Linden High School is a comprehensive community public high school located in Linden in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the Linden Public Schools. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1928.
As of the 2024–25 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,934 students and 142.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 13.6:1. There were 1,119 students (57.9% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 186 (9.6% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
Linden High School has been an IB World School since July 2001, offering students the IB Diploma Programme.
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History
Linden High School opened for start of the 1910–11 school year, with a graduating class that included three students. The high school had been located in School No. 1 until a standalone high school building opened to students in 1925, with expansions made to the original building in 1931 and 1960. A plaque in the school honors Lida M. Ebbert, who was the school's principal from when it was established in 1910 until she retired in 1952.
Awards, recognition and rankings
The school was the 253rd-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. The school had been ranked 326th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 284th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. The magazine ranked the school 299th in 2008 out of 316 schools. The school was ranked 293rd in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.
Athletics
The Linden High School Tigers compete in the Union County Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which is comprised of public and private high schools in Union County and was established following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). With 1,202 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. Prior to the 2010 realignment, the school had participated in the Watchung Conference, which included public high schools in Essex, Hudson and Union counties. The football team competes in Division 4 of the Big Central Football Conference, which includes 60 public and private high schools in Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset, Union and Warren counties, which are broken down into 10 divisions by size and location. 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.
The boys' track team won the Group III spring / outdoor track state championship in 1941.
The boys' baseball team won the Group IV state championship in 1979 (against Middletown High School South in the final game of the tournament), and won the Group III title in 1981 (vs. Moorestown High School) and 1982 (vs. Freehold Township High School). The 1979 team finished the season with an 18-6 record after winning the Group IV title with a 2-1 victory on a run scored in the bottom of the ninth in the championship game against Middletown South.
The football team won the North II Group III state sectional title in 1985 and the North II Group V title in 2014. In 2014, the team defeated Elizabeth High School by a score of 27–20 in the tournament final to win the North II Group V championship. The school's rivalry with Union High School, with games played on Thanksgiving Day (or the day before Thanksgiving) for more than 75 years, was listed at 13th on NJ.com's 2017 list "Ranking the 31 fiercest rivalries in N.J. HS football". Union leads the rivalry with a 37–32–5 overall record as of 2017.
The boys' bowling team won the overall state championship in 1988 and the Group III title in 2020.
Administration
The school's principal is Charles Koonce. His administration team includes four vice principals, one for each grade.
Notable alumni
Roger Chanoine (1976–2016), offensive tackle who played in the NFL between 1998 and 2002, primarily for the Cleveland Browns
John Charles (1944–2019, class of 1962), former American football cornerback and safety who played eight seasons in the National Football League
Jerome A. Cohen (1930–2025), professor of law at New York University School of Law and an expert in Chinese law
Danny Dias (c. 1983–2017), activist and reality television personality
Tamecka Dixon (born 1975, class of 1993), former professional basketball player who played in the WNBA for the Los Angeles Sparks, Houston Comets and Indiana Fever
Waliyy Dixon (born 1974), aka "Main Event" on the AND1 Mixtape Tour; one of the original players on the famous AND1–sponsored streetball tours
Carolyn Dorin-Ballard (born 1964, class of 1985), one of the top female ten-pin bowlers
Calvin Duncan (born 1961), pastor and retired basketball player
Stanton T. Friedman (1934–2019, class of 1951), nuclear engineer and ufologist who broke the story of the 1947 Roswell incident
Oscar Givens (1922–1967), Negro league baseball infielder in the 1940s who played for the Newark Eagles
John T. Hendrickson Jr. (1923–1999), politician who represented the 9th Legislative District from 1982 to 1989
George Hudak (1935–1996), politician who represented the 20th Legislative District in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1986 to 1994 and was mayor of Linden from 1983 to 1987
Notable faculty
John J. Fay Jr. (1927–2003), history and economics teacher from 1958 to 1978, who served in the New Jersey General Assembly and the New Jersey Senate