As of the 2023–24 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,856 students and 129.2 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 14.4:1. There were 1,143 students (61.6% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 94 (5.1% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[1]
Awards, recognition and rankings
The school was the 304th-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.[6] The school had been ranked 302nd in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 308th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.[7] The magazine ranked the school 295th in 2008 out of 316 schools.[8] The school was ranked 291st in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.[9]
In 1999, student Samir Kapadia placed fourth at the Annual Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for his project "Identification and Targeting Multiple Myeloma Cancerous Tumors."[10]
In 2002–03, students Juliet R. Girard and Roshan D. Prabhu won the team competition of the Siemens Westinghouse Competition for "Identification and High Resolution Mapping of Flowering Time Genes in Rice." The duo shared a $100,000 scholarship with their victory.[11]
In 2007, Abdullah Anwar, a student was recognized as a semi-finalist in the 2007 New Jersey Business Idea Competition conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University.[12]
History
Originally named Jersey City High School, ground was broken in 1904 and the new building opened on September 6, 1906, in an attempt to relieve overcrowding in the city's public schools.[13][14] Built during the City Beautiful movement, the design of the school is thought to be inspired by the Louvre Colonnade and Buckingham Palace.[13] It was the first public secondary school in the city. When the school opened, it housed a 2,000-seat auditorium that saw extensive public use, and hosted such events as a lecture by Helen Keller and political rallies for United States Presidents Taft, Wilson, and Roosevelt. The original school was expanded with the construction of a second building in 1912 to further industrial skills education. This building contained a foundry, print shop, and vocational classrooms.[15]
In 1913, the school was renamed William L. Dickinson High School for the superintendent who had advocated for creation of the school during his term from 1872 to 1883.[13] The school was expanded again in 1933 with the addition of an annex containing a swimming pool, cafeteria, and gymnasium.[15] That same year, Lincoln High School was opened as the second high school in the district, as part of an effort to provide additional capacity outside of Dickinson.[16]
The rear of the building is the site of a late 1800s-era cannon mount built to protect the Hudson River shoreline from early invaders. Given the location of the cannon and the associated technology of the time, it is doubtful that the cannon would have ever been effective as a defensive emplacement. While the cannon has since been removed, the original mounting was reused as the site of a black-granite monument to the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.[citation needed]
In 1946, students went on strike to protest a proposal by the city's board of education to extend the end of the school day from 1:00pm to 3:00pm, with striking students arguing that the longer school day would interfere with their part-time jobs.[17]
Athletics
The William L. Dickinson High School Rams[3] compete in the Hudson County Interscholastic League, which is comprised of public and private high schools in Hudson County and was established following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).[18] With 1,342 students in grades 10–12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Group IV for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 1,060 to 5,049 students in that grade range.[19] The football team competes in the Ivy Red division of the North Jersey Super Football Conference, which includes 112 schools competing in 20 divisions, making it the nation's biggest football-only high school sports league.[20][21] The football team is one of the 12 programs assigned to the two Ivy divisions starting in 2020, which are intended to allow weaker programs ineligible for playoff participation to compete primarily against each other.[22] The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Group V North for football for 2024–2026, which included schools with 1,317 to 5,409 students.[23]
The Dickinson Rams football team had been led by head coach Rich Glover who had played as a defensive lineman for the New York Giants.
In February 2010, the Jersey City Public Schools cut funding for interscholastic sports and ended the football program at Dickinson.[25] The Dickinson football team was re-established in 2012 after a few years in hiatus; the varsity was scheduled to be back for the 2014 season.
The boys indoor track team was the state public school champion in both 1937 and 1938, and won the Group IV state championship in 1966.[26]
The boys' cross country team won the Group IV state title in 1948 and 1955.[27] The team won the North I Group IV state championship in 1967.[28]
The boys' baseball team won the North I Group IV state sectional championship in 1966, the only time that the team has won a state title in the post-1958 playoff era.[29]
The boys track team won the indoor relay championship in Group IV in 1966 and 1967[30]
The boys' basketball team won the 2000 North I, Group IV sectional title, edging Memorial High School 43–41 in the tournament final.[31]
In 2009, the boys soccer team went on to the state tournament, losing to Ridge High School by a score of 2–0 in the tournament final, finishing with a record of 17–8–0 and marking the first time in Dickinson history that the boys varsity soccer team made it to the state sectional championship.[32]
Administrators
The school's principal is Gekson Casillas. His core administration team includes four vice principals.[2]
1 2 Goodnough, Abby. "Once Upon a Time, When High Schools Were Palaces", The New York Times, October 6, 1996. Accessed August 20, 2014. "Ninety years ago, an enormous Beaux Arts building went up on a hill overlooking the Hudson River. It had Corinthian columns, terrazzo floors and a vestibule lined with English marble. It could have passed for a palace, or at least a palatial estate. But it was neither. It was, in fact, William L. Dickinson High School, the first public secondary school in Jersey City."
↑ Lincoln High School, New Jersey City University. Accessed March 24, 2021. "Lincoln High School was named for the sixteenth president of the United States and opened in 1913. It became the second public high school in Jersey City and was started to accommodate the overcrowded conditions in the City High School (now Dickinson High School)."
↑ Cooper, Darren. "Super Football Conference creating 'Ivy Division' for struggling programs", The Record, May 1, 2019. Accessed March 24, 2021. "Seeking to restore participation and enthusiasm to high school football programs that have struggled to compete consistently, the Super Football Conference announced plans to start a 12-team 'Ivy Division' in the 2020 season. Teams that compete in the 'Ivy Division' will play exclusively against each other and won't participate in the NJISAA football playoffs.... Twelve schools from Bergen, Hudson, Essex and Morris counties have applied to compete in the Ivy Division: Bergen Tech, Cliffside Park, Dickinson, Fair Lawn, Ferris, Memorial, Dover, Dwight-Morrow, Fort Lee, Glen Ridge, Marist and Tenafly."
↑ Hague, Jim. "Moments of Gridiron Greatness The history of football in Jersey City", The Hudson Reporter, October 14, 2007. Accessed August 20, 2014. "Coached by Charlie Witkowski, an All-American performer at Villanova who later became the mayor of Jersey City, the Dickinson football team of 1930 became the second-ever champion of the Hudson County Interscholastic Athletic Association, then defeated a highly regarded Passaic team to win what was known as the Tri-County title. The Rams were 9–0 that season and led by lineman Ed Franco, halfback Al Barabas and standout twins Milt and Walt Singer."
↑ Hague, Jim. "Scoreboard: 02-14-2010 The end of an era Jersey City Board of Education pulls the plug on Dickinson football", The Hudson Reporter, February 14, 2010. Accessed December 29, 2011. "The Jersey City Board of Education convened last week to address budgetary problems, and the powers-that-be decided to slice the entire athletic budget in half, cutting 50 percent of the entire budget that was set aside for athletics. Among those cuts included the complete elimination of high school football at Dickinson High School."
↑ Staff. "Ridge 2, Dickinson 0", The Star-Ledger, November 13, 2009. Accessed November 30, 2011. "Phil Welsh assisted Jake Hotz seven minutes into the first half and then scored off a feed from Zach Brody two minutes after the break to lead Ridge, No. 14 in The Star-Ledger Top 20, to a 2–0 victory over Dickinson in the NJSIAA/Investors Savings Bank North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 final yesterday in Basking Ridge."
↑ Thomas Jr., Robert McG. Jr. "Two Giants Were Heroes Far From Playing Field", The New York Times, January 26, 1991. Accessed September 25, 2009. "Blozis, who was born in Garfield, N.J., and was a star athlete at Dickinson High School in Jersey City before going to Georgetown on a track scholarship, was regarded as the strongest player in professional football and had the physique to prove it."
↑ Nate Borden, pro-football-reference. Accessed October 1, 2015.
↑ The Story of New Jersey, p. 1986. Published 1945. Accessed July 1, 2019. "Public schools of Jersey City, his birthplace, provided Dominick V. Daniels' early formal education, and he was graduated in 1925 from the William L. Dickinson High School here."
↑ Official Congressional Directory, p. 68. United States Government Printing Office, 1921. Accessed May 15, 2023. "Edward Irving Edwards, Democrat, son of the late William W. Edwards (Welsh) and Emma J. Edwards (English), was born December 1, 1863, in that part of Jersey City known as the town of Bergen; educated in Jersey City High School and New York University..."
↑ "Former Mayor Faulkner Dies", The Montclair Times, November 17, 1983. Accessed February 26, 2023, via Newspapers.com. "Mr. Faulkner was born July 19, 1894 in Bucklin, Mo., but his family moved in 1900 to Jersey City. He was graduated from Dickinson High School in Jersey City in 1911 and from New York University, where he received a bachelor of commercial science degree, cum laude."
↑ Statue of Christopher Columbus Journal Square, New Jersey City University. Accessed December 26, 2021. "Designed by sculptor Archimedes Giacomantonio (1905-1988) of Jersey City, the ten-foot bronze statue of Christopher Columbus is mounted on a white marble shaft and was dedicated on October 15, 1950.... The sculptor Giacomantonio attended Dickinson High School."
↑ Gutting, Bob. "FSU Gym Champs, Holder, Ireland, Elected Co-Captains", The Florida Flambeau, November 12, 1954. Accessed July 25, 2019. "Don began his gymnastics career at Dickinson High School in Jersey City, N.J. After graduating in 1946 he entered competition for the famed Swiss Gymnastics Society of Jersey City."
↑ George McAneny Papers, University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Area Archives Research Portal. Accessed July 1, 2019. "George McAneny was a prominent New York City civil servant. Born in 1869 in Greenville, New Jersey, McAneny attended Jersey City High School and began a career in journalism after graduation."
↑ Gomez, John. Legendary Locals of Jersey City, p. 57. Accessed January 13, 2018. "Lillian Morrison Born in 1917, Lillian Morrison grew up in the Jersey City Heights, graduated from Dickinson High School, and worked in the New York Public Library system for over 50 years."
↑ Staff. "Ralph Peduto", Santa Cruz Sentinel via Legacy.com, May 31, 2014. Accessed August 20, 2014. "As a child Ralph was part of a rich and textured life in Jersey City. He attended both Ferris High School and Dickinson High School where in 2000 he was inducted into Dickinson's Hall of Fame for achievement in performing arts."
↑ Mary Philbrook, 1872–1958. Accessed May 6, 2007. "Mary Philbrook was born in Washington, D. C. in 1872 but her family moved to Jersey City by the time she was six. She attended Public School No. 11 (now Martin Luther King Jr. School) and then Jersey City High School (now Dickinson High School)."
↑ Sullivan, Al. "Loss of a Latino icon Eliu Rivera passes away at 74", The Hudson Reporter, October 8, 2017. Accessed July 1, 2019. "He attended local schools, graduated from William L. Dickinson High School in Jersey City and continued his education at Rutgers University and Saint Peter’s College."
↑ Foreman, Jonathan. "Slugging It Out Over Girlfight: Studios Hot For B'klyn Teen Tale", New York Post, January 26, 2000. Accessed January 21, 2020. "Born in Texas and raised mostly in New Jersey, but also in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, she dropped out of Dickinson High ('a terrible school!') in Jersey City in the ninth grade, though she was good at English and science and later earned a GED."
↑ "Biography of Eddie August Schneider (1911–1904) written to accompany his papers deposited at the George H. Williams, World War I Aviation Library at the University of Texas at Dallas". Gretchen Hahnen (1902–1986). 1948. Eddie Schneider was born October 20, 1911 on Second Avenue, and 17th Street in New York City. Later his family moved to Red Bank, New Jersey where he attended grade school. From there his family moved to Jersey City, New Jersey and he graduated from Dickinson High School. ...
↑ Harrigan, Will. "Dickinson, Hudson County's oldest football program, returns", The Jersey Journal, July 22, 2014. Accessed August 20, 2014. "The golden generation of Rams football graced the gridiron from 1928 to 1931. Those teams featured the likes of Ed Franco, one of Fordham's famed 'Seven Blocks of Granite,' who played alongside Vince Lombardi, as well as other all-time greats like Al Barabas and twin brothers Milt and Walt Singer. Walt was also a starting center for the New York Giants who later went on to coach Dickinson in the 1940s."
↑ Kenneth A. Walsh, The Marine Corps Medal of Honor Recipients. Accessed July 1, 2019. "He graduated from Dickinson High School, Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1933 where he had been an outstanding track athlete."
↑ Alex Weyand, NJSports.com. Accessed July 1, 2019. "Alexander Mathias Weyand was born January 10, 1892 in Jersey City. Muscular, tall and athletic, he did not participate in sports at Dickinson High School in order to focus on his studies."
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