J.P. Stevens High School
From Freepedia
J.P. Stevens High School serves the northern end of Edison, New Jersey. It is one of two public high schools in the Edison Public School District. It has approximately 2200 students. J.P Stevens was founded in 1964. As North Edison's population exploded since the school's creation, JP (Or Stevens, as it is also known) grew as well.
Originally, JP was a senior high school, serving grades 10 through 12. In the mid 1980's, the Edison School District changed the junior high schools into middle schools. JP began serving 9th grade after that. JP has been known as an excellent high school. It has had an SAT average that has surpassed the state's mean since it opened. About 79% of its graduates go on to four-year colleges, with many attending the Ivy Leagues. It was ranked number 47 in New Jersey Monthly out of a list of over 300 public high schools in New Jersey.
JP Stevens has an abundance of extra curricular activities after school, and many successful GMC sports.
In 1993, J.P. Stevens closed for a semester because of a major apartment complex fire off of New Durham. All the students were sent to Edison High School, in the southern end of the town. It was run in double sessions. By the next school year, JP had opened again.
The history of the demographics of J. P. Stevens is somewhat unusual. From the time it opened until 1987, the school was mainly Caucasian, with an African-American minority. In 1987, J. P. Stevens saw its first Asian-Americans. By the 2002-2003 school year, the largest group of students at J.P. Stevens was Asian-American, following the same trend as Edison as a whole
This diverse high school statistically has become better each year.
Famous Stevens graduates are: David Bryan, who plays the keyboard for Jon Bon Jovi, Mark L. Polansky, who works for NASA (lived in the international space station for a few months), and John Sappolo, who is a classical clarinetist.
