Al-Ghazaly High School in Wayne, in Passaic County, New Jersey, is one of the oldest Islamic high schools in the United States. The school was founded in 1984, and serves students in seventh through twelfth grades. There is no principal at the moment. Most students at Al-Ghazaly High School come from Al-Ghazaly and Al Hikmah Elementary School, located at Communipaw Avenue in Jersey City and North 8th Street in Prospect Park, respectively.
As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 353 students and 38.8 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 9.1:1. The school's student body was 56.7% (200) White, 28.3% (100) Asian, 10.2% (36) two or more races, 2.8% (10) Hispanic and 2% (7) Black.[1]
Al-Ghazaly's dress code has remained the same for many years to in order to show equality between students. Boys wear navy blue pants and white polo shirts while girls wear long navy blue Islamic dresses often referred to as "abaya" and red/maroon headscarves often referred to as "jilbab".
History
Between 1984 and 2013, Al-Ghazaly was located on 441 North Street in Teaneck, New Jersey. The new facility in Wayne (formerly Neumann Preparatory School and Lake View Learning Center) opened its doors to students in September 2013, with the Teaneck facility repurposed to serve students in pre-Kindergarten through third grade.[2]
Curriculum
The students at Al-Ghazaly study standard subjects, such as math (from algebra to calculus), English, science, history. Additionally, the school includes Arabic, Quran (memorization of the holy book), tafsir (analyzing/finding deep meaning to Quran), and Islamic studies as part of the curriculum. In Islamic studies, the students learn the morals and teachings of Islam, Sunna and shariah.
The students pray Zuhr together every day, and on Fridays, they have a Khateeb (imam) preach to them, after which they pray Jumu'ah.
With the opening of the new school building, new sports team are being founded by the students, including a boys and girls soccer team and a flag football team.
^Burrow, Megan. "Al-Ghazaly Elementary School in Teaneck readies for opening", Teaneck Suburbanite, August 29, 2013. Accessed October 3, 2013. "Iman El-Dessouky, a board member at Al-Ghazaly School, said the change was precipitated when the school secured a bigger building for its high school students in Wayne.... Originally, El-Dessouky said, the school planned to use the Teaneck campus for pre-kindergarten through first grade students, but after the school held an open house for parents and prospective students earlier this month, the board decided to expand its offerings up to third grade."
