West Cape May School District is a 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 ...

located in West Cape May in

Cape May County Cape May County is the southernmost county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Much of the county is located on Cape May bound by Delaware Bay to its west and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and east. Adjacent to the Atlantic coastline are fiv ...

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, 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

sixth grade Sixth grade (or grade six in some regions) is the sixth year of schooling. Students are typically 11–12 years old, depending on when their birthday occurs. Different terms and numbers are used in other parts of the world. It is commonly the firs ...

. With an average of fewer than 10 students per grade, it one of the districts with the smallest enrollment in the state. The district has been a participant in the

Interdistrict Public School Choice Program The Interdistrict Public School Choice Program is a program designed to expand educational choices for New Jersey students by providing them with the option of attending a school district outside their district of residence without cost to their pa ...

. As of the 2017-18 school year, the district and its one school had an enrollment of 103 students and 9.6 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 10.8:1.District information for West Cape May Elementary 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 November 1, 2019. 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. For

seventh Seventh is the ordinal form of the number seven. Seventh may refer to: * Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution * A fraction (mathematics), , equal to one of seven equal parts Film and television *"The Seventh", a second-season epi ...

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, public school students attend the schools of the

Lower Cape May Regional School District The Lower Cape May Regional School District (LCMR School District) is regional public school district headquartered in Lower Township, New Jersey, United States, that serves students in seventh through twelfth grades through from four communiti ...

, which serves students from Cape May, Lower Township and West Cape May, along with students from

Cape May Point Cape May Point is a borough located at the tip of the Cape May Peninsula in Cape May County, New Jersey and is the southernmost point in the state. It is part of the Ocean City Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 United States census ...

who attend as part of a

sending/receiving relationship A sending/receiving relationship is one in which a public school district sends some or all of its students to attend the schools of another district. This is often done to achieve costs savings in smaller districts or continues after districts hav ...

.Johnson, Virgil; and Kirtland, James L
"A Feasibility Study to Reconfigure the Lower Cape May Regional School District"
Statistical Forecasting LLC, June 2013. Accessed October 31, 2014. "Cape May City is one of three constituent communities served by the Lower Cape May Regional School District ('Lower Cape May Regional'), a limited purpose school district providing education for the middle and high school students from Cape May City, Lower Township, and West Cape May.... Students from Cape May Point attend on a sending-receiving basis." Schools in the district (with 2017-18 enrollment data from the

) are Richard M. Teitelman Middle School (458 students; in grades 7 and 8) and Lower Cape May Regional High SchoolLower Cape May Regional High School
Lower Cape May Regional School District. Accessed January 30, 2020. (871; 9-12). In 2013, the Lower Cape May Regional School District received a feasibility study that looked at ways to reconfigure the district, which had been established in 1956. The study considered Cape May City withdrawing from the regional district or the dissolution of the district, converting Lower Township's existing PreK-6 district to serve PreK-12, as the regional district's school facilities are located in the township. Cape May City and West Cape May could see annual savings approaching a combined $6 million from the dissolution.

History

In 2020 the West Cape May and

Cape May City School District Cape May City School District is a community state school, public school district serving students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade from Cape May, New Jersey, Cape May, New Jersey, United States, at Cape May City Elementary School. As o ...

began sharing a single Superintendent. In Summer 2021 Zachary Palombo became the shared Superintendent of both the Cape May City and West Cape May districts.

School

West Cape May Elementary School serves students in grades PreK-6. The school had an enrollment of 102 students in the 2017-18 school year. It has a capacity of 117. Previously a West Cape May High School existed. In an era of

de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' ( ; , "by law") describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, ("in fact") describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legally ...

educational segregation in the United States normally only white students were permitted to attend though the state made exceptions. Ordinarily black students attended Downingtown Industrial High School instead of West Cape May High. The district maintained separate white and black elementary schools, the latter West Cape May Colored Elementary School. "The Annex" was the school for black elementary school children. In 1948, when segregation was still active, white children in

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

(Middle Township) were sent to West Cape May for grades 7-12. West Cape Elementary previously served up to grade 8.

Student body

the average student population was around 90. The school has school choice programs that attract area parents not living in West Cape May.

Administration

Core members of the district's administration are: *Zachary Palombo, Superintendent *John Thomas, Business Administrator / Board Secretary 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 ...

has five members who set policy and oversee 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 one or two seats up for election each year held (since 2012) as part of the November general election.Board Members
West Cape May Elementary School. Accessed January 30, 2020.

References

External links

West Cape May School DistrictData for West Cape May School District

{{Cape May County, New Jersey School Districts West Cape May, New Jersey New Jersey District Factor Group DE School districts in Cape May County, New Jersey Public elementary schools in New Jersey Schools in Cape May County, New Jersey