Morris School District

Morris School District
31 Hazel Street
Morristown, NJ 07960
District information
Grades PreK-12
Superintendent Mackey Pendergrast
Business administrator Anthony LoFranco
Schools 10
Students and staff
Enrollment 5,123 (as of 2014-15)[1]
Faculty 426.7 FTEs[1]
Student-teacher ratio 12.0:1[1]
Other information
District Factor Group GH
Website www.morrisschooldistrict.org
Ind. Per pupil District
spending 		Rank
(*) 		K-12
average		 %± vs.
average
1ATotal Spending$20,57683$18,8918.9%
1Budgetary Cost15,8837814,7837.4%
2Classroom Instruction8,898608,7631.5%
6Support Services3,085932,39229.0%
8Administrative Cost1,511611,4851.8%
10Operations & Maintenance1,916771,7837.5%
13Extracurricular Activities3117526816.0%
16Median Teacher Salary70,1007864,043
Data from NJDoE 2014 Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending.[2]
*Of K-12 districts with more than 3,500 students. Lowest spending=1; Highest=103

The Morris School District is a comprehensive community public school district that serves students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade from three municipalities in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. The communities in the district are Morristown and Morris Township, along with students from Morris Plains in grades 9-12 who attend the district's high school as part of a sending/receiving relationship with the Morris Plains Schools.[3][4]

As of the 2014-15 school year, the district and its 10 schools had an enrollment of 5,123 students and 426.7 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.0:1.[1]

The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "GH", the third-highest 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.[5]

In addition to its PreK-12 program, the Morris School District operates a Community School that offers an extensive adult school curriculum. The Community School also provides a before and after-school childcare program, Sunrise Sunset, for Morris School District children of busy parents. Housed in each of the District's elementary schools, Sunrise Sunset offers a supervised environment in which boys and girls can work and play before and after school. The Community School's summer program, Summer Plus, provides children with a local alternative to summer camp.

Schools

Schools in the district (with 2014-15 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics[6]) are:[7][8]

Preschool
Primary schools
Intermediate schools
Multiage magnet school
Middle school
High school

Administration

Core members of the district's administration are:[19][20]

Board of education

The Morris School District Board of Education has ten members; five from Morris Township, four from Morristown, and one from Morris Plains. The representatives from Morris Township and Morristown are elected by the voters of each individual municipality to three-year terms of office. The Morris Plains Board of Education appoints a representative to the Morris School District Board to represent Morris Plains on issues affecting Morristown High School, who is also eligible to vote on district-wide issues.[21]

School Board elections are held in April of each year. In addition to selecting members of the Board of Education, voters also are asked to vote on the proposed budget for the subsequent school year.

History

Two schools are known to have operated in near the Green in Morristown in the 18th century. One was in use from 1732–1767; the other, known as the "Steeple School," stood from 1767 - 1799.

From the early to mid-19th century, local schools included the Franklin Street, Bridge Street, Mt. Kemble, and Washington Valley Schools.

The Maple Avenue School opened in 1869 on land donated by George T. Cobb.

An early, 18th century school, located three miles west of Morristown was described as follows: "The building was constructed of logs, and instead of glass window, sheep skins were stretched over apertures made by sawing off an occasional log.

In 1971, the district was regionalized under an order by the New Jersey Supreme Court that combined the two seperate pre-existing districts, which ruled that the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education can cross district lines only for desegregation purposes. The decision found that Morristown and the surrounding Morris Township constituted a "single community without visible or factually significant boundary separations" but that de facto segregation existed because Morristown had a substantial black population while the surrounding township did not. By pairing schools across the two municipalities in the merged district, the district could keep a black population at about 20% of enrollment in each elementary school.[22]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 District information for Morris School District, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed December 7, 2016.
  2. ↑ Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending April 2013, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed April 15, 2013.
  3. ↑ Morristown High School 2016 Report Card Narrative, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed May 16, 2017. "Comprised of 1,848 ethnically diverse students speaking more than 20 different languages, the educational program serves the students entrusted to the school by its communities: Morristown, Morris Township and Morris Plains."
  4. ↑ Morris Plains Borough School 2016 Report Card Narrative, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed May 16, 2017. "Borough School continues its collaboration with the Morris School District, strengthening and supporting the send-receive relationship between the two districts. As Borough students graduate from eighth grade and enroll in Morristown High School, it is important for them to have all of the same opportunities to connect with curriculum requirements that their high school classmates had as students in the Morris School District."
  5. ↑ NJ Department of Education District Factor Groups (DFG) for School Districts, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed September 4, 2014.
  6. ↑ School Data for the Morris School District, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed December 7, 2016.
  7. ↑ Directory of Schools, Morris School District. Accessed May 17, 2017.
  8. ↑ New Jersey School Directory for the Morris School District, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed December 29, 2016.
  9. ↑ Lafayette Learning Center, Morris School District. Accessed May 17, 2017.
  10. ↑ Hillcrest School, Morris School District. Accessed May 17, 2017.
  11. ↑ Alfred Vail School, Morris School District. Accessed May 17, 2017.
  12. ↑ Woodland School, Morris School District. Accessed May 17, 2017.
  13. ↑ Alexander Hamilton School, Morris School District. Accessed May 17, 2017.
  14. ↑ Thomas Jefferson School, Morris School District. Accessed May 17, 2017.
  15. ↑ Sussex Avenue School, Morris School District. Accessed May 17, 2017.
  16. ↑ Normandy Park School, Morris School District. Accessed May 17, 2017.
  17. ↑ Frelinghuysen Middle School, Morris School District. Accessed May 17, 2017.
  18. ↑ Morristown High School, Morris School District. Accessed May 17, 2017.
  19. ↑ Central Office Department Contacts, Morris School District. Accessed May 17, 2017.
  20. ↑ New Jersey School Directory for Morris County, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed December 29, 2016.
  21. ↑ Board of Education, Morris School District. Accessed September 4, 2014.
  22. ↑ Staff. "In Morris, a Painful Schools Merger", The New York Times, October 21, 1973. Accessed July 19, 2017. "In 1971, Dr. Carl E. Marburger, the former State Commissioner of Education, ordered the merger of the two school systems. His decision was based on a ruling by the State Supreme Court that school district lines could be crossed to avoid 'de facto' segregation caused by housing patterns. The thrust of the court's decision was that, in fact, the two municipalities were a 'single community without visible or factually significant boundary separations.'"

Coordinates: 40°48′19″N 74°28′33″W / 40.80541°N 74.475909°W / 40.80541; -74.475909

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