Bergen County Academies (BCA) is a tuition-free public magnet high school located in Hackensack, New Jersey that serves students in the ninth through twelfth grades from Bergen County, New Jersey. The school was founded by John Grieco, also founder of the Academies at Englewood, in 1991. In 2021, Niche ranked BCA as the #1 best public high school in America. BCA was also named as one of the 23 highest performing high schools in the United States by The Washington Post. BCA is a National Blue Ribbon School, a member of the National Consortium of Secondary STEM Schools, home of eleven 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholars including two Finalists, and a Model School in the Arts as named by the New Jersey Department of Education. The school is currently organized into seven academies: Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology (AAST), Academy for Business and Finance (ABF), Academy for Culinary Arts and Hospitality Administration (ACAHA), Academy for Engineering and Design Technology (AEDT), Academy for Medical Science Technology (AMST), Academy for Technology and Computer Science (ATCS), and Academy for Visual and Performing Arts (AVPA). As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,109 students and 93.6 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.8:1. There were 26 students (2.3% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 16 (1.4% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch. History Bergen County Academies was conceived by John Grieco. The school was founded on a vocational school framework with the mission of preparing students for careers in math and science by promoting a problem-solving, project-based, technical learning environment. It has since departed from this model and adopted a more standard college-preparatory curriculum. The school originally began as a single academy, "The Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology" (AAST), which shared the current campus with the Bergen County Technical High School now located in Teterboro. The first group of AAST students was inducted in 1992 for the graduating class of 1996. In 1997, additional academies opened on the campus: the Academy for Business and Computer Technology (ABCT), the Academy for Engineering and Design Technology (AEDT), and the Academy for Medical Science Technology (AMST). The following year saw the opening of three career institutes, renamed a year later to become academies: the Academy for Culinary Arts (ACA), the Academy for Power and Transportation (APT), and the Academy