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The 2018 Public High School Report Card
As the school bells start ringing again and the hallways fill up with students, we thought it was a good time to tackle our first assignment for the new year: the annual public high school report card.

by South Jersey Magazine - Editorial Staff

Using information gleaned from the New Jersey Department of Education School Performance Reports for institutions in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties, we examined how our local schools match up in several key academic areas such as average SAT scores, graduation rates and more. We also spoke to area administrators and officials to get their take on the state’s plans to change the way schools are funded and what it could mean for our local districts both short- and long-term.

Average SAT Score
High School | Average Score
Haddonfield Memorial High School | 1262
Cherry Hill High School East | 1211
Moorestown High School | 1202
Eastern High School | 1178
Shawnee High School | 1171
Haddon Township High School | 1167
Lenape High School | 1166
Cherokee High School | 1158
Northern Burlington County Regional High School | 1144
Clearview Regional High School | 1137
Gateway Regional High School | 1128
Rancocas Valley Regional High School | 1127
Kingsway Regional High School | 1123
Seneca High School | 1123
Cinnaminson High School | 1117
Cherry Hill High School West | 1109
Washington Township High School | 1108
West Deptford High School | 1098
Bordentown Regional High School | 1093
Delran High School | 1092
Sterling High School | 1092
Collingswood Senior High School | 1088
Audubon Junior/Senior High School | 1087
Deptford Township High School | 1087
Williamstown High School | 1087
Haddon Heights Junior/Senior High School | 1086
Florence Township Memorial High School | 1084
Pitman High School | 1084
Delsea Regional High School | 1082
Burlington Township High School | 1077
Highland Regional High School | 1075
Maple Shade High School | 1073
Timber Creek High School | 1061
Glassboro High School | 1053
Overbrook High School | 1037
Palmyra High School | 1037
Pemberton Township High School | 1029
Triton High School |  1028
Riverside High School | 1016
Winslow Township High School | 1008
Burlington City High School | 993
Pennsauken High School | 993
Woodbury Junior/Senior High School | 993
Clayton High School | 979
Lindenwold High School | 972
Paulsboro High School | 950
Willingboro High School | 926
Camden High School | 859
Woodrow Wilson High School | 821

Graduation Rate
High School | Graduation Rate (%)
Moorestown High School | 99
Shawnee High School | 99
Haddonfield Memorial High School | 98
Burlington Township High School | 97
Cherokee High School | 96
Haddon Township High School | 96
Kingsway Regional High School | 96
Seneca High School | 96
Cherry Hill High School East | 95
Cinnaminson High School | 95
Delsea Regional High School | 95
Eastern High School | 95
Washington Township High School | 95
Gateway Regional High School | 94
Glassboro High School | 94
Lenape High School | 94
Northern Burlington County Regional High School | 94
Pitman High School | 94
West Deptford High School | 94
Audubon Junior/Senior High School | 93
Clearview Regional High School | 93
Florence Township Memorial High School | 93
Highland Regional High School | 93
Deptford Township High School | 92
Cherry Hill High School West | 91
Collingswood Senior High School | 91
Bordentown Regional High School | 90
Clayton High School | 90
Delran High School | 90
Sterling High School | 90
Timber Creek High School | 90
Triton High School | 90
Burlington City High School | 89
Haddon Heights Junior/Senior High School | 89
Williamstown High School | 89
Willingboro High School | 89
Palmyra High School |   88
Paulsboro High School | 88
Rancocas Valley Regional High School | 88
Riverside High School | 88
Woodbury Junior/Senior High School | 87
Maple Shade High School | 86
Overbrook High School | 86
Pemberton Township High School | 86
Pennsauken High School | 84
Winslow Township High School | 77
Lindenwold High School | 75
Woodrow Wilson High School | 66
Camden High School | 54

Advanced Placement Classes
High School | AP Classes Offered | # of Students Taking
Cherokee High School | 20 | 703
Cherry Hill High School East | 20 | 1049
Cherry Hill High School West | 20 | 583
Clearview Regional High School | 20 | 689
Eastern High School | 20 | 736
Haddonfield Memorial High School | 20 | 525
Kingsway Regional High School | 20 | 645
Lenape High School | 20 | 798
Moorestown High School | 20 | 680
Northern Burlington County Regional High School | 20 | 499
Seneca High School | 20 | 459
Shawnee High School | 20 | 661
Washington Township High School | 20 | 565
Burlington Township High School | 19 | 236
Cinnaminson High School | 18 | 450
Woodbury Junior/Senior High School | 18 | 175
Delsea Regional High School | 17 | 406
Timber Creek High School | 17 | 521
Triton High School | 17 | 337
West Deptford High School | 17 | 286
Winslow Township High School | 17 | 355
Gateway Regional High School | 16 | 86
Highland Regional High School | 16 | 478
Pemberton Township High School | 16 | 157
Rancocas Valley Regional High School | 16 | 641
Deptford Township High School | 14 | 222
Williamstown High School | 14 | 423
Palmyra High School | 13 | 46
Pennsauken High School | 13 | 190
Audubon Junior/Senior High School | 12 | 89
Bordentown Regional High School | 12 | 157
Collingswood Senior High School | 12 | 183
Delran High School | 12 | 167
Haddon Township High School | 12 | 252
Overbrook High School | 12 | 165
Glassboro High School | 11 | 130
Florence Township Memorial High School | 10 | 123
Haddon Heights Junior/Senior High School | 10 | 164
Lindenwold High School | 10 | 57
Pitman High School | 10 | 120
Burlington City High School | 9 | 202
Sterling High School |  9 | 196
Maple Shade High School | 7 | 46
Riverside High School | 7 | 81
Clayton High School | 5 | 105
Willingboro High School | 5 | 50
Woodrow Wilson High School | 5 | 49
Paulsboro High School | 2 | 30
Camden High School | 1 | 19
 
Student-to-Faculty Ratio
High School | Student-to-Faculty Ratio
Paulsboro High School | 7:1
Burlington City High School | 8:1
Camden High School | 8:1
Haddonfield Memorial High School | 9:1
Palmyra High School | 9:1
Clayton High School | 10:1
Haddon Heights Junior/Senior High School | 10:1
Haddon Township High School | 10:1
Overbrook High School | 10:1
Pemberton Township High School | 10:1
Pitman High School | 10:1
Woodbury Junior/Senior High School | 10:1
Cinnaminson High School | 11:1
Collingswood Senior High School | 11:1
Gateway Regional High School | 11:1
Glassboro High School | 11:1
Lindenwold High School | 11:1
Moorestown High School | 11:1
Riverside High School | 11:1
Seneca High School | 11:1
Winslow Township High School | 11:1
Audubon Junior/Senior High School | 12:1
Burlington Township High School | 12:1
Cherokee High School | 12:1
Cherry Hill High School West | 12:1
Delran High School | 12:1
Lenape High School | 12:1
Maple Shade High School | 12:1
Northern Burlington County Regional High School | 12:1
Pennsauken High School | 12:1
Triton High School | 12:1
Washington Township High School | 12:1
Bordentown Regional High School | 13:1
Clearview Regional High School | 13:1
Deptford Township High School | 13:1
Shawnee High School | 13:1
Sterling High School | 13:1
Timber Creek High School | 13:1
West Deptford High School | 13:1
Woodrow Wilson High School | 13:1
Florence Township Memorial High School | 14:1
Highland Regional High School | 14:1
Rancocas Valley Regional High School | 14:1
Williamstown High School | 14:1
Eastern High School | 15:1
Kingsway Regional High School | 15:1
Cherry Hill High School East | 16:1
Delsea Regional High School | 16:1
Willingboro High School | 20:1

Adding Up the Numbers
A look at how the aid is being distributed to some area districts for the new school year.
 
CAMDEN
Revised aid: $282,029,317
Difference:  + $1,941,258
 
CHERRY HILL
Revised aid: $17,295,270
Difference:  + $3,163,755
 
CHESTERFIELD
Revised aid: $2,403,780
Difference:  + $1,582,592
 
CINNAMINSON
Revised aid: $9,297,616
Difference: + $226,771
 
CLEARVIEW REGIONAL
Revised aid: $14,906,929
Difference:   – $93,165
 
GLASSBORO
Revised aid: $14,754,327
Difference: – $1,816,764
 
HADDONFIELD
Revised aid: $1,508,822
Difference: + $430,525
 
KINGSWAY REGIONAL
Revised aid: $11,729,113
Difference:  + $2,129,970
 
LENAPE REGIONAL
Revised aid: $28,299,836
Difference:   –$386,710
 
MEDFORD TOWNSHIP
Revised aid: $4,699,821
Difference:   –$69,287
 
MOORESTOWN
Revised aid: $3,575,367
Difference: + $306,665
 
MOUNT LAUREL TOWNSHIP
Revised aid: $4,836,580
Difference: + $324,153
 
PENNSAUKEN
Revised aid: $51,803,617
Difference:  + $2,466,839
 
VOORHEES
Revised aid: $5,455,083
Difference: – $107,851
 
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
Revised aid: $48,629,792
Difference: – $483,207

Fair Funding
By Liz Hunter
 
Some districts win and some lose under updated school funding law.
 
This past summer, school districts in New Jersey got news that the state’s School Funding Reform Act of 2008 was itself being reformed. A bill sponsored by Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) was signed into law with the goal of bringing equality back to funding among districts. After the ink dried, some districts learned they would receive hundreds of thousands—even millions—more than they had in previous years, and others took a hit they weren’t expecting.
 
Sweeney has been championing this cause for years, citing two clear reasons for the funding disparity. “It became clear that the School Funding Reform Act of 2008 wasn’t living up to its promise of providing fair funding to all children based on a district’s enrollment, its property tax base and income, and the special needs of its students. The problem was two provisions added by the legislature that were supposed to be temporary, but were never repealed,” he says.
 
The first was the growth cap that limited increases to growing districts and the second was the “hold harmless” adjustment aid, designed to make sure no district received less money than the year prior. “The result after nine years was that 72 percent of students—urban, suburban and rural—were living in underfunded districts that were getting $2.2 million less in state aid than they should,” Sweeney continues. “Meanwhile, the other districts— which had lost an average of 11 percent of their enrollment over the past 10 years—were getting $665 million in overfunding for students who were no longer there. It wasn’t fair and it had to stop.” Over the course of the next seven years, all districts are expected to be 100 percent funded.
 
In these shortchanged districts educational quality was hurt and property taxpayers were overburdened. Sweeney says districts like Kingsway Regional, Chesterfield (which went from $400,000 in state aid in 2017 to $2.4 million), Cherry Hill and Bridgeton will now get the aid they need to improve schools and hold down property taxes.
 
Kingsway Regional has been synonymous with the school funding fight and is one of the biggest benefactors of the new law. Its revised aid for 2018-19 is $11,729,113, a difference of $2,129,970 more. Superintendent Dr. James Lavender says his district has grown by 44 percent over a decade but money never kept up. “We’ve been adding students but we’ve been short on resources, teachers, textbooks, computers and facilities,” he says. “Other schools lost enrollment but kept their funding. It created geographic discrimination … haves and have-nots.”
 
According to Lavender, Kingsway will be receiving 58 percent of the aid it’s entitled to while taxing the community at 102 percent of local fair share (LFS)—a burden taxpayers have been shouldering for the years of underfunding. It is the district’s desire to reduce Kingsway’s LFS to 100 percent over the next few budget cycles.
 
The money is going to make an immediate impact in the district, says Lavender. “This round of funding is significant for us. We plan to hire close to two dozen new employees, which will help reduce class size and increase safety and security,” he says. “We will lease purchase 720 Chromebooks, available this fall, giving students access to technology they haven’t had. This also puts into motion the process to replace the school track in the spring. It’s dilapidated and unusable but all of our referendums for improvement have been defeated. Now we can move in that direction.”
 
Cherry Hill has historically only received about 50 percent of its funding, says Superintendent Dr. Joseph Meloche. “Cherry Hill should receive about $29 million from the state, but typically we’ve received $14 million or less. It puts a high burden on the local tax levy,” he says. “Approximately 90 percent of the school budget is funded by Cherry Hill taxpayers.” In the coming school year, Cherry Hill’s funding will increase to over $17 million, a difference of $3.1 million.
 
Meloche says funding has already gone toward safety and security measures, including hiring additional campus police officers and arming them. “The money we received this summer will go toward capital projects that have been delayed and more than $1 million will go toward instructional tech programs,” he says.
 
Lavender can’t underscore enough what is owed to the community and Sweeney for their efforts. “It feels like a cloud has been lifted. … Budgeting has always been about cutting, now we can provide the programs kids need and it’s exciting,” he says.
 
Yet while Kingsway and Cherry Hill may be celebrating, and rightly so, other districts are facing a deficit, a side effect Meloche says no one intended to happen. “I feel for the districts [that] are being impacted,” says Meloche. “Never do we want to see children negatively impacted.”

Glassboro was completely stunned by the news that its aid would be cut by almost $2 million compared to last year. The district had been told to expect an increase in state aid but after the law went into effect the number came up $1.8 million less.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Silverstein says the district was supportive of Sweeney’s initiative, but because enrollment had dipped to the tune of 130 students between 2017-18 and 2018-
19, Glassboro was now classified as “overfunded.” Ironically, with the expansion of Rowan University, Glassboro is on the verge of a population surge, already evident in the lack of available housing in town.
 
“It was a perfect storm,” says Silverstein. “The change in aid came in after our budget had passed, allowing us little time to make changes.” Hiring had already begun for support staff, positions Silverstein says he can’t hold off on or else class sizes would be astronomical. The district’s only chance is to apply for emergency aid, and it’s likely there will be many districts jockeying for relief.
 
“This could have a systemic long-term impact in Glassboro,” Silverstein says.
 
Sweeney maintains that, for more schoolchildren and taxpayers in South Jersey and all over the state, this will make a real difference. “The quality of our schools is one of our greatest strengths as a state—we rank second only to Massachusetts on educational achievement tests, and it is one of the main reasons people decide to live here and raise their families here,” he says. “What my legislation does is guarantee that state aid to education will be provided fairly and equitably, and will adjust from year to year as enrollment changes. The School Funding Reform Act was designed to guarantee that every child would receive the educational resources needed for a ‘thorough and efficient’ education. Now we can keep that promise.”

To read the digital edition of South Jersey Magazine, click here.

Published (and copyrighted) in South Jersey Magazine, Volume 15, Issue 6 (September 2018).

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