25 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,257 students and 109.7 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.5:1. There were 12 students (1.0% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and none eligible for reduced-cost lunch.School data for Northern Highlands Regional High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed January 15, 2026.
Northern Highlands Regional High School is accredited by the New Jersey Department of Education.Class of 2025 Profile, Northern Highlands Regional High School. Accessed February 20, 2025. "Accreditation: New Jersey State Department of Education"
History Prior to the opening of the regional high school, students from Allendale had attended Mahwah High School, while those from Upper Saddle River had been sent to attend Ramsey High School. The districts reached agreement to an early end of the sending arrangement, with plans to have 230 students from Allendale and 260 from Upper Saddle River in the new regional facility."Regional HS Path Cleared", The Paterson Morning Call, March 22, 1960. Accessed March 24, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "The early withdrawal of Allendale students from Mahwah Junior Senior High School, to permit Allendale to regionalize with Upper Saddle River was approved by the Board of Education last night. Allendale is currently under a ten-year agreement, due to expire in 1968 to send its students to Mahwah. Under the new plan, which was requested by both Allendale and Upper Saddle River, Allendale's ninth and tenth graders will withdraw from Mahwah by September 1965, when the regional high school is to be opened. Eleventh and twelfth graders will continue in Mahwah until graduation.... Upper Saddle River students currently attend Ramsey High School but have been ordered to withdraw by 1961.... The regional high school is to open by September 1965 with an anticipated 258 pupils from Upper Saddle River and from 235 from Allendale."
In May 1963, voters in Allendale and Upper Saddle River approved a referendum to create Northern Highlands Regional High School, with the planned expenditure of $3.65 million (equivalent to $ million in ) to build a facility on a site, with the objective to complete the building in time to start classes in September 1965.Staff. "2 Jersey Towns Approve New Regional High School", The New York Times, May 26, 1963. Accessed August 21, 2011.
The building, completed at a cost of $4 million, was dedicated in February 1966 and was constructed to handle an expected enrollment of 1,300 students. The facilities included in the original structure included a planetarium and 750-seat auditorium / theater and an FM radio station.Robbins, William. "Jersey School Is Equipped for Space Age Library Has Glass Walls", The New York Times, March 27, 1966. Accessed August 21, 2011.
Students from Ho-Ho-Kus started attending school in the mid-1990s after their school district cited the need for electives and class sizes that were lacking at Midland Park High School.Cheslow, Jerry. "If You're Thinking of Living In/Ho-Ho-Kus; A Borough That Guards Its Traditions", The New York Times, February 5, 1995. Accessed August 22, 2011. "The district serves Kindergarten through eighth grades. High school students are sent to nearby Midland Park, an arrangement Mayor Sayers terms 'unsatisfactory' because, he says, Midland Park High School is small and offers few electives. The Ho-Ho-Kus Board of Education is discussing possible alternatives."
In 2012, school elections were shifted from April to the November general election as part of an effort to reduce the costs of a standalone April vote.Kleimann, Karen; Clyde, John. "Districts moving school elections", Town Journal, February 15, 2012. Accessed November 30, 2014. "The Allendale, Ho-Ho-Kus, Northern Highlands, Saddle River and Upper Saddle River boards of education voted to move their respective school elections to November for at least the next four annual elections. The five districts, along with a majority of school boards across the state, are moving their elections from April to November in hopes of sparing taxpayers the expense of a separate election, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association."
In 2016, the Northern Highlands district reached an agreement with the Ho-Ho-Kus School District to extend the send / receive agreement through 2026 under a fixed-price contract by which Ho-Ho-Kus would pay $3.6 million for the 2016–17 school year, escalating by 2% a year to $4.3 million in 2025–26, regardless of the number of students from the borough sent to the high school.Northern Highlands Regional High School and the Borough of Ho-Ho-Kus announced a new 10-year send/receive agreement through 2026 last week... The total tuition to be paid by Ho-Ho-Kus for the 2016 to 2017 school year is $3,580,675. The fee increases by approximately 2 percent per year to $4,279,238 in the 2025 to 2026 school year."
The district had been classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "J", the highest of eight groupings. District Factor Groups organize districts statewide to allow comparison by common socioeconomic characteristics of the local districts. From lowest socioeconomic status to highest, the categories are A, B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J.District Factor Groups for School Districts, New Jersey Department of Education, updated May 29, 2025. Accessed September 1, 2026.
Awards, recognition and rankings In the 2025 Niche rankings that rank the best traditional public high schools in New Jersey, Northern Highlands Regional High School ranks as number 4 best public high school in New Jersey when excluding Magnet public schools and number 14 when taking in consideration New Jerseys public magnet schools.
During the 1986–87 school year, Northern Highlands Regional High School was awarded the Blue Ribbon School Award of Excellence by the United States Department of Education,Blue Ribbon Schools Program: Schools Recognized 1982-1983 through 1999-2002 , United States Department of Education. Accessed November 2, 2016. the highest award an American school can receive."CIBA cited as one of the best by Education Department", Journal Inquirer, November 16, 2006. "The Blue Ribbon award is given only to schools that reach the top 10 percent of their state's testing scores over several years or show significant gains in student achievement. It is considered the highest honor a school can achieve.""Viers Mill School Wins Blue Ribbon; School Scored High on Statewide Test", The Washington Post. September 29, 2005 "For their accomplishments, all three schools this month earned the status of Blue Ribbon School, the highest honor the U.S. Education Department can bestow upon a school."
In 2009, Maryann Woods-Murphy, a Northern Highlands Regional High School Spanish teacher, was named the New Jersey Teacher of the Year, the highest honor given to a teacher by the state.Coutros, Evonne. "Northern Highlands teacher named N.J. Teacher of the Year", The Record, October 21, 2009. Accessed August 3, 2011. "Each year in class, Spanish teacher MaryAnn Woods-Murphy and her students at Northern Highlands Regional High School share the message of achieving goals and never giving up on a dream. MaryAnn Woods-Murphy gets a hug from Principal Joseph Occhino. Woods-Murphy, 53, lived up to those words today when she was awarded the state's highest achievement as 2009-2010 New Jersey Teacher of the Year by Commissioner of Education Lucille E. Davy at a ceremony in Trenton."
The school was the 3rd-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 22nd in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 6th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed December 2, 2012. The magazine ranked the school 8th in 2008 out of 316 schools.Staff. "2010 Top High Schools", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2010. Accessed February 11, 2011. The school was ranked 7th 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 43rd out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (a decrease of 29 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (93.2%) and language arts literacy (97.7%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA)., Schooldigger.com. Accessed February 26, 2012.
In Newsweek's 2014 ranking of the country's top high schools, Northern Highlands Regional High School was listed in 59th place, the 9th-highest ranked school in New Jersey."America's Top Schools 2014", Newsweek. Accessed October 13, 2014.