The South Orange-Maplewood School District is a regional

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 sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

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, w ...

, serving 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 the suburban communities of South Orange and Maplewood, two municipalities in Essex County,

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 Delawa ...

, United States. As of the 2019–20 school year, the district, comprised of 11 schools, had an enrollment of 7,353 students and 576.1 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 12.8:1.District information for South Orange-Maplewood 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 financ ...

. Accessed April 1, 2021. 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 ...

"I", the second-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 l ...

characteristics of the local districts. From lowest socioeconomic status to highest, the categories are A, B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J.

History

The school district has operated as a unified organization for the area since 1867 and under the current name since 1894.

James Ricalton James Ricalton (May 13, 1844 in Half Way, near Waddington, New York - died in Waddington October 28, 1929) was an American school teacher, traveler, inventor, and photographer. Ricalton travelled extensively and he circumnavigated the world seven ...

, a teacher, photographer and world traveler born in New York of Scottish parents who became the school district's first permanent teacher, helped set the high standard of education that persists in the school district to this day. In October 2014, the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

filed a complaint against the South Orange-Maplewood School District in relation to its academic leveling and disciplinary systems, stating that the overuse of discipline and "zero-tolerance" policy, and implicit racial bias within the level selection system violate Title VI of the

Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requi ...

and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Awards and recognition

For the 1992–93 school year, Columbia High School received the National Blue Ribbon Award of Excellence from the

United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Departmen ...

, the highest honor that an American school can achieve.

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 2009 survey of the "Best Communities for Music Education", which included 124 school districts nationwide.

Schools

Schools in the district (with 2019–20 school enrollment data from the

) are: ;Preschool * Montrose Early Childhood Center (133 students, in PreK; located in Maplewood) ** Bonita Samuels, Principal ;Elementary schools * Seth Boyden Elementary Demonstration School (493 students, in grades K–5 located in Maplewood) ** Shannon Glander, Principal ** Sheila Murphy, Assistant Principal * Clinton Elementary School (605, K–5; Maplewood) ** Jennifer Connors, Principal ** Sandra Smith, Assistant Principal * Delia Bolden Elementary School (544, 3–5; Maplewood). The school, formerly known as Jefferson Elementary School, was renamed in 2022 in honor of Delia Bolden, who graduated in 1912 as the first African-American woman to graduate from Columbia High School. ** Kimberly Hutchinson, Principal ** Angel Rivera, Assistant Principal * Marshall Elementary School (518, K–2; South Orange) ** Raquel Horn, Principal ** Laura Swyberius, Assistant Principal * South Mountain Elementary School (647, K–5; South Orange) ** Kevin Mason, Principal ** Shane Zeigler, Assistant Principal * South Mountain Elementary School Annex (NA, K–1; South Orange) ** Kevin Mason, Principal ** Shane Zeigler, Assistant Principal * Tuscan Elementary School (K–5, 637; Maplewood) ** Malikah Majeed, Principal ** Brad Bertani, Assistant Principal Maplewood JHS cupola jeh

;Middle schools * Maplewood Middle School (827, 6–8; Maplewood) ** Dara Gronau, Principal ** Louis Brown, Assistant Principal ** Russell King, Assistant Principal * South Orange Middle School (786, 6–8; South Orange) ** Lynn Irby, Principal ** James Jennings, Assistant Principal ** James Waldron, Assistant Principal ;High school *

Columbia High School Columbia High School may refer to: *Columbia High School (Huntsville, Alabama) *Columbia High School (Georgia) *Columbia High School (Florida) *Columbia High School (Idaho) *Columbia High School (Illinois) *Columbia High School (Mississippi), a Mis ...

(1,967, 9–12; Maplewood) ** Frank Sanchez, Principal ** Melissa Butler, Assistant Principal ** Cheryline Hewitt, Assistant Principal ** Dion Patterson, Assistant Principal ** Terry Woolard, Assistant Principal

Administration

Members of the district administration are: *Dr. Ronald G. Taylor, Superintendent *Eric Burnside, School 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 ar ...

, 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 2013) 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. The district's tax levy is approved by an eight-member Board of School Estimate, which includes two members of the district's board of education and three elected officials each from Maplewood and South Orange.Board of Education Overview
South Orange-Maplewood School District. Accessed September 3, 2020. "However, the tax levy is approved by a separate entity, the Board of School Estimate, which is comprised of three members of the Village Trustees of South Orange, three members of the Township Committee of Maplewood and two members of the Board of Education."

References

External links

South Orange-Maplewood School District
*
South Orange-Maplewood School District

{{Essex County, New Jersey School Districts Maplewood, New Jersey South Orange, New Jersey New Jersey District Factor Group I School districts in Essex County, New Jersey