The Paramus Public Schools are 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

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

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 ...

from

Paramus Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...

, in

Bergen County Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.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 2019–20 school year, the district, comprising eight schools, had an enrollment of 3,760 students and 332.7 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 11.3:1.District information for Paramus Public 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 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 ...

"GH", the third-highest 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.

Awards and recognition

Three of the district's schools have been formally designated as

National Blue Ribbon Schools 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, ...

, the highest honor that an American school can achieve: Paramus High School in 1988-89, Parkway Elementary School in 1987-88 and Ridge Ranch Elementary School in 1998-99. For the 1995-96 school year, Ridge Ranch Elementary School was named as a "Star School" by the

, the highest honor that a New Jersey school can achieve. The district was selected as one of the top "100 Best Communities for Music Education in America 2005" by the

American Music Conference American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

, and was selected again for this honor in 2006.

NAMM The NAMM Show is an annual event in the United States that is organized by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), who describe it as "the industry’s largest stage, uniting the global music, sound and entertainment technology commun ...

named the district in its 2008 survey of the "Best Communities for Music Education", which included 110 school districts nationwide. The district was also named in NAMM's 2009 survey of the "Best Communities for Music Education", which included 124 school districts nationwide.

Schools

Schools in the district, with 2019–20 enrollment data from the

, are: ;Elementary schools *Memorial Elementary School (302 students in grades K–4) **Laverne O'Boyle, Principal *Midland Elementary School (177 students in grades K–4) **Cynthia Hulse, Principal *Parkway Elementary School (314 students in grades PreK–4) **Suzanne Barbi, Principal *Ridge Ranch Elementary School (337 students in grades K–4) **Jeanine Nostrame, Principal *Stony Lane Elementary School (186 students in grades K–4) **Thomas Marshall, Principal ;Middle schools *East Brook Middle School (575 students in grades 5–8) **Ryan Aupperlee, Principal *West Brook Middle School (577 students in grades 5–8) **Deirdre Spollen-LaRaia, Principal ;High school *

Paramus High School Paramus High School is an American four-year comprehensive public high school, located in Paramus, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the Paramus Public ...

(1,253 students in grades 9–12) **Raymond J. Kiem, Principal

Controversies and incidents

In late May 2007, ''

The Record The Record may refer to: Music * ''The Record'' (album), a 1982 studio album by the hardcore-punk band Fear * The Records, an English power pop band * '' Their Greatest Hits: The Record'', a 2001 greatest-hits album by the pop-music group Bee Ge ...

'' reported that Paramus Public School officials had knowingly failed to report the presence of the banned pesticides

aldrin Aldrin is an organochlorine insecticide that was widely used until the 1990s, when it was banned in most countries. Aldrin is a member of the so-called "classic organochlorines" (COC) group of pesticides. COCs enjoyed a very sharp rise in popular ...

dieldrin Dieldrin is an organochloride originally produced in 1948 by J. Hyman & Co, Denver, as an insecticide. Dieldrin is closely related to aldrin, which reacts further to form dieldrin. Aldrin is not toxic to insects; it is oxidized in the insect to fo ...

and

chlordane Chlordane, or chlordan, is an organochlorine compound that was used as a pesticide. It is a white solid. In the United States, chlordane was used for termite-treatment of approximately 30 million homes until it was banned in 1988. Chlordane was b ...

on the campus of West Brook, a middle school in the system. Responding to local outrage, the superintendent, Janice Dime, assured in a letter addressed to the public that the chemicals were not hazardous, however, borough mayor, Jim Tedesco, described Dime's statement as being either misinformed or deliberately misleading. Because of public pressure, on June 6, 2007, the district's board of education placed Janice Dime on an extended leave and shut down West Brook Middle School for decontamination and testing. On June 13, test results done by a borough-contracted firm revealed that two of the 30 tested areas on campus had levels of chlordane that exceeded state safety standards.Gartland, Michael
"Pesticide confirmed at school"
''

'', June 16, 2007. Accessed July 23, 2015. Since the incident more soil tests have been conducted around the area and in other parts of Paramus, with some yielding positive for excessive presence of pesticide. West Brook was decontaminated and reopened to students, while Janice Dime resigned from her position as superintendent. In May 2018, a 51-year-old teacher, Jennifer Williamson, and a ten-year-old student at East Brook Middle School, Miranda Faith Vargas, were killed and dozens of students were injured when a dump truck slammed into their school bus on

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

while travelling on a field trip to

Waterloo Village Waterloo Village is a restored 19th-century canal town in Byram Township, New Jersey, Byram Township, Sussex County, New Jersey, Sussex County (west of Stanhope, New Jersey, Stanhope) in northwestern New Jersey, United States. The community was ...

. The 77-year-old driver, who had had his driver's license suspended 14 times before the accident, was charged with vehicular homicide, which could lead to a sentence of ten years in jail upon conviction. Days after the crash, Cong.

Josh Gottheimer Joshua S. Gottheimer ( ; born March 8, 1975) is an American attorney, writer, and public policy adviser who has served as the U.S. representative for since 2017. The district stretches along the northern border of the state from New York City's ...

pushed for a federal law requiring school buses to have seat belts to prevent deaths in similar types of crashes.

Administration

Core members of the district's administration are:District Administrators
Paramus Public Schools. Accessed February 9, 2021. *Sean Adams, Superintendent *Brooke Bartley Business Administrator / Board Secretary

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 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 day-to-day operation of the district.Our Board of Education
Paramus Public Schools. Accessed May 21, 2020. "The Paramus Board of Education is elected individuals who freely dedicate their time and energy to serving our school community."

References

External links

Paramus Public Schools
*
Paramus Public Schools

{{Authority control Paramus, New Jersey New Jersey District Factor Group GH School districts in Bergen County, New Jersey