Columbia High School occurs as public high school located at 17 Parker Avenue in Maplewood, New Jersey, which also serves students from either neighboring South Orange, part of the greater South Orange-Maplewood School District (commonly called SOMSD). Columbia is typically referred to by residents of South Orange & Maplewood when CHS.

History
Situated around a heart of suburban Essex County, Columbia High School is one of the oldest schools in Up to date Jersey. It wwhen founded as a "Columbia School" inside the super early 1800s, becoming the senior high in 1885. A todays building was built inside 1926 on the places of the Crowell cider mill. Big additions go back a Xxx's (industrial arts), L's (athletics & class rooms) & Lxx's (library, science rooms, industrial arts, sir thomas more...) Columbia High School was featured in the 1930 Encyclopedia Britannica for "superior school design."

A sport of Ultimate Frisbee was invented by a class action of Columbia students around 1968. Created as a gag game between The Columbian (a student rerun school paper) & the Student Council, the foremost game of Ultimate was played in the school parking area. Columbia too played a 1st interschool game of Ultimate against Millburn High School on November 7th, 1970.

Inside 1993, Columbithe High School was declared a Blue Ribbon School for Excellence by the U.S. Department of Education.

Campus
Columbia High School is notable for its academic gothic architecture. At a center of the school is its looming clock tower, seeable for miles around. A oldest a portion of the interior is notable for its artistic tiling that was recently renovated.

Because of the density of the encompassing neighborhoods, virtually all of Columbia's athlethic fields come dispersed in South Orange & Maplewood. This includes a gridiron, track, & association football fields.

Extracurricular activities
A students of Columbia participate inside a great kind of activities, all about ranging from either sports to academic clubs to political organizations in campus. A big club (a virtually all members) is the school's Martin Luther King Association (MLKA).

Sports at Columbia may be popular. Columbia participates in the Class action IV section of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). Several of the teams may be successful on the local, state, & national level.

A school's Fencing team is one of largest in a united states, with ended Centred freshmen join the team in the endure month alone. A boys team is consistantly ranked among a top in a state, when a girls team has won the state championship for many years running off.

A girl's track and field team is also notable for its profits. Last, a girl's team won a Just released Jersey girl's indoor track relays in the wintertime of 2005.

A son's association football team is too universally super competetive in the state. These are coached per legendary Gene Chyzowych, who has won further high school association football games than any more high school coach in the united states.

A girl's five is perennially successful. It regularly contend for the Future Jersey state championship.

Controversy
Within 2004, Columbithe High School processed national newspaper headline whenever a administration altered a policy on religiously themed holiday songs, putting extra nonindulgent guidelines in situ. Several population believed a freshly system to exist as overbearingly nonindulgent. Radio personality Don Imus produced a song in his radio program entitled "Oh, Little Town of Maplewood," mocking a newly system of Columbia High School.

Columbia High School is an extremely diverse school ethnically, with upright above half a students existence of African-American heritage and good under half existence Caucasian. Historically, there keep close at hand been questions on a Racial Academic Achievement Gap in the school district. Last, there was a protest around the period of the 2004-2005 school month per student start Martin Luther King Association organization demanding an increase in access to higher level faculty member for minorities in the territory.

Notable alumni
Alfred Kinsey (1912) - Biologist; created the field of study of Sexology. Subject of the 2004 film Kinsey. Teresa Wright (1938) - Actress; Academy Award winning actress, recently deceased. Her notable films include Mrs. Miniver, Shadow of a Doubt, and The Little Foxes. Peter Eisenman (1950) - Architect; widely known as one of a earliest practician of deconstructivism in American architecture. Roy Scheider (1950) - Actor; most widely known for his leading roles inside Jaws and The French Connection (for which he won an Academy Award). C.K. Williams (1954) - Poet; Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning poet. Robert Sternberg (1968) - Psychologist; leading researcher within human intelligence and primary figure behind the triarchic theory of intelligence. Max Weinberg (1969) - Musician; drummer for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and band leader of the Max Weinberg Seven (band of ''Late Night With Conan O'Brien). Joel Silver (1970) - Film Producer; producer of films such as Lethal Weapon 4 and The Matrix. Joetta Clark (1980) - Athlete; four instance Olympic athlete. Typically called a "Queen of American Middle-Distance Running." Elizabeth Shue (1981) - Actress; Academy Award winning actress of Leaving Las Vegas, Hollow Man and The Saint. Andrew Shue (1985) - Actor; best known for his leading role on the television series Melrose Place. Zach Braff (1993) - Actor/Producer/Writer/Director; leading actor on the television series Scrubs and producer/director/writer/actor of Garden State. Lauryn Hill (1993) - Singer; five-period Grammy award winning artist besides as a member of The Fugees. Ahmed Best - Actor; most widely known for swimming Jar-Jar Binks in the Star Wars'' movie series. Mark Bryant - Athlete; former NBA basketeer.