High Point Regional High School is a comprehensive four-year public high school located in Wantage Township, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which is the sole high school in its school district.Public School Directory 2025–2026, Sussex County, New Jersey. Accessed January 1, 2026.School Performance Reports for the High Point Regional High School District, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed September 1, 2025.New Jersey School Directory for the High Point Regional High School District, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed February 1, 2024. The school has a Sussex mailing address.Zoning Map, Wantage Township, New Jersey. Accessed January 18, 2026. School indicated on the map.
The district educates students in ninth through twelfth grades from the constituent municipalities in Sussex County of Branchville, Frankford Township, Lafayette Township, Sussex and Wantage Township, with students from Montague Township attending as part of a sending/receiving relationship.High Point Regional Board of Education Bylaw 0110 - Name and Classification, High Point Regional High School, revised April 28, 2020. Accessed January 18, 2026. "Composition - The High Point Regional High School District shall comprise all the areas within the municipal boundaries of Branchville, Frankford, Lafayette, Sussex and Wantage for the purpose of providing a program of education in grades 9 through 12."High Point Regional High School 2016 Report Card Narrative , New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed December 4, 2017. "High Point Regional High School is a comprehensive high school serving the diversified needs of the five surrounding municipalities of Branchville, Frankford, Lafayette, Sussex and Wantage. In addition, we are in a send/receive relationship with the Montague school district."2022–23 School Profile, High Point Regional High School. Accessed November 3, 2017. "Located 63 miles northwest of Manhattan in bucolic Sussex, County NJ, High Point serves students from six municipalities: Branchville, Lafayette, Frankford, Montague, Sussex, and Wantage."Montague Township School District 2016 District Narrative , New Jersey School Report Card. Accessed December 4, 2017. "Montague Township is located in the Delaware Highlands Region of New Jersey. High Point State Park and Stokes State Forest provide the scenery to this rural Sussex County community. Montague Township School District is a Pre-K through grade 8 school in Sussex County. Montague students attend High Point Regional High School for grades 9 through 12." The high school was established in 1963 and is located in Wantage Township. The school is accredited by the New Jersey Department of Education.
As of the 2024–25 school year, the school had an enrollment of 791 students and 67.6 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.7:1. There were 160 students (20.2% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 31 (3.9% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.School data for High Point Regional High School District, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed January 15, 2026.
The district participates in the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program, which allows non-resident students to attend school in the district at no cost to their parents, with tuition covered by the resident district.List of Choice Districts: Choice Program Profiles for 2025-2026 School Year, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed January 1, 2025. Available slots are announced annually by grade.High Point Regional School District Choice Profile for 2025-26 School Year, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed January 1, 2025.
History Prior to the establishment of the regional high school, students from Branchville, Frankford Township and Lafayette Township had attended Newton High School as part of sending/receiving relationships, while those from Sussex and Wantage Township had attended Sussex High School.Fitzmaurice, George. "Encircled By Metropolis, Newton Grows as Rural Hub", Herald News, September 9, 1966. Accessed April 4, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Students from neighboring Frankford, Branchville and Lafayette attended Newton High School. The three have now joined Sussex Borough and Wantage Township to form the High Point Regional Board of Education and will send area children to a high school of their own taking the pressure off Newton."Wright, Kevin M. Newton Public Schools, Newton, NJ. Accessed December 4, 2017. "At that time, thirteen school districts sent students to Newton High School while two districts sent elementary school children here. Frankford, Lafayette and Branchville students departed Newton High School in 1964 when the High Point Regional district was formed. Kittatinny Regional District subtracted students from Hampton, Stillwater, Fredon, Sandyston and Walpack Townships in September 1975."Carlson, Joe. "High Point High School celebrates 50 years" , New Jersey Herald, October 2, 2006. Accessed December 4, 2017. "The school opened in 1966 with students from Sussex and Wantage, Lafayette, Frankford and Branchville. Prior to High Point's opening, Sussex and Wantage students attended Sussex High School. Frankford, Lafayette and Branchville students attended Newton High School."
Created in 1963 as a district, the school opened in September 1966.Annual Comprehensive Financial Report For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2013, High Point Regional High School District. Accessed December 4, 2017. "The District is governed by a nine-member Board of Education which was formed in December 1963; members are elected to serve three-year terms. The school building opened for students in grades 9-12 in September 1966. High Point Regional High School has completed two building additions in 1975 and 1991."
Starting in September 2014, high school students from Montague Township School District began attending High Point Regional High School, as part of a sending/receiving relationship under which incoming ninth graders began attending the High Point district while existing students attended Port Jervis High School in Port Jervis, New York, until they graduated.Obernauer, Eric. "Montague's petition to end deal with High Point HS to be decided by NJ education commissioner", New Jersey Herald, July 13, 2020. Accessed January 18, 2026. "The Montague School District's petition to terminate its send-receive relationship with High Point Regional High School will be decided by New Jersey's education commissioner rather than an administrative law judge."
The Montague district began seeking to annul the relationship with High Point Regional and resume sending students to Port Jervis. In February 2018 all seven members of the Montague board approved a symbolic resolution to not renew its ties with High Point. Eric Obernauer of the New Jersey Herald stated that the Montague-High Point relationship was "frosty" and "icy".Obernauer, Eric. "Montague seeks renewed ties to Port Jervis H.S.", New Jersey Herald, June 6, 2019. Accessed January 18, 2026. The Montague district chose to switch back to Port Jervis because Port Jervis offered a lower tuition than High Point; High Point charged $16,368 per student to Montague. All six members of the Montague district voted, in October 2019, to switch back to Port Jervis. to switch back to Port Jervis. The High Point district sought to block this request on the grounds it and its students would be financially impacted. The Montague district stated that the districts signed an agreement in 2018 that would allow Montague to leave at will.Kennedy, Mike. "2 New Jersey districts in legal dispute over sending students to New York high school The Montague district wants to send its high school students to a school in Port Jervis, N.Y., but the High Point district wants them to keep attending its high school.", American School & University, December 7, 2020. Accessed April 15, 2021. "NJ.com reports that the Montague school board's lawsuit against the High Point Regional district in Wantage is the latest development in a decades-old debate involving Port Jervis High School, the New York school where the K-8 Montague district enrolled its students until 2014." By December 2020 the districts were in a legal dispute.Jennings, Rob. "2 N.J. school districts in court fight over sending students to N.Y.", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, December 6, 2020. Accessed April 15, 2021. "The Montague school board's lawsuit against the High Point Regional district in Wantage is the latest development in a decades-old debate involving Port Jervis High School, the New York school where the K-8 district enrolled students for 85 years ending in 2014." The High Point agreement is scheduled to end in 2024.
By 2021, the new Montague board sought to dismiss lawsuits against High Point. Obernauer stated "dissatisfaction with how the Montague district is being run and legal fees spent trying to resume the longstanding relationship with Port Jervis, coupled with a growing acceptance of the High Point relationship, appear to have changed public sentiment."Obernauer, Eric. "Montague Board of Education explores withdrawal of lawsuits against High Point", New Jersey Herald, January 12, 2021. Accessed January 18, 2026. "The Board of Education, in a major reversal, appears on the verge of withdrawing a lawsuit against High Point Regional High School that was filed by previous board members more than a year ago in an effort to end their send-receive relationship. The move, if approved, would all but eliminate any chance of a resumption of Montague's send-receive relationship with the Port Jervis School District of New York, where it formerly sent students for grades 7-12."
In 2021, there were 82 students from Montague Township among the 889 enrolled at High Point High School.
The district had been classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "DE", the fifth-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 (DFG) for School Districts, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed December 1, 2024.
Awards, recognition and rankings For the 1997–98 school year, High Point Regional High School received the National Blue Ribbon Award from the United States Department of Education, the highest honor that an American school can achieve.National Blue Ribbon Schools Program: Schools Recognized 1982 Through 2019 (PDF), United States Department of Education. Accessed September 1, 2024.
The school was the 142nd-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 88th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 125th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed August 24, 2012. The magazine ranked the school 157th in 2008 out of 316 schools.Staff. "2010 Top High Schools", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2010. Accessed February 27, 2011. The school was ranked 151st 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. The school was recently ranked first of 53 schools in the state in the "DE" District Factor Group by The Star-Ledger and second in the DFG by New Jersey Monthly magazine.