Somerville High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from Somerville and Branchburg Township in Somerset County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as the secondary school for Somerville Public Schools. Students from Branchburg Township attend Somerville High School as part of a sending/receiving relationship with the Branchburg Township School District.Somerville High School 2016 Report Card Narrative, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed December 5, 2017. "Somerville High School"Somerset County School Districts-Sending/Receiving/Regional, Somerset County, New Jersey. Accessed December 22, 2024. "Branchburg K-8; Grades 9-12 Sent To Somerville"
As of the 2024–25 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,072 students and 94.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.4:1. There were 236 students (22.0% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 46 (4.3% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.School data for Somerville High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed January 15, 2026.
Advanced Placement (AP) courses (such as AP United States Government and Politics) and the Senior Options Program at Raritan Valley Community College allow students the opportunity to earn college credits while attending high school. AP offerings include AP Biology, AP Calculus (AB/BC), AP Chemistry, AP English Literature and Composition, AP French Language, AP United States Government and Politics, AP Comparative Government and Politics, AP Music Theory, AP Physics, AP Spanish Language and AP United States History.
History In 1888, the first set of students graduated from the high school."Somerville High School", Gillette On Hillsborough, October 22, 2018. Accessed March 6, 2022. "At that time there were very few public high schools in the vicinity of Hillsborough - the ones in New Brunswick and Plainfield were about the closest. Somerville began adding classes for high school students in the mid-1880s, perhaps some being held in the 1856 Public School on West High Street pictured above. A high school building - pictured below - was also opened in 1894.... There were twelve students in the first graduating class of Somerville High School in 1888."
Students from Hillsborough Township attended Somerville High School for grades 9-12 as part of a sending/receiving relationship with the Hillsborough Township School District that ended when Hillsborough High School opened in September 1969 with 730 students in grades 9 and 10, with those in grades 11 and 12 completing their high school education in Somerville."Hillsborough High School Opens With Nary a Hitch", The Daily Home News, September 5, 1969. Accessed April 5, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "This township's $3.5 million high school opened yesterday as 730 students began the school year in their new building.... Until this year, all high school students attended Somerville High School, but as the new school opened yesterday the freshman and sophomore classes entered the new building. Juniors and seniors will continue to attend the Somerville school."
Awards, recognition and rankings In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 54th in New Jersey and 1,635th nationwide.Mathews, Jay. , The Washington Post. Accessed September 9, 2011.
In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 911th in the nation among participating public high schools and 68th among schools in New Jersey.Streib, Lauren. "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast, May 6, 2013. Accessed May 9, 2013.
The school was the 110th-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 76th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 77th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed August 26, 2012. The magazine ranked the school 73rd in 2008 out of 316 schools.Staff. "2010 Top High Schools", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2010. Accessed April 4, 2011.
Schooldigger.com ranked the school tied for 122nd out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (a decrease of 13 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (85.0%) and language arts literacy (95.5%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA)., Schooldigger.com. Accessed March 4, 2012.
Athletics The Somerville High School PioneersSomerville High School, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020. have historically competed in the Skyland Conference, which is comprised of public and private high schools located in Hunterdon, Somerset and Warren counties in west Central Jersey and operates under the supervision of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association.League & Conference Officers/Affiliated Schools 2020-2021, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020. With 881 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 Division 3 of the Big Central Football Conference, which includes 60 public and private high schools in Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset, Union and Warren counties, which are broken down into 10 divisions by size and location.Kinney, Mike. "Big Central revises 2020 football schedule for its shortened inaugural season", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, August 12, 2020. Accessed April 18, 2021. "The newly formed Big Central Football Conference has released a revised 2020 schedule for its inaugural season.... the BCFC is comprised of schools from Middlesex, Union, Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren counties." The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Group III South for football for 2024–2026, which included schools with 695 to 882 students.NJSIAA Football Public School Classifications 2024–2026, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, updated September 2024. Accessed September 1, 2024.
The school participates together with Middlesex High School in a joint ice hockey team with Bernards High School as the host school / lead agency. The co-op program operates under agreements scheduled to expire at the end of the 2023–24 school year.NJSIAA Winter Cooperative Sports Programs, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed December 1, 2020.