The Montague Township School District is a comprehensive community

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 ...

that serves 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

eighth grade Eighth grade (or grade eight in some regions) is the eighth post-kindergarten year of formal education in the US. The eighth grade is the ninth school year, the second, third, fourth, or final year of middle school, or the second and/or final ye ...

from Montague Township, in Sussex 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. As of the 2020–21 school year, the district, comprised of one school, had an enrollment of 247 students and 20.0 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 12.4:1.District information for Montague Township School District

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 February 15, 2022. Public school students in

ninth In music, a ninth is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a second. Like the second, the interval of a ninth is classified as a dissonance in common practice tonality. Since a ninth is an octave larger than a second, its ...

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 ...

s attend

High Point Regional High School High Point Regional High School is a comprehensive four-year public high school located in Wantage Township, New Jersey, United States (with a Sussex postal address), which is the sole high school in its school district. The district educate ...

.Montague Township School District 2015 District Narrative

New Jersey School Report Card The New Jersey School Report Card is an annual report produced each year by the New Jersey Department of Education for all school districts and schools in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The current School Report Card presents thirty-five fields of ...

. Accessed June 7, 2016. "In September 2014, the district began to transition incoming ninth grade students from the Port Jervis City School District in Port Jervis New York into High Point Regional School District in Jew Jersey. The transition of high school students into High Point Regional School District will be complete by 2017." High Point also serves students from Branchville Borough, Frankford Township, Lafayette Township, Sussex Borough and Wantage Township (where the school is located). As of the 2020–21 school year, the high school had an enrollment of 841 students and 74.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a

of 11.4:1. Students may also enroll at Sussex County Technical School, which accepts students on a selective basis, and to the middle school

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

program in Sparta Township. 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 ...

"B", the second 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 local ...

characteristics of the local districts. From lowest socioeconomic status to highest, the categories are A, B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J.

History

for more than 80 years until 2013, the Montague district sent its high school-aged students to

Port Jervis High School Port Jervis High School (PJHS or "Port") is a public high school in Deerpark, New York, with a Port Jervis postal address. A part of Port Jervis City School District, it is on U.S. Route 209, sharing a property with Anna S. Kuhl Elementary School ...

, of the

Port Jervis City School District Port Jervis City School District (PJCSD) is an American school district headquartered in Port Jervis, New York. The district runs four schools, 2 elementary schools, 1 middle school, and one high school. The district's students come from Port Jer ...

Port Jervis, New York Port Jervis is a city located at the confluence of the Neversink and Delaware rivers in western Orange County, New York, United States, north of the Delaware Water Gap. Its population was 8,775 at the 2020 census. The communities of Deerpark, ...

; the Montague district was the only New Jersey school district to send its students outside of New Jersey to complete certain grade levels. Because the Montague Township students graduated from Port Jervis High, they qualified for in-state tuition rates at universities in two states. The district also sent middle school-aged students to Port Jervis Middle School. In various periods Montague Township considered switching to

but the distance was further than the to Port Jervis High, and James Nani of the ''

Times Herald-Record The ''Times Herald-Record'', often referred to as ''The Record'' or ''Middletown Record'' in its coverage area, is a daily newspaper published in Middletown, New York, covering the northwest suburbs of New York City. It covers Orange, Sullivan ...

'' stated that during inclement weather Deckertown Turnpike, the route between Montague Township and High Point High, may be "treacherous". Rob Jennings of

NJ Advance Media NJ.com is a digital news content provider and website in New Jersey owned by Advance Publications. According to a report in ''The New York Times'' in 2012, it was the largest provider of digital news in the state at the time. In 2018, comScore r ...

wrote that eventually the district moved to court High Point High because of "a desire by some residents to bring students home". In 2013, the Montague district decided to begin sending its students to High Point Regional, effective September 2014. By 2017 all grade levels for high school students were to be sent to High Point HS. The Montague district initially negotiated with the

Frankford Township School District The Frankford Township School District is a comprehensive community public school district that serves students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade from Frankford Township, in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. Students from Bra ...

for the possibility of sending middle schools there. Instead the district expanded to covering middle school with students designated to attend Montague Township School for grades 7-8 instead of Port Jervis Middle effective fall 2016. Families of 20 Port Jervis HS students resident in Montague opposed a New Jersey commissioner order saying they could not continue attending that school and got a settlement on June 20, 2016 that allowed them to complete their high school education there. Eric Obernauer of the ''

New Jersey Herald The ''New Jersey Herald'' is a newspaper published six days (Sunday-Friday) every week. Its headquarters are in Newton, New Jersey. It is the only daily newspaper published in Sussex County, New Jersey and one of the oldest in the state. It has a ...

'' wrote that the move to High Point "was controversial and followed by the successive turnover of the entire Montague board over the next two years". The Montague district began seeking to annul the relationship with High Point Regional and resume sending students to Port Jervis. In February 2018 all seven members of the Montague board approved a symbolic resolution to not renew its ties with High Point. Obernauer stated that the Montague-High Point relationship was "frosty" and "icy". The Montague district chose to switch back to Port Jervis because Port Jervis offered a lower tuition than High Point; High Point charged $16,368 per student to Montague. All six members of the Montague district voted, in October 2019, to switch back to Port Jervis. The High Point district sought to block this request on the grounds it and its students would be financially impacted. The Montague district stated that the districts signed an agreement in 2018 that would allow Montague to leave at will. By December 2020 the districts were in a legal dispute. The High Point agreement is scheduled to end in 2024. Obernauer stated that while Montague School District switching to another school district in New Jersey was "conceivable", "it is questionable if a future ew Jerseyeducation commissioner would ever agree to have Montague return to sending students out of state to Port Jervis" and that "Even without a formal agreement in place, getting out of send-receive relationships in New Jersey is notoriously difficult and typically requires that the separation have no adverse impact on either district." By 2021 the Montague board, now with new members, sought to dismiss lawsuits against High Point. Obernauer stated "dissatisfaction with how the Montague district is being run and legal fees spent trying to resume the longstanding relationship with Port Jervis, coupled with a growing acceptance of the High Point relationship, appear to have changed public sentiment."

Schools

Schools in the district (with 2020–21 enrollment data from the

) are: ;Elementary schools *Montague Elementary School (with 247 students in grades PreK-8) Montague School was previously K-6, but when the send-receive agreement with Port Jervis was phased out, the school became a K-8. The district had a planned expansion, approved by 4-2 by the school board and scheduled to be put up for a public vote on September 30, 2014.

Administration

Core members of the district's administration are:Administration
Montague Township School District. Accessed July 26, 2022. *James Andriac, Acting Superintendent *Carl Morelli, Business Administrator

Board of education

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 seven 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 two or 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.New Jersey Boards of Education by District Election Types - 2018 School Election

, updated February 16, 2018. Accessed January 26, 2020.Board of Education
Montague Township School District. Accessed April 12, 2020.

References

External links

Montague Township School District
*
School Data for the Montague Township School District

{{Sussex County, New Jersey School Districts Montague Township, New Jersey New Jersey District Factor Group B School districts in Sussex County, New Jersey Public K–8 schools in New Jersey Public elementary schools in New Jersey