Central Regional High School is a four-year regional comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades, located in the Bayville section of Berkeley Township in Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as part of the Central Regional School District. The high school serves students from the municipalities of Berkeley Township, Island Heights, Ocean Gate, Seaside Heights and Seaside Park.Central Regional School District 2015 School Report Card Narrative, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed June 5, 2016. "The Central Regional School District is located in the Bayville section of Berkeley Township and draws from the constituent districts of Berkeley Township, Island Heights, Ocean Gate, Seaside Heights, and Seaside Park."
As of the 2024–25 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,489 students and 114.8 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 13.0:1. There were 462 students (31.0% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 92 (6.2% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.School data for Central Regional High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed January 15, 2026.
History Students from the six constituent municipalities whose students had previously attended the Toms River Regional Schools, before the new district completed its school building that was constructed on a site covering at a cost of $1,430,000 (equivalent to $ million in )."Board Okays Finance Plans", Asbury Park Press, February 25, 1955. Accessed March 11, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "The Board of Local Government yesterday approved financial plans for the proposed $1,430,000 Ocean County Central Regional High School.... The board is shooting for a target date of September 1956, for the school opening. This is the date beyond which the Toms River Consolidated School District will no longer accept high school pupils from Seaside Park, Seaside Heights, Island Heights, Ocean Gate, and Berkeley and Lacey Townships.... The proposed six-year junior-senior high school is to be located on the 87-acre site of the former Pinewald Golf Course in Berkeley Township." The school opened in September 1956 as Central Regional Junior-Senior High School with students in grades 7-12 from the six constituent municipalities of Berkeley Township, Lacey Township, Island Heights, Ocean Gate, Seaside Park and Seaside Heights, along with students from Brick Township, who attended as part of a sending/receiving relationship. The formal dedication was deferred to late February 1957 due to construction delays."Set Central Regional Dedication for Feb. 27", Asbury Park Press, January 29, 1957. Accessed March 11, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "The new Central Regional Junior-Senior High School at Pinewald will be officially dedicated at open house ceremonies Feb. 27. the Regional Board of Education decided last night. The building, however, has been in use since last September for the six member-districts, and Brick Township, a sending district. The high school has not been accepted by the board from the general contractor because of numerous minor details in constructs that were not approved by the board. A program for the celebration will be prepared and circulated among residents in Seaside Park, Seaside Heights, Island Heights, Ocean Gate, and Lacey, Berkeley and Brick Townships."
Students from Brick Township had attended either Central Regional or Point Pleasant Beach High School until Brick Township High School opened for the 1958–59 school year."Brick Township Plans High School; Completion Date Set for Fall 1958; Referendum to Determine Site", Asbury Park Press, May 16, 1956. Accessed December 7, 2025, via Newspapers.com. "Brick students attend Point Pleasant Beach High School. Because of a classroom shortage there half the township students next year will attend the Central Regional High School which is under construction in the Pinewald section of Berkley Township. After 1957-58, however, neither school will accept Brick students.""It Took 2 Years, $1 1/2 Million to Build And It's Overcrowded Before Opening", Asbury Park Press, September 7, 1958. Accessed December 7, 2025, via Newspapers.com "Brick Township used to send its pupils to Point Pleasant Beach and Berkeley Township Regional High Schools. Beginning tomorrow, Brick students will attend this new 36-room $1,600,000 high school."
By July 1973, the district had been operating on double sessions at the high school for two years and estimated that it would run out of room to operate on double sessions within two years, leading Lakehurst to pursue options with Manchester Township for its 250 high school students."Manchester Voters to Decide On $5.5 Million School Plan", Asbury Park Press, July 29, 1973. Accessed December 7, 2025, via Newspapers.com. "In addition, the Board plans to take high school students from Lakehurst into the new school. Those students now go to Central Regional High School which has been on double sessions for two years and won't have enough space for even double sessions by September, 1974.... The township anticipates it will have 486 junior and senior high students by September, 1975, and Lakehurst will have 255 high school students." In October 1973, the Lakehurst School District announced that its students would be shifted from Central Regional High School to the new Manchester Township High School, which opened in September 1976."Correction", Asbury Park Press, October 20, 1973. Accessed March 12, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "John Mizvesky, Board of Education president, said local high school students will be phased out in orderly fashion from Central Regional High School, Berkeley Township, to the Manchester Township High School when it opens in September 1975.""Manchester Schools Expected To Spur Many New Residents", Asbury Park Press, September 13, 1976. Accessed March 12, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "The school system here will attract many new residents during the next two or three years, William F. White, Ocean County superintendent of schools, predicted yesterday. White spoke before about 500 persons at the dedication of the new, $6.3 million Manchester Township High School, which opened its doors Wednesday to 781 students from here and Lakehurst."
Students from Lacey Township had attended Central Regional as part of a sending/receiving relationship, which ended when Lacey Township High School opened in September 1981.Williams, Kevin. "A Renewal of the Lacey-Central Regional Rivalry", WOBM-FM, September 20, 2019. Accessed December 31, 2020. "I’m sure there are many who don’t know that for many years Lacey Township was a sending district to Central Regional High School. Until 1981 if you lived in Forked River, Lanoka Harbor or Bamber Lakes you attended Central and many of my friends from my high school days lived in Lacey. However in 1981 they got their own high school and as you might expect an immediate rivalry was born, especially when it came to athletics."
A 14-year-old female student committed suicide in February 2023 after videos of her being physically attacked in a hallway of the school surfaced online. The student's father believes that public humiliation and continued online bullying after this event spurred his daughter to end her own life.Charlesworth, Michelle. "Father demands justice for daughter who took her life after video of school bullying surfaced", KABC-TV, February 9, 2023. Accessed February 27, 2023. Later that month, Superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides resigned after it was revealed that he had disclosed private information about the student to a UK newspaper, blaming the student's family and marijuana for her suicide, while downplaying the role and prevalence of bullying. The father of the deceased has described Parlapanides as a "piece of shit."Schemmel, Alec. "N.J. superintendent resigns after pinning bullied student's suicide on 'poor choices'", WCIV, February 13, 2023. Accessed February 27, 2023. "The teen's father, Michael Kuch, contested the superintendent's claims that the school had offered his daughter any drug counseling to TheDailyMail.com. Rather, he told the outlet that he and his wife had sought help for Adriana's marijuana use, which he noted was common among students at the school. 'I don't know how to respond to this insane deflection,' Michael Kuch reportedly told TheDailyMail.com in response to the superintendent's remarks. 'This guy is a piece of s***.'"Liu, Olivia; and Strupp, Joe. "Central Regional superintendent resigns following comments over student death", Asbury Park Press, February 11, 2023. Accessed February 11, 2023. "Central Regional School District Superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides resigned a day after the Daily Mail published comments from him that appear to divulge information on the private life of a 14-year-old student who died by suicide this past week. A statement on the Central Regional district website said the school board accepted Parlapanides' resignation without saying why he resigned. It said Douglas Corbett, assistant superintendent of Central Regional, has been appointed the acting superintendent."
Awards, recognition and rankings The school was the 239th-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 264th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 257th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed August 22, 2012. The magazine ranked the school 273rd in 2008 out of 316 schools.Staff. "2010 Top High Schools", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2010. Accessed March 15, 2011. The school was the 272nd-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 316 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2006 cover story on the state's Top Public High Schools.Top High Schools 201-316, New Jersey Monthly, September 2006, posted January 28, 2008. Accessed August 11, 2008. Schooldigger.com ranked the school 240th out of 376 public high schools statewide in its 2010 rankings (an increase of 6 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 January 15, 2012.
Athletics