Lenape Regional High School District

The Lenape Regional High School District is a comprehensive regional public high school district that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from eight municipalities in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. The communities in the district are Evesham Township, Medford Lakes, Medford Township, Mount Laurel Township, Shamong Township, Southampton Township, Tabernacle Township and Woodland Township. The eight municipalities cover a combined area of which represents roughly one-third of the entire area of Burlington County, the largest county in New Jersey. Each of the eight communities served by the Lenape District has its own elementary school district. Each elementary school district is governed by its own nine-member board of education which oversees the school budget and the education of students in pre-kindergarten / kindergarten through eighth grade.

As of the 2021–22 school year, the district, comprised of four schools, had an enrollment of 6,717 students and 577.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.6:1.District information for Lenape Regional High School District
National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed December 1, 2022.

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.

History

The regional district was formed after 93% of voters approved the passage of a referendum in September 1955 by residents of the original seven constituent municipalities -- Evesham, Medford, Mount Laurel, Shamong, Southampton and Tabernacle Townships, along with Medford Lakes -- to cover the cost of a $2 million (equivalent to $ million in ) facility that would serve 1,000 students. Delaware Township (since renamed as Cherry Hill), Maple Shade Township and Woodland Township townships had considered -- and turned down -- the opportunity to join the nascent regional district.

A plot covering in Medford was selected in June 1956 as a site for the district's first high school facility. Lenape High School opened in September 1958 with 548 students in 9th and 10th grades only, before which students from Medford, Medford Lakes and Tabernacle Township had attended Rancocas Valley Regional High School. By the 1961-62 school year, Lenape was on double sessions with approximately 1,500 students. In July 1961, an addition to the original building was started, with a second addition dedicated on January 17, 1965.

A second high school, announced in 1968 with an estimated cost of $3.5 million (equivalent to $ million in ), was designed to accommodate a student body of 1,500 and include 26 classrooms, a gym, cafeteria, and a 600-seat auditorium. Shawnee High School opened in 1970 as the second of the district's four high schools.

With overcrowding at both Lenape (with 2,400 students) and Shawnee (1,600) high schools requiring split sessions, voters approved a December 1972 referendum to construct a third high school that would have a capacity of 1,500 students and be constructed on the same model as Shawnee. The ballot item was approved by a 55-45% margin, with voters in favor in Evesham, Medford and Mount Laurel Townships, while it was rejected in Medford Lakes and Shamong, Southampton and Tabernacle Townships. Cherokee High School opened in September 1975 with 750 students in grades 9 and 10, by which time district enrollment had grown to nearly 5,000. The school was constructed at a cost of $7 million (equivalent to $ million in ) on a site in Evesham Township covering .Curran, Karen
"High schools in Delran, Evesham ready to open"
'' Courier-Post'', August 21, 1975. Accessed March 13, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "It is for students from Evesham, but it's also for students from the six other towns which make up the Lenape Regional High School District. The local share of the $7 million cost of Cherokee High School, the third school in the Lenape district, will be shared by the seven municipalities according to the percentage of tax ratables they have within the district as a whole. Of the district's 4,950 high school students, 750 ninth and tenth graders will go to Cherokee in the fall."

In 1996, legislation introduced by State Senator C. William Haines and signed into law by Governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman would allow the Woodland Township School District to sever its sending/receiving relationship with the Pemberton Township School District as part of a relationship that dated back to the 1920s. For years, the Pemberton district had refused Woodland Township's repeated requests to terminate the relationship. In May 1997, the Lenape district agreed to start accepting students from Woodland Township at Lenape High School starting with the 1997-98 school year and to add Woodland Township as the regional district's eight constituent municipality.

A Cherokee High School South "school-within-a-school" opened in September 2001 for 1,150 students in grades 9-10, which was constructed at a cost of $26.4 million (equivalent to $ million in ), at which time the original building was renamed as Cherokee High School North. In 2018, with the retirement of the South principal, Leonard Iannelli, Cherokee eliminated the position, effectively merging the North and South building into one school.

Approved by voters in 1997, the Seneca High School was expected to be completed by 2000, to be constructed on a site designed to accommodate an enrollment of 2,000. The school opened in September 2007 with 860 students from Shamong, Southampton, Tabernacle and Woodland Townships and was completed at a cost of $45.7 million (equivalent to $ million in ). Delays caused by lawsuits related to the building site in the Pinelands resulted in budget overruns of $8.7 million.

District schools

When the public school students in each of the sending districts graduate from eighth grade, they are sent to one of the four high schools that fall under the jurisdiction of the Lenape Regional High School District. Schools in the district (with 2021–22 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are:Profile and History
Lenape Regional High School District. Accessed December 26, 2022. "The Lenape District’s four high schools are: Lenape, Shawnee, Cherokee North and South and Seneca. Students from Mount Laurel attend Lenape; students from Medford, Medford Lakes attend Shawnee; students from Evesham (Marlton) attend Cherokee North and South and students from Tabernacle, Shamong, Southampton and Woodland attend Seneca."
;High schools
* Cherokee High School - located in Evesham Township, with 2,165 students from Evesham Township. Opened 1975.
**Donna Charlesworth, Principal''Student Handbook 2021-22''
Lenape Regional High School District. Accessed March 13, 2022.
*Lenape High School - located in Medford Township, with 1,924 students from Mount Laurel Township. Opened 1958.
**Tony Cattani, Principal
* Seneca High School - located in Tabernacle Township, with 1,026 students from Shamong, Southampton, Tabernacle and Woodland Townships. Opened 2003.
**Bradley Bauer, Principal
* Shawnee High School - located in Medford Township, with 1,500 students from Medford Lakes and Medford Township. Opened 1970.
**Matthew Campbell, Principal
;Alternative program
*Sequoia Alternative Program - located in Evesham Township in the former Evans Elementary School
**Ben Lamberson, Director

Two non-profit foundations support the Lenape District, raising funds to support scholarships for students, facilities improvements and a 1,500-seat regional performing arts center, which is home to the Cherokee's theater program.

Administration

Core members of the district's administration are:
*Dr. Carol L. Birnbohm, Superintendent
*Constance L. Stewart, Business Administrator / Board Secretary

Board of education

The district's board of education, comprised of 11 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 either three or four 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. Each of the eight constituent municipalities has at least one seat on the board, with two seats allocated to the three most populous constituent municipalities—Evesham, Medford and Mount Laurel—and the five other municipalities each assigned one seat.

Student body

In 1996, the percentage of students who matriculated to community colleges or four-year universities for all schools was at least 80% per school.Wilson, David E
"Woodland youths may get to skip Pemberton High; Well, the way is clearer for them to go to Lenape Regional. Parents have yearned for that for years."
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', September 8, 1996. Pages BR1-2
Clipping from first page
an
second page
Accessed March 13, 2022, via Newspapers.com.

References

External links

Lenape Regional High School District
*
School Data for the Lenape Regional High School District
National Center for Education Statistics

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1955 establishments in New Jersey
School districts established in 1955
New Jersey District Factor Group GH
School districts in Burlington County, New Jersey
Evesham Township, New Jersey
Medford, New Jersey
Medford Lakes, New Jersey
Mount Laurel, New Jersey
Shamong Township, New Jersey
Southampton Township, New Jersey
Tabernacle Township, New Jersey
Woodland Township, New Jersey