The Union Public 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

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 Union Township, in Union County, in the U.S. state of

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 ...

. As of the 2021–22 school year, the district, comprised of 10 schools, had an enrollment of 7,503 students and 576.7 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 13.0:1.District information for Township Of Union 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 December 1, 2022. 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 "DE", the fifth-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.

History

In 1969, the Union school district was threatened with being the first town north of the

Mason–Dixon line The Mason–Dixon line, also called the Mason and Dixon line or Mason's and Dixon's line, is a demarcation line separating four U.S. states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia (part of Virginia ...

to be penalized for school segregation. The area of

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...

was primarily black and Jefferson Elementary School was disproportionately black compared to the rest of the town. Union avoided problems by converting Jefferson Elementary into a sixth-grade only school called Central 6 and bused all children in the district in 6th grade to Jefferson Elementary School. It was later renamed Central 5 housing all fifth-grade students because the two junior highs, Burnet and Kawameeh, became middle schools and took on sixth grade students.

Schools

The schools in the district (with 2021–22 enrollment data from the

) are: ;Elementary schools *Battle Hill Elementary School (379 students; in grades PreK-4) **Sharon Drayton, interim principal *Hannah Caldwell Elementary School (646; PreK-4) **Mark Hoyt, principal *Connecticut Farms Elementary School (382; PreK-4) **Michelle C. Osborne-Warren, principal *Franklin Elementary School (468; PreK-4) ** Kira Baskerville-Williams, principal *Livingston Elementary School (420; PreK-4) **Benjamin Kloc, principal *Washington Elementary School (558; PreK-4) **Thomas O. Matthews, principal *Jefferson Elementary School (524; grade 5) **Kelly Piano, interim principal ;Middle schools *Burnet Middle School (977; 6–8) **David Shaw, principal *Kawameeh Middle School (728; 6–8) **Jason Malanda, principal ;High school * Union High School (2,270; 9–12) **Althea Bossard, interim principal

Administration

Core members of the district's administration are: *Dr. Scott Taylor, superintendent *Yolanda Koon, school business administrator and 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 district's day-to-day operations and a business administrator to supervise the business functions of the district.Board Of Education
Union Public School District. Accessed April 21, 2023. "The Township of Union Public Schools is a Type II school district. Our Board of Education is comprised of nine volunteers who are elected into office to serve three-year terms."

References

External links

Union Public School District
*
School Data for the Union Public School District

{{Union County, New Jersey School Districts Union Township, Union County, New Jersey New Jersey District Factor Group DE School districts in Union County, New Jersey