Jersey City Public Schools - Jersey City Board Of Education

The Jersey City Public Schools is a comprehensive community public school district located in Jersey City, in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. The district is one of 31 former Abbott districts statewide, which are now referred to as "SDA Districts" based on the requirement for the state to cover all costs for school building and renovation projects in these districts under the supervision of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority.

As of the 2010-11 school year, the district's 38 schools had an enrollment of 34,505 students and 2,665.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a studentâ€"teacher ratio of 12.95:1.

The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "B", the second lowest 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.

The district is one of three districts in New Jersey (along with Newark Public Schools and Paterson Public Schools) under "state intervention", which authorizes the state Commissioner of Education to intervene in curriculum functions.

Awards, recognition and rankings

Dr. Ronald E. McNair Academic High School was the second-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 328 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2012 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", after being ranked second in 2010 out of 322 schools listed. William L. Dickinson High School is the oldest high schools in the city and James J. Ferris High School is represented by some of the top students of Jersey City who are members of the National Academy Foundation Magnet Programs. Academy I Middle School is one of the top middle schools in the country. Has been recognized with several achievements, including first place in the Lexus Environmental Challenge in 2008.

Dr. McNair Academic High School was named as a "Star School" by the New Jersey Department of Education, the highest honor that a New Jersey school can achieve, in the 1994-95 school year.

Alexander D. Sullivan School was recognized by Governor Jim McGreevey in 2003 as one of 25 schools selected statewide for the First Annual Governor's School of Excellence award.

School uniforms

Students have been wearing school uniforms since 1998.

Schools

Schools in the district (with 2010-11 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are:

Division A

Elementary schools

• Charles E. Trefurt P.S. 8 (773 students; grades PreK-5)
• Martin Luther King Jr. P.S. 11 (774; PreK-8)
• Julia A. Barnes P.S. 12 (417; PreK-8)
• Whitney M. Young, Jr. P.S. 15 (652; PreK-5)
• Joseph H. Brensinger P.S. 17 (1,157; PreK-8)
• P.S. 20 (598; PreK-5)
• Rev. Dr. Ercel F. Webb P.S. 22 (635; PreK-5)
• Mahatma Gandhi P.S. 23 (1,534; PreK-8)
• Gladys Cannon Nunery P.S. 29 (496; PreK-5)
• Alexander D. Sullivan P.S. 30 (828; PreK-5)
• Dr. Paul Rafalides P.S. 33 (408; PreK-4)
• P.S. 34 (579; PreK-8)
• James F. Murray P.S. 38 (936; PreK-8)
• Martin Center for the Arts (414; 6-8)
• Academy I Middle School (423; 6-8)
• Gerard J. Dynes N.J. Regional Day School (11; Ungraded)

Division B

• Frank R. Conwell P.S. 3 (643; PreK-5)
• Frank R. Conwell M.S. 4 (843; 6-8)
• Dr. Michael Conti P.S. 5 (678; PreK-8)
• Jotham W. Wakeman P.S. 6 (872; PreK-5)
• Frank L. Williams M.S. 7 (762; 6-8)
• Ollie E. Culbreath, Jr. P.S. 14 (417; PreK-5)
• Cornelia F. Bradford P.S. 16 (292; PreK-5)
• Chaplain Charles Watters P.S. 24 (884; K-8)
• Nicholas Copernicus P.S. 25 (833; PreK-5)
• Alfred E. Zampella P.S. 27 (1,039; K-8)
• Christa McAuliffe P.S. 28 (967; PreK-8)
• Anthony J. Infante P.S. 31 (239; PreK-2)
• Rafael De J. Cordero P.S. 37 (735; PreK-8)
• Charles P. DeFuccio P.S. 39 (375; PreK-8)
• Ezra L. Nolan M.S. 40 (427; 6-8)

Secondary Division

• William L. Dickinson High School Academy of the Sciences (2,377; 9-12)
• James J. Ferris High School Academy of International Enterprise (1,622; 9-12)
• Infinity Institute was opened in September 2010, offering a magnet college preparatory program with admission based on an admission exam. The school, with 225 students in seventh through ninth grades, will be located in a building in the Greenville section of the city that has been leased from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark and that had been the previous home of the Create Charter High School, which lost its charter after the 2009-10 school year. (69; 7-9)
• Liberty High School (191; 9-12)
• Lincoln High School Academy of Governance and Social Sciences (970; 9-12)
• Dr. Ronald E. McNair Academic High School (694; 9-12)
• Henry Snyder High School Academy of the Arts (1,103; 9-12)

Administration

Core members of the district's administration are:

• Dr. Marcia V. Lyles, Superintendent
• Luiggi C. Campana, Business Administrator / Board Secretary

State intervention

The district is one of three districts in New Jersey under "state intervention", which authorizes the Commissioner of Education to intervene in governance of a local public school district (and to intervene in the areas of instruction and program, operations, personnel, and fiscal management) if the Commissioner has determined that a school district failed or was unable to take corrective actions necessary to establish a thorough and efficient system of education.

On October 4, 1989, the New Jersey Department of Education established a State-operated School District for Jersey City, appointing a State District Superintendent to serve as the governing authority for the District instead of the Board of Education, and a new Board of Education was created and functioned as an advisory body. In 2005 the legislature disbanded state operation and created "state intervention". The Jersey City Board of Education assumed control of governance and finance on April 17, 2008. As of October 2010, although governance had been restored to local control in the form of an elected school board, the state district superintendent remained to manage personnel and curriculum functions. Local control for personnel was returned to the district in 2012.

References

External links

• Jersey City Public Schools
• Jersey City Public Schools's 2014â€"15 School Report Card from the New Jersey Department of Education
• School Data for the Jersey City Public Schools, National Center for Education Statistics