Englewood Cliffs Public Schools

Englewood Cliffs Public Schools
Address
143 Charlotte Place Englewood Cliffs , Bergen County , New Jersey , 07632 United States
Coordinates	40°52′31″N73°57′25″W / 40.875166°N 73.956834°W / 40.875166; -73.956834
District information
Grades	PreK-8
Superintendent	Jennifer Brower
Business administrator	Jessenia Kan
Schools	2
Students and staff
Enrollment	439 (as of 2020–21) [1]
Faculty	48.3 FTEs [1]
Student–teacher ratio	9.1:1 [1]
Other information
District Factor Group	I
Website	www.englewoodcliffs.org
Ind. Per pupil District spending Rank (*) K-8 average  %± vs. average 1A Total Spending $21,881 57 $18,891 15.8% 1 Budgetary Cost 17,178 55 14,159 21.3% 2 Classroom Instruction 9,263 40 8,659 7.0% 6 Support Services 4,435 63 2,167 104.7% 8 Administrative Cost 1,984 61 1,547 28.2% 10 Operations & Maintenance 1,447 21 1,612 −10.2% 13 Extracurricular Activities 10 1 104 −90.4% 16 Median Teacher Salary 66,255 50 61,136 Data from NJDoE 2014 Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending. [2] *Of K-8 districts with 401-750 students. Lowest spending=1; Highest=64

The Englewood Cliffs Public Schools is a community public school district that serves children in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade from Englewood Cliffs, in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ^[3]

As of the 2020–21 school year, the district, comprised of two schools, had an enrollment of 439 students and 48.3 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 9.1:1. ^[1]

Based on 2013 data for the Upper School, 78.8% of students speak English as their primary language at home, with Korean (9.7%) being the most common non-English language. 1.8% of students are classified as having limited English proficiency. ^[4] 45.6% of students in the school were classified as Asian / Pacific Islander in the 2011-12 school year. ^[5]

The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "I", the second-highest 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. ^[6]

For high school, public school students attend Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, as part of a sending/receiving relationship with the Englewood Public School District that dates back to 1967. ^[7] As of the 2020–21 school year, the high school had an enrollment of 1,049 students and 84.8 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.4:1. ^[8]

History

Students from Englewood Cliffs had attended Fort Lee High School, until growth in the Fort Lee School District limited capacity for receiving students. As a replacement for its students in grades 9-12, a contract was signed with the Englewood Public School District under which students from Englewood Cliffs would begin to attend Dwight Morrow High School starting in the 1967-68 school year. ^[9]

With few Englewood Cliffs students attending Dwight Morrow, a school with a majority African-American student body, officials from Englewood Cliffs have made repeated efforts dating back to the mid-1980s to end the relationship with Englewood and switch over to have students attend Tenafly High School, a practice that many parents were doing by paying tuition to attend the Tenafly school. ^[10] In 2003, the New Jersey State Board of Education overturned an injunction that prohibited other public schools from accepting students from Englewood Cliffs on a tuition basis, arguing that the establishment of the magnet Academies@Englewood program within Dwight Morrow will allow the Englewood district to draw white students to the district. ^[11] In 2013, the Englewood Cliffs district announced plans to consider ending the sending relationship to Dwight Morrow by creating its own high school, possibly in conjunction with the Englewood Cliffs campus of Saint Peter's University. ^[12] In 2016 the State of New Jersey began requiring the Englewood Cliffs district to pay tuition for students enrolled in Academies@Englewood. ^[13] Therefore, in 2017 the district continued efforts to leave the send/receive partnership. ^[14]

Awards and recognition

In 2022, the United States Department of Education announced that Upper School was named as a National Blue Ribbon School, along with eight other schools in the state and 297 schools nationwide. ^{[15] [16]}

Schools

Schools in the district (with 2020–21 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics ^[17] ) are: ^{[18] [19]}

• North Cliff School ^[20] with 139 students in grades PreK–2
  • Colin Winch, principal ^[21]
• Upper School ^[22] with 292 students in grades 3–8
  • Colin Winch, principal ^[21]

Administration

Core members of the district's administration are: ^{[21] [23]}

• Jennifer Brower, superintendent of schools
• Jessenia Kan, board secretary and business administrator

Board of education

The district's board of education, 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. ^{[24] [25] [26]}

References

1. District information for Englewood Cliffs School District, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed February 15, 2022.
2. Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending April 2013, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed April 15, 2013.
3. Englewood Cliffs Board of Education District Policy 0110 - Identification, Englewood Cliffs Public Schools. Accessed May 27, 2020. "Purpose: The Board of Education exists for the purpose of providing a thorough and efficient system of free public education in grades Pre-K through eight in the Englewood Cliffs School District. Composition: The Department Chairperson[ sic ] School District is comprised of all the area within the municipal boundaries of Englewood Cliffs."
4. Englewood Cliffs Upper School 2013 Report Card Narrative, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed December 11, 2014.
5. School Data for Upper School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed December 11, 2014.
6. NJ Department of Education District Factor Groups (DFG) for School Districts, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed September 18, 2014.
7. Dwight Morrow High School/Academies@Englewood 2016 Report Card Narrative, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed November 25, 2017. "Dwight Morrow High School is a progressive community of learners consisting of approximately 1112 students and 118 faculty members. Our 9th through 12th grade school is a part of a send/receive relationship between the City of Englewood and the Borough of Englewood Cliffs."
8. School data for Dwight Morrow High School/Academies@Englewood, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed February 15, 2022.
9. Goldfine, Evan B. "Call Me Racist, I Don't Care": The Controversy Over School Desegregation In Englewood, New Jersey, Rutgers University, March 2000, via Englewood Public Library. Accessed May 27, 2020. "With the backdrop of severe racial strife generating educational turmoil next door, the wealthy and racially homogeneous community of Englewood Cliffs started a search for a new district to send its students in 1965. Too small for its own high school, and no longer welcomed by a rapidly growing Fort Lee district, Cliffs found Englewood as a suitor. A ten-year contract was signed to commence in 1967, whereupon students graduating from Cliffs’ junior high school would be assigned to Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood (DMHS)."
10. Narvaez, Alfonso A. "Bid To Avoid A Mostly Black Jersey School", The New York Times , Accessed July 18, 2011. "Officials in the white community, Englewood Cliffs, have petitioned the State Education Commissioner to allow them to send their children to predominantly white Tenafly High School and end a 20-year-old relationship with Englewood's Dwight Morrow High School. Englewood officials oppose the move and have asked the Commissioner to prevent Tenafly from enrolling students from Englewood Cliffs, which does not have its own high school.... Englewood Cliffs has had an agreement with Englewood since 1967 whereby its students attend Dwight Morrow, where 81 percent of the 887 students are black or Hispanic students; many white parents in Englewood send their children to private or parochial schools."
11. Newman, Maria. "As an Injunction Ends in Englewood, an Era in School Desegregation Closes as Well", The New York Times , April 4, 2003. Accessed July 18, 2011. "A decision by the State Board of Education this week puts an end to an injunction that has helped define education in Englewood and Englewood Cliffs, N.J., since 1990. The decision represents not only the end of a policy largely intended to keep white parents from sending their children to neighboring public high schools, but also, in many ways, the end of an era in school desegregation. The state board said on Wednesday that it would no longer prohibit parents in Englewood and Englewood Cliffs from avoiding the local high school by sending their children to neighboring high schools that have more white students."
12. Simone, Stephanie. "Englewood Cliffs to study creating its own high school", Northern Valley Suburbanite, April 18, 2013. Accessed April 19, 2013. "The Board of Education and St. Peter's University Englewood Cliffs Campus partnered to conduct a feasibility study on expanding the K-8 district to include a high school."
13. McGrath, Matthew (October 10, 2016). "Englewood Cliffs may reopen an old battle". The Record . Retrieved May 5, 2021.
14. Shkolnikova, Svetlana (October 16, 2017). "Englewood Cliffs explores break with Englewood's high school". Northjersey.com . Retrieved May 5, 2021.
15. 2022 National Blue Ribbon Schools All Public and Non‐Public Schools, National Blue Ribbon Schools Program. Accessed June 26, 2023.
16. Upper School - Englewood Cliffs, NJ, National Blue Ribbon Schools Program. Accessed June 26, 2023.
17. School Data for the Englewood Cliffs Public Schools, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed February 15, 2022.
18. School Performance Reports for the Englewood Cliffs School District, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed April 3, 2024.
19. New Jersey School Directory for the Englewood Cliffs Public Schools, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed February 1, 2024.
20. North Cliff School, Englewood Cliffs Public Schools. Accessed May 27, 2020.
21. District Administration, Englewood Cliffs Public Schools. Accessed November 21, 2022.
22. Upper School, Englewood Cliffs Public Schools. Accessed May 27, 2020.
23. New Jersey School Directory for Bergen County, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed December 24, 2016.
24. New Jersey Boards of Education by District Election Types - 2018 School Election, New Jersey Department of Education, updated February 16, 2018. Accessed January 26, 2020.
25. Annual Comprehensive Financial Report of the Englewood Cliffs School District, New Jersey Department of Education, for year ending June 30, 2023. Accessed April 11, 2024. "The Board of Education ('Board') of the Borough of Englewood Cliffs School District ('District') is an instrumentality of the State of New Jersey, established to function as an educational institution. The Borough of Englewood Cliffs School District is a Type II district located in the County of Bergen, State of New Jersey. As a Type II district, the School District functions independently through a Board of Education. The board is comprised of nine members elected to three-year terms. The purpose of the District is to educate students in grades K-8. A superintendent is appointed by the Board and is responsible for the administrative control of the District."
26. Board of Education Members, Englewood Cliffs Public Schools. Accessed November 21, 2022.

Further reading

• "56-19 New Jersey Commissioner of EducationFinal Decision Board of Education of the City of Englewood, Bergen County, Petitioner, v. Board of Education of the Borough ofEnglewood Cliffs, Bergen County, and New Jersey State Department of Education, Respondents" (PDF).
• "Englewood Cliffs v. Englewood 257 N.J. Super. 413 (1992)". Justia.

External links

• Englewood Cliffs Public Schools
• School Performance Reports for the Englewood Cliffs Public Schools , New Jersey Department of Education
• School Data for the Englewood Cliffs Public Schools, National Center for Education Statistics