Elizabeth Public Schools is a
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
school district
A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations.
North America United States
In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, wh ...
in
Elizabeth
Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to:
People
* Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name)
* Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist
Ships
* HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships
* ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...
, in
Union County,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, United States, serving students in
pre-kindergarten
Pre-kindergarten (also called Pre-K or PK) is a voluntary classroom-based preschool program for children below the age of five in the United States, Canada, Turkey and Greece (when kindergarten starts). It may be delivered through a preschool ...
through
twelfth grade
Twelfth grade, 12th grade, senior year, or grade 12 is the final year of secondary school in most of North America. In other regions, it may also be referred to as class 12 or Year 13. In most countries, students are usually between the ages of 17 ...
. The district is one of 31 former
Abbott district
''Abbott'' districts are school districts in New Jersey that are provided remedies to ensure that their students receive public education in accordance with the state constitution. They were created in 1985 as a result of the first ruling of ''Abb ...
s statewide that were established pursuant to the decision by the
New Jersey Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of New Jersey is the highest court in the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, the Supreme Court of New Jersey is the final judicial authority on all cases in the state court system, including cases challenging the ...
in ''Abbott v. Burke'' 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
The New Jersey Schools Development Authority (commonly referred to as NJSDA or SDA) is the State agency responsible for fully funding and managing the new construction, modernization and renovation of school facilities projects in 31 New Jersey sch ...
. The district was the third largest in New Jersey in 2022,
[Largest School Districts in New Jersey]
Niche
Niche may refer to:
Science
*Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development
*Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species
*Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...
. Accessed February 25, 2022. with a culturally diverse student body coming from 50 countries and speaking more than 37 languages.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the district, comprising 36 schools, had an enrollment of 28,712 students and 2,173.0 classroom teachers (on an
FTE basis), for a
student–teacher ratio
Student–teacher ratio or student–faculty ratio is the number of students who attend a school or university divided by the number of teachers in the institution. For example, a student–teacher ratio of 10:1 indicates that there are 10 students ...
of 13.2:1.
[District information for Elizabeth Public Schools]
National Center for Education Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance ...
. Accessed April 1, 2020.
The district is classified by the
New Jersey Department of Education
The New Jersey Department of Education (NJ DOE) administers state and federal aid programs affecting more than 1.4 million public and non-public elementary and secondary school children in the state of New Jersey. The department is headquartered ...
as being in
District Factor Group
{{refimprove, date=February 2013
Membership in a District Factor Group (DFG) is an indicator of the socioeconomic status of citizens in school districts of New Jersey. DFGs were first developed by the New Jersey Department of Education in 1975 for ...
"A", the lowest of eight groupings. District Factor Groups organize districts statewide to allow comparison by common
socioeconomic
Socioeconomics (also known as social economics) is the social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. In general it analyzes how modern societies progress, stagnate, or regress because of their l ...
characteristics of the local districts. From lowest socioeconomic status to highest, the categories are A, B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J.
Awards, recognition and rankings
In 2015, Elizabeth High School was one of 15 schools in New Jersey, and one of nine public schools, recognized as a
National Blue Ribbon School
The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...
in the exemplary high performing category by the
United States Department of Education
The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...
.
In the 2008-09 school year, Victor Mravlag Elementary School No. 21 was recognized with the Blue Ribbon School Award of Excellence by the United States Department of Education, the highest award an American school can receive. For the 2006-07 school year, William F. Halloran Alternative School #22 was one of four schools in New Jersey recognized with the Blue Ribbon Award. William F. Halloran Alternative School #22 earned a second award when it was one of 11 in the state to be recognized in 2014 by the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program. Terence C. Reilly was also recognized as a National Blue Ribbon school in 2013 and was recognized as a NJ School of Character and National School of Character. Terence C. Reilly is also an Apple Distinguished School and Top 25 in New Jersey. Terence C. Reilly School No. 7 was honored by the
National Blue Ribbon Schools Program in 2019, one of nine schools in the state recognized as Exemplary High Performing Schools.
In 2007, Dr. Albert Einstein Academy School No. 29 became one of 24 schools selected from across the United States and the only
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
Explore School in the state of New Jersey at that time.
In the 2012 "High School Challenge" published by ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', a continuation of high-school rankings formerly published in ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'', ranked Elizabeth High School as the best public high school in New Jersey, and the 76th-best in the United States.
History
Battin High School
Battin High School was a public high school in Elizabeth, in Union County, New Jersey, United States, which operated as part of the Elizabeth Public Schools. The school opened in 1889 as a coeducational institution.Staff''The City of Elizabeth, N ...
was constructed in 1913 at 300 South Broad Street on the site of a mansion that had been donated to the city nearly 25 years earlier by Joseph Battin, president of the Elizabethtown Water Company, and namesake of the school. Originally operated on a coeducational basis, the school became female only starting in 1929, after Thomas Jefferson High School was constructed and dedicated to serve male students.
[Hatala, Greg]
"Glimpse of History: When Battin was co-ed"
''The Star-Ledger
''The Star-Ledger'' is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to ''The Jersey Journal'' of Jersey City, ''The Times'' of Trenton and the '' Staten Island Advance'', all of wh ...
'', June 11, 2012. Accessed March 16, 2015. "According to research by Kristin Kulick, director of special projects for the Elizabeth Board of Education, the academic year 1976-77 was the last year male and female students attended classes separately." In 1977, district officials stated that the inability to determine attendance zones for the two comprehensive high schools after Thomas Jefferson High School opened in 1929 combined with the expansive shop facilities in the new building, led the district to decide to split students by sex, with girls at Battin and boys at Thomas Jefferson.
[ By 1972, Battin was the only public high school in New Jersey operated exclusively for women, despite coeducational programs at both ]Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
and Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...
. By that time, a policy under which pregnant students had been required to withdraw from school had been eliminated and students were allowed to return to school after giving birth and attending a special off-site program during their pregnancy. Though 40% of graduating students went on to college and district officials insisted that the curriculum was standard across the district's separate high schools, a student criticized the difference in expectations of male and female students, noting that "Boys are expected to be engineers and attorneys. Girls are supposed to be secretaries and mothers."
Battin High School and Thomas Jefferson High School were both closed at the end of the 1976-77 school year, after the Elizabeth High School complex was completed and all of the district's students, male and female, were accommodated at the new four-building facility, ending the city's status as "the only community in the state with separate public high schools for boys and girls". The $29.3 million project included renovations to Thomas Jefferson High School, which was integrated into the new complex. The Battin High School building, together with the four existing junior high schools, was repurposed as a middle school for grades six through eight.[Horowitz, Ben]
"Elizabeth Awaits Coed High School"
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', July 10, 1977. Accessed March 16, 2015. "Elizabeth's 48-year role as the only community in the state with separate public high schools for boys and girls will end in September with the opening of a new fourbuilding complex at the corner of South Pearl and South Streets."
Schools
Schools in the district (with 2018–19 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance ...
) are:
;Early childhood centers
*Frances C. Smith Center for Early Childhood Education No. 50 (304 students; in grade PreK)
*Donald Stewart Center for Early Childhood Education No. 51 (300; PreK)
*Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Early Childhood Education No. 52 (307; PreK)
;Elementary and Middle schools
*George Washington Academy School No. 1 (579; PreK-8)
*Winfield Scott School No. 2 (655; PreK-8)
*Nicholas S. La Corte-Peterstown School No. 3 (728; K-8)
*Joseph Battin School No. 4 (825; K-8)
*Mabel G. Holmes School No. 5 (863; PreK-8)
*Toussaint L'ouverture-Marquis de Lafayette School No. 6 (formally known as Toussaint L'ouverture School) (1,085; PreK-8)
*Terence C. Reilly School No. 7 (1,087; Pre-K and 2-8)
*iPrep Academy School No. 8 (431; K-8)
*Jerome Dunn Academy No. 9 (863; K-8)
*Elmora School No. 12 (688; PreK-8)
*Benjamin Franklin School No. 13 (463; K-8)
*Abraham Lincoln School No. 14 (875; K-8)
*Christopher Columbus School No. 15 (665; K-8)
*Madison-Monroe School No. 16 (658; PreK-8)
*Robert Morris School No. 18 (573; K-8)
*Woodrow Wilson School No. 19 (656; PreK-8)
*John Marshall School No. 20 (382; K-8)
*Victor Mravlag School No. 21 (581; PreK-8)
*William F. Halloran No. 22 (1,108; PreK and 2-8)
*Nicholas Murray Butler School No. 23 (848; PreK-8)
Sonia Sotomayor School No. 25 (formerly known as Charles J. Hudson School) (609; K-8)
*Dr. Orlando Edreira Academy School No. 26 (680; PreK-8)
*Dr. Antonia Pantoja School No. 27 (971; PreK-8)
*Juan Pablo Duarte - José Julián Martí School No. 28 (952; PreK-8)
*Dr. Albert Einstein Academy School No. 29 (890; PreK-8)
**Chessie Dentley Roberts Academy No. 30 (808; PreK-8)
;High schools
* Elizabeth High School Frank J. Cicarell Aacdemy (1,152; 9-12)
*J. Christian Bollwage Finance Academy (420; 9-12)
*John E. Dwyer Technology Academy
The John E. Dwyer Technology Academy is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades in Elizabeth, in Union County, New Jersey, United States, as part of the Elizabeth Public Schools. The Techno ...
(1,340; 9-12)
* Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical Academy (872; 9-12)
* Admiral William F. Halsey Jr. Health and Public Safety Academy (1,111; 9-12)
* Alexander Hamilton Preparatory Academy (1,014; 9-12)
*Thomas Jefferson Arts Academy
Thomas Jefferson Arts Academy is a public high school in Elizabeth, New Jersey in Union County in the United States, specializing in the visual, performing, and media arts. Located in historic Midtown, the school serves students in ninth thro ...
(1,122; 9-12)
Administration
Core members of the district's administration are:
*Olga Hugelmeyer, Superintendent
*Harold Kennedy, Business Administrator / Board Secretary
Board of education
The district, with nearly 29,000 students, is the third largest in New Jersey.[ With an estimated 28,500 students for the 2021-22 school year, the district projected an operating budget of $527 million, of which $452 million (85.8%) would be from state sources and $60 million (11.4%) from property taxes
For 2016, the $507 million budget was mostly subsidized by state aid, which accounted for 82.6% of the district's budget, while property taxes covered 11.6% of the budget.
The district's ]board of education
A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution.
The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...
, comprised of nine members, sets policy and oversees the fiscal and educational operation of the district through its administration. As a Type II school district, the board's trustees are elected directly by voters to serve three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with three seats up for election each year held (since 2012) as part of the November general election. The board appoints a superintendent to oversee the district's day-to-day operations and a business administrator to supervise the business functions of the district.
The school board has long had a majority led Rafael Fajardo, a former school board president who has had at least six family members on the payroll. Although he is no longer on the panel, Fajardo had controlled the school system with the support of several board members.
Controversy
In June 2011, the Union County Prosecutor's Office was investigating charges that members of the school board gave jobs and promotions to employees in exchange for political contributions. Republican members of the New Jersey General Assembly
The New Jersey General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature.
Since the election of 1967 (1968 Session), the Assembly has consisted of 80 members. Two members are elected from each of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts for ...
asked for records relating to district spending for entertainment, travel, equipment and other expenditures.
The Investigations Unit of the New Jersey Department of Education
The New Jersey Department of Education (NJ DOE) administers state and federal aid programs affecting more than 1.4 million public and non-public elementary and secondary school children in the state of New Jersey. The department is headquartered ...
reviewed district practices in 2008, following a state auditor's report that undocumented aliens were being improperly hired by the district in custodial and clerical positions. The district's business administrator indicated that the district had been hiring non-citizens for math and science teaching positions due to the inability to find qualified citizens qualified to work in those positions. Other findings had shown that $88,000 was spent by the district for what was deemed to be political advertising and that employee information had been taken from confidential files to be used for soliciting political contributions.
Some other recent headlines include:
* At least $1.5M paid out secretly by Elizabeth schools, a fraction of workers' settlements;
* Elizabeth Board of Education used taxpayer money to keep lawsuits hush-hush;
* Investigation finds Elizabeth school board pressures workers to fill campaign coffers;
* Elizabeth school officials' kids don't pay full meal costs, records show;
* Former Elizabeth Public Schools Equipment Manager Robert Firestone admitted that he conspired to defraud the school system through fraudulent business practices for his personal gain, according to the FBI and US Attorney's office.
2022 Teacher Union Negotiations
At the end of the 2021-22 school year, negotiations between the Elizabeth Education Association, the labor union representing teachers in the Elizabeth Public Schools, had its contract expired while both the Elizabeth School District and the EEA worked on negotiations, leading to no agreement by June 29 when negotiations ended.
On August 24, 2022, Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage
James Christian (Chris) Bollwage is the mayor of Elizabeth, New Jersey, the state's fourth-largest city. A lifelong resident of Elizabeth, he was elected into his first term in 1992, and reelected in November 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 a ...
threatened on Twitter to not give any promotions to teachers who if they go on strike. The tweet has to criticism from residents and staff members. During a board meeting of the Elizabeth Board of Education, EEA President John Griffin spoke to the board demanding that it respond to the Bollwage's Tweet, mentionign that state law does not have the power for the Mayor to make staffing decisions and that mayor accused Griffin over planning a strike.
A lawyer representing the teachers Union questioned the legality of the tweet including to the mayor, warning that he could face violations of the State School Ethics Act and that the tweet damaged the reputation of EEA President Griffin.
References
External links
Elizabeth Public Schools
*
Data for the Elizabeth Public Schools
National Center for Education Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance ...
{{Union County, New Jersey School Districts
Education in Elizabeth, New Jersey
New Jersey Abbott Districts
New Jersey District Factor Group A
School districts in Union County, New Jersey