Westfield High School, also known as WHS or Westfield Senior High School, is a comprehensive public high school in Westfield, New Jersey, United States. It serves students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the Westfield Public Schools. It was established in the early 1900s at its original location on Elm Street until 1951 when it was moved to its current location on Dorian Road. The new wing designated for biology, chemistry, physics, and other sciences, along with English as a Second Language (ESL) was completed in 2002. Westfield High School is overseen by the New Jersey Department of Education. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1928.Westfield High School, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools. Accessed February 9, 2022.
As of the 2024–25 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,776 students and 155.4 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.4:1. There were 31 students (1.7% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 14 (0.8% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.School data for Westfield Senior High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed January 15, 2026.
In 2023, the administration of Westfield High School was criticized for failing to address cyber harassment. According to a report by the Associated Press, several AI-generated nudes of some 14-year-old female students had been distributed among fellow students.
History The first high school in Westfield was the old brick academy on Mountain Avenue opposite the Presbyterian Church, a town landmark. The minister of the church was the supervisor of it and all the schools in Westfield.
The history of the high school began in 1869 with the opening of the old Prospect School which, at that time, had a staff of five teachers. For the few students who were preparing for college, the school principal taught Latin, Greek, higher mathematics and science. The other teachers taught the elementary subjects. On March 2, 1880, the Board of Education, in its formal minutes, made the first direct reference to a high school in Westfield. When the Lincoln School on Academy Place was erected in 1890, classes of high school level were transferred to it.
In 1900, the high school department was transferred to the newly opened Washington School on Elm Street. Shortly afterward, a regular full four-year high school program, which received state approval, was organized. The high school became an independent unit in January 1916, when it moved to the Elm Street building. The program, chiefly college preparatory, was offered to 306 students by eleven teachers. In 1916, there were 39 students in the graduating class.
In 1923 when the present Roosevelt Intermediate School was opened, Westfield adopted the 6-3-3 plan and designated the Elm Street building, now containing grades 10, 11 and 12, as Westfield High School. Frank N. Neubauer was designated principal, and he remained in that office until his death in 1947. During that time a library was established, a program in athletics and physical education was developed, and opportunities for outstanding experiences in art, industrial arts, music, speech, and dramatics were expanded. It was in this period that guidance services became an integral part of the program, and pupil activities grew to include publications, clubs, social events and student government. In 1947 Robert L. Foose became the second principal of the high school.
By the late 1940s the Elm Street building had become much too small for the ever-growing student body. Students were being housed in the Elm Street building, the old Washington School as an annex, and two temporary structures on Walnut Street. A new high school building became imperative to maintain and expand Westfiel's high educational standards and experiences. The building on Dorian Road was opened on February 4, 1952. The staff, consisting of 42 teachers, taught 725 students in three curricula: business education, college preparatory, and general. In the first commencement from the new building, 203 students were graduated.
Rapid growth in student enrollment necessitated further expansion. In September 1960, the high school gained an addition consisting of 17 new classrooms, two gymnasiums and a cafeteria. In the 1970s, four additional classrooms were added by the acquisition of the two portable buildings on Trinity Place. In 1962 Westfield instituted its first summer school program which was approved by the State Department of Education. With the retirement of Dr. Foose in 1969, Albert R. Bobal became the school's third principal. During the 1970s, each academic department opened its resource center where students could work independently or seek tutorial assistance from teachers. The Department of Special Services opened resource rooms at the high school so that specially trained teachers could help special needs youngsters to succeed. In 1979 Project 79, an alternative school-within-a-school, was created for at-risk students of average or above average ability.
On November 9, 1971, John List murdered his wife, and mother and two other children and then drove to Westfield High School to watch his elder son John Jr., 15, play in a soccer game. After driving John Jr. home, List shot him repeatedly and as misfire evidence showed, his son attempted to defend himself but died.Ramsland, K: John List. Crime Library archive. Accessed September 27, 2013.McCracken, Elizabeth. "Wanted: A Killer Disappears Into Another Life", The New York Times, December 28, 2008. Accessed April 5, 2022.
In 1980, Dr. Robert G. Petix was named the fourth principal of Westfield High School, a position which he maintained until his retirement in June 2006, making him Westfield High School's longest-serving principal. During the 1980s and 1990s, several new additions to the facility and grounds were made, including renovated playing fields outdoors, updated science labs, a new and expanded library/media center, several state-of-the-art computer labs, and a technological infrastructure of approximately 300 networked computers with Internet access. With the opening of the 1988–89 academic year, Westfield High School welcomed ninth graders to its halls for the first time. The last decade of the 20th century was marked by substantial increases in enrollment in the elementary schools that necessitated the construction of additions to all but one of the district's six elementary school buildings. During the first year of the new millennium Westfield taxpayers approved a $22 million referendum bond to accommodate the arrival of these enrollment increases at Westfield High School.
Construction at the high school began during the summer of 2001 with the replacement of all windows and the conversion of two former shop classrooms into four large classrooms for use during the 2001–02 school year. By the spring of 2002, the "portable" classrooms on Trinity Place had been razed in preparation for the construction of a three-story Science wing which began following a ground breaking ceremony in April 2002. At the same time, construction also began inside the existing building. By the end of the summer, a new Student Center and an Art studio classroom had been created by extending the building into the main courtyard, and a renovated Foods Lab was ready to greet students. Work on the expansion of athletic storage facilities and the creation of new teacher work and preparation areas was also finished.
With construction of the new Science wing completed in the spring of 2003, classes in the existing science classrooms and labs in the main building were moved to their new location in the new wing. During the summer of 2003, work was completed on the renovation and air-conditioning of the former science classrooms for use as general purpose classrooms, as well as on other aspects of the referendum construction project, including the creation of a Counseling Suite for the departments of Guidance and Special Education, the expansion of administrative offices, and the renovation of the varsity gymnasium floor and replacement of bleachers.
In July 2008, Westfield High School welcomed its fifth principal, Peter Renwick.2010-2011 Student & Parent Handbook, Westfield High School. Accessed August 2, 2011. Renwick retired in 2017, and was replaced by Dr. Derrick Nelson, the sixth principal of the high school. On April 8, 2019, school officials announced that Dr. Nelson had died on April 7 after donating bone marrow.Farzan, Antonia Noori. "A 'selfless' high school principal donated bone marrow to a stranger. Then he fell into a coma and died.", The Washington Post, April 10, 2019. Accessed February 9, 2022. "Shortly before undergoing surgery so that he could donate bone marrow to a 14-year-old boy in France, Derrick Nelson, a high school principal in Westfield, N.J., granted an interview to a student journalist.... Nelson had started teaching in New Jersey public schools in 2002 and worked his way up to becoming the principal of Westfield High School in 2017." Mary Asfendis was named in June 2019 as the seventh Westfield High School principal.Kadosh, Matt. "Mary Asfendis Made Westfield High School Principal", TAP into Wetsfield, June 25, 2019. Accessed February 9, 2022. "The Board of Education has decided on a new principal for Westfield High School, and she has some large shoes to fill. Mary Asfendis, the principal at Roosevelt Intermediate School since May 2017, will fill the position left vacant when Dr. Derrick Nelson died earlier this year from complications following a bone marrow donation — a death that produced an outpouring of community support." In December 2021, swastikas were found twice in the school's bathrooms in less than a week."Officials: Swastikas found twice in Westfield HS bathrooms in less than a week", News 12 Networks, December 9, 2021. Accessed December 14, 2023. "Hateful graffiti was found in the school bathroom for the second time in just a few days. Last week, a swastika was found etched on a stall in the girls' bathroom. Two more were found on Wednesday, along with a racial slur." A similar incident happened in March 2022.Samuels, Remy. "Another Swastika Drawn At Westfield High School, District Investigates", Westfield, NJ, Patch, March 31, 2022. Accessed December 14, 2023. "Another drawing of a swastika was discovered in one of the bathrooms at Westfield High School during lunch, according to a message from Principal Mary Asfendis."
Awards, recognition, and rankings In 1928, Westfield High School was accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools in the first group of high schools to be accredited by this association. At the time, it was established as a center for the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB). Westfield High School is one of the few schools in the nation to hold over 80 consecutive years of accreditation by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. For the 1994–95 school year, Westfield High School was named as a "Star School" by the New Jersey Department of Education, the highest honor that a New Jersey school can achieve.Star School Award recipient detail, New Jersey Department of Education, Archived December 18, 2006. Accessed November 26, 2009.