Jersey City Public Schools

Jersey City Public Schools
Type and location
Grades pre-K to 12
Address 346 Claremont Avenue
Jersey City, NJ 07305
District information
Superintendent Dr. Marcia V. Lyles
Schools 39
Affiliation(s) Former Abbott district
Students and staff
Enrollment 27,397 (as of 2011-12)[1]
Faculty 2,665.0 FTEs
Student-teacher ratio 12.95:1
Other information
District Factor Group B
Website www.jcboe.org
Ind. Per Pupil District
Spending 		Rank
(*) 		K-12
Average		 %± vs.
Average
1ATotal Spending$22,27395$18,04723.4%
1Budgetary Cost18,1199914,51924.8%
2Classroom Instruction10,454968,58821.7%
6Support Services2,826872,33820.9%
8Administrative Cost1,7731011,44822.4%
10Operations & Maintenance2,9001031,78762.3%
13Extracurricular Activities15214263-42.2%
16Median Teacher Salary68,3607662,707
Data from NJDoE 2013 Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending.[2]
*Of K-12 districts with more than 3,500 students. Lowest spending=1; Highest=106

The Jersey City Public Schools is a comprehensive community public school district located in Jersey City, in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. The district is one of 31 former Abbott districts statewide,[3] which are now referred to as "SDA Districts" based on the requirement for the state to cover all costs for school building and renovation projects in these districts under the supervision of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority.[4][5]

As of the 2010-11 school year, the district's 38 schools had an enrollment of 34,505 students and 2,665.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.95:1.[1]

The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "B", the second lowest of eight groupings. District Factor Groups organize districts statewide to allow comparison by common socioeconomic characteristics of the local districts. From lowest socioeconomic status to highest, the categories are A, B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J.[6]

The district is one of three districts in New Jersey (along with Newark Public Schools and Paterson Public Schools) under "state intervention", which authorizes the state Commissioner of Education to intervene in curriculum functions.[7][8]

Awards, recognition and rankings

Dr. Ronald E. McNair Academic High School was the second-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 328 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2012 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", after being ranked second in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.[9] William L. Dickinson High School is the oldest high schools in the city and James J. Ferris High School is represented by some of the top students of Jersey City who are members of the National Academy Foundation Magnet Programs. Academy I Middle School is one of the top middle schools in the country. Has been recognized with several achievements, including first place in the Lexus Environmental Challenge in 2008.

Dr. McNair Academic High School was named as a "Star School" by the New Jersey Department of Education, the highest honor that a New Jersey school can achieve, in the 1994-95 school year.[10]

Alexander D. Sullivan School was recognized by Governor Jim McGreevey in 2003 as one of 25 schools selected statewide for the First Annual Governor's School of Excellence award.[11]

School uniforms

Students have been wearing school uniforms since 1998.[12]

Schools

Schools in the district (with 2010-11 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics[13]) are:[14]

Division A

Ollie E. Culbreath, Jr. P.S. 14
Copernicus
Joseph Brensinger School
Elementary schools

Division B

Franklin L. Williams M.S. 7
Anthony J. Infante P.S. 31

Secondary Division

Dr. Ronald E. McNair Academic High School

Administration

Core members of the district's administration are:[16]

State intervention

The district is one of three districts in New Jersey under "state intervention", which authorizes the Commissioner of Education to intervene in governance of a local public school district (and to intervene in the areas of instruction and program, operations, personnel, and fiscal management) if the Commissioner has determined that a school district failed or was unable to take corrective actions necessary to establish a thorough and efficient system of education.[7]

On October 4, 1989, the New Jersey Department of Education established a State-operated School District for Jersey City, appointing a State District Superintendent to serve as the governing authority for the District instead of the Board of Education, and a new Board of Education was created and functioned as an advisory body.[8] In 2005 the legislature disbanded state operation and created "state intervention".[7] The Jersey City Board of Education assumed control of governance and finance on April 17, 2008.[8] As of October 2010, although governance had been restored to local control in the form of an elected school board, the state district superintendent remained to manage personnel and curriculum functions.[7] Local control for personnel was returned to the district in 2012.[8]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 District information for the Jersey City School District, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed September 23, 2012.
  2. ↑ Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending April 2013, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed April 15, 2013.
  3. ↑ Abbott Districts, New Jersey Department of Education, backed up by the Internet Archiveas of May 15, 2009. Accessed August 14, 2012.
  4. ↑ What are SDA Districts?, New Jersey Schools Development Authority. Accessed August 14, 2012. "SDA Districts are 31 special-needs school districts throughout New Jersey. They were formerly known as Abbott Districts, based on the Abbott v. Burke case in which the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the State must provide 100 percent funding for all school renovation and construction projects in special-needs school districts.... The districts were renamed after the elimination of the Abbott designation through passage of the state’s new School Funding Formula in January 2008."
  5. ↑ SDA Districts, New Jersey Schools Development Authority. Accessed August 14, 2012.
  6. ↑ NJ Department of Education District Factor Groups (DFG) for School Districts, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed March 18, 2015.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Governance and Urban School Improvement: Lessons for New Jersey From Nine Cities (PDF). Institute on Education Law and Policy, Rutgers–Newark. October 2010. pp. 65–68.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 "JERSEY CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMPREHENSIVE ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT For the Year Ended June 30, 2013" (PDF). Jersey City Public Schools. December 2013.
  9. ↑ Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 21, 2012. Accessed September 23, 2012.
  10. ↑ Star School Award recipient detail, New Jersey Department of Education, Archived December 18, 2006. Accessed November 25, 2009.
  11. ↑ McGreevey Celebrates Schools that are "Getting it Right": Schools of Excellence Winners Demonstrate Effectiveness of Governor’s Education Priorities, New Jersey Department of Education press release dated November 211, 2003. Accessed December 15, 2009.
  12. ↑ UNIFORM POLICY REMINDER. Liberty Lines. Jersey City Public Schools. Summer 2011. Volume 14, Issue 5. p. 2. Accessed December 9, 2011.
  13. ↑ School Data for the Jersey City Public Schools, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed September 22, 2013.
  14. ↑ New Jersey School Directory for the Jersey City Public Schools, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed September 22, 2013.
  15. ↑ Whiten, Jon. "Deadline to Apply to New Jersey City Middle/High School is This Friday", Jersey City Independent, August 23, 2010. Accessed November 27, 2011.
  16. ↑ New Jersey School Directory for Hudson County, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed March 23, 2015.
  17. ↑ Superintendent's Message, Jersey City Public Schools. Accessed September 22, 2013.
  18. ↑ Business Administrator/Board Secretary, Jersey City Public Schools. Accessed September 22, 2013.

External links

Coordinates: 40°42′51″N 74°05′14″W / 40.714057°N 74.087308°W